Rick Santorum Thinks It's All Black People on Welfare (VIDEO)

on January 5, 2012 at 11:36 AM

Now that Rick Santorum is the latest non-Romney candidate to surge, I think it's time we got to know him a little, what do you say? Let's take a look at what he's been up to on the trail -- besides sporting a stunning array of sweater vests, of course. Oh let's see, here he is Sunday at a campaign trail stop in Sioux City, Iowa talking about entitlement reform. Tell us more, Ricky.

"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money." (ME, SPITTING OUT MY COFFEE ALL OVER THE KEYBOARD.) Wait, what did you just say?!? You're kidding, right? Someone is playing a joke on us. Tell me this is a misquote! Because last time I checked, WHITE people were getting entitlements, too. SMH, Ricky, Shaking. My. Head.

Oh Lord, where do I get started with this one. I guess let's begin with his characterization of black people -- like ALL people on assistance are black. Black = welfare recipient. You know you're out of touch with the general population when you STILL think of black folks as the Face of Poverty. Meanwhile, 9 percent of food stamp recipients in Iowa are black and 84 percent of them are white. And yeah, there are way more white people than black people in Iowa to begin with, but I think it's pretty clear that singling out black people is deeply unfair, not to mention racist.

Here's what NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous had to say about Ricky's remark: "Santorum's targeting of African Americans is inaccurate and outrageous, and lifts up old race-based stereotypes about public assistance." Ya think? Rick claims he didn't even say "black people." For reals. He says he reviewed the context and he "was starting to say one word, and I sort of came up with another word and moved on and it sounded like black." WHAT WORD WERE YOU TRYING TO SAY, RICK?!? Blue? Blah? Blandishment?

I get the point Ricky was trying to make (I guess) -- that he wants there to be enough good jobs for us all so no one needs government assistance. That's fine. But why, Ricky, why'd you have to single out black people? That was so unnecessary and DUMB! And I hope it's not the kind of Freudian slip that reveals how you really feel about black people -- oh who am I kidding, of course it reveals how you really feel about black people. Ew. Looking forward to seeing you slip in the polls now, Ricky.

What do you think about Ricky's statement about black people and entitlements?

Image via CBS News

About the author Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her husband and elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.

Filed Under: 2012 election, discrimination, election, in the news, racism

Comments (14)

tinypossum

on Jan 5, 2012 at 11:53 AM

You know, I have no use for this guy and his social policies, but I watched that video and it isn't clear to me that he actually said "black" people. I'm not going to vilify him for something that it isn't even clear he said. I'm sure he'll say plenty we can actually understand to damn himself from now until the election.

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Nonmember comment from boone

on Jan 5, 2012 at 12:39 PM

If he did'nt say the word "Black" what word was he trying to use inplace of it? C'mon America accept the truth!He ca'nt explain this. He has had many chances to tell the country what he'd meant,but he never does. He was on Fox an said nothing about the word he was trying to say.

momavanessa

Wow. I think it is insulting and I have a huge family on my dad's side (my African American side) and none of them are on welfare.

Also where I live jobs are still hard to find and some people have no choice! African American, White, Latino, Asian, and etc. People still need help and not all of them are trying to run a game and use the system! Changing the welfare system to get people jobs is one thing but assuming they are all African American is a completely WRONG!

Nonmember comment from Christina

on Jan 5, 2012 at 1:25 PM

While he definitely should have not generalized black people, the point he was trying to make was valid. Your counter argument would be more effective if you provided statistics to back up your claim that across the country, his statement was not only racist but inaccurate. Now I'm curious to see welfare broken down by race across the entire country.

PonyChaser

on Jan 5, 2012 at 2:49 PM

Let's look at this for a moment, assuming that he DID say "black" people. (which, to be fair, that's how it sounded to me)

So... What? "I don't want to make _________ people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money." Insert ANY race, creed, sex. ANY ONE. How is it racist? The over-arching idea is to get people OFF OF WELFARE.

The point of the ENTIRE statement is that Iowa will be penalized - PENALIZED - by the federal government if they don't enroll MORE PEOPLE onto the rolls of Medicaid. Welfare. How is it "racist" to prefer that those people are employed rather than on the government take? THAT is what the discussion should be: the fact that people can't find jobs, and the government is not trying to fix that problem, but trying to push more people into entitlement programs.

This is the biggest problem with the Political Correctness Police - you zero in on one single word, instead of looking at the intent of the entire statement. It is pathetic.

hoticedcoffee

on Jan 5, 2012 at 4:13 PM

Santorum was given statistics prior to making these comments, indicating that approximately ONE THIRD of the black population in Iowa is on assistance, while only ONE TENTH of the white population is on assistance. I would imagine he was focused on the group with the more pressing problem, and if people could stop diddling the race card every time a white, conservative politician opens his mouth, you might actually learn something about what he's willing to do to help people. Or you could be stuck with the same useless waste of skin we have in office now - because if you think that's a lot of people on welfare now, just wait and see what four more years of do-nothing brings us.

Fancy-Schmancy

on Jan 5, 2012 at 5:32 PM

Hot -- But only about 5% of the total population of Iowa is black. One third of 5% versus one tenth of approximately 90%...(we'll assume a minor percentage of Hispanics, Asians, etc).

So the smaller number of actual people is a bigger problem for the state than the larger number of actual people?

Ri-i-i-i-ght.

on Jan 5, 2012 at 5:46 PM

It's funny that you use it as your arguement since Liberal ideology is often based on the fictional rural, underage, abused, incested, pregnant, transgender, blind, autistic, minority with no money, car, access to air, water, and sunlight who might be disinfranchised if Planned Parenthood is defunded. You know, the .00003 percent of the population who is the only arrow in the Liberal quiver?

The fact that one out of every three black Iowans is unable to financially care for themselves, when only one out of ten whites is in the same boat, is a bigger problem for blacks than it is for the entire population. Unless of course, you now want to claim that blacks and whites have the same opportunities so it's just that blacks are more lazy/unwilling to work than white people, and that's why their percentages are so much higher?

LoganTroyMom

on Jan 5, 2012 at 11:35 PM

he's got my vote. What? He told the truth. Ive been going down to the welfare building for THREE MONTHS trying to get help with my heat bill for my white family, after my husband got laid off. Hardworking taxpayers here, STILL paying taxes thru unemployment, and we can't get shit. Meanwhile shaniqua over here has ALL her bills paid, every month since she turned of age, and hundreds in food stamps, which her and her drug dealer baby daddy jerome sell because they dont even need them all. AND they get extra cash for 'personal needs' which they can take OFF their card and spend on air force 1s and coogi purses and have a caddy with big ass rims. Dont call me racist. I live in the hood. I KNOW how this shit really works! I see it daily.

Nonmember comment from McStevenF

on Jan 6, 2012 at 12:53 AM

I worked on developing speech synthesis and speech recognition technology for a number of years and learned a lot about speech articulation and human perception. I am a Romney supporter but it is clear to me that Senator Santorum stumbled when attempting to say the phrase "peoples lives" so he paused after the first attempt and repeated the phrase "peoples lives". If you read his lips you can see that he mangled the first attempt to say the word 'people; and only the second half of the word people came out with part of the word 'lives' which is why he corrected himself. Since both the b sound and the p sound are made on the lips (the only difference is that the vocal cords "hum" with a b sound) the 'pl' sound when mangled sounded like a 'bl' sound. However if you listen to the recording and watch his lips he was not attempting to make an 'ack' sound but lots of listeners heard "black" because mentally they associate "black people" with public assistance. It was not Senator Santorum that was prejudicial, it was the listeners.