by Afiya J. Watkins
Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has angered more than a few people with his controversial rhetoric, but none more so than Barbara Lee (D-CA), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Incensed by his racially charged comments, she fired back at the budget chairman for claiming that poverty is caused by men in “our inner cities” who are “not even thinking about working.” His comments “are a thinly veiled racial attack and cannot be tolerated,” Lee said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “Let’s be clear, when Mr. Ryan says ‘inner city,’ when he says, ‘culture,’ these are simply code words for what he really means: ‘black.’”
“As someone who sits on the Budget Committee with Mr. Ryan, I know that his assertions about the racial dynamics of poverty are not only statistically inaccurate, but deeply offensive,” she said. “Instead of demonizing “culture,” and blaming black men for their poverty, Mr. Ryan should step up and produce some legitimate proposals on how to tackle poverty and racial discrimination in America. His uninformed policy proposals continue to increase poverty, not solve it. My colleague is demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues in urban and black communities.”
In a radio interview on Wednesday, Ryan hinted at wanting work requirements for men in inner cities in upcoming House legislation, citing the work of Charles Murray — a conservative who argues blacks are genetically less intelligent than whites — to prove his point. “We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work, so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with,” Ryan said.
It is interesting that amidst all of the inflammatory rhetoric aimed at explaining the pathology and apparent lack of intelligence inherent in black men, Ryan lacks the insight to consider the social and institutional ramifications of why these conditions exist. This is precisely the kind of near-sighted, rush-to-judgment thinking that we don’t need in public office.
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