Liberal Forum

My students had only the vaguest notion of who pays for government services. For them, it was like a magical piggy bank that never goes empty.One black girl was exhorting the class on the need for more social services and I kept trying to explain that people, real live people, are taxed for the money to pay for those services. “Yeah, it come from whites,” she finally said. “They stingy anyway.” “Many black people make over $50,000 dollars a year and you would also be taking away from your own people,” I said.She had an answer to that: “Dey half breed.” The class agreed. I let the subject drop.


Many black girls are perfectly happy to be welfare queens. On career day, one girl explained to the class that she was going to have lots of children and get fat checks from the government. No one in the class seemed to have any objection to this career choice.


Surprising attitudes can come out in class discussion. We were talking about the crimes committed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and I brought up the rape of a young girl in the bathroom of the Superdome. A majority of my students believed this was a horrible crime but a few took it lightly. One black boy spoke up without raising his hand: “Dat no big deal. They thought they is gonna die so they figured they have some fun.Dey jus’ wanna have a fun time; you know what I’m sayin’?” A few black heads nodded in agreement.