It is a   This myth persists despite government figures and authoritative studies showing that Whites overwhelmingly reap the lion's share of the dole. Numbers, and not erroneous stereotypes, tell the real story about public assistance clients: Some 61 percent of welfare recipients are White, while 33 percent are Black, according to Census Bureau statistics.

The federal government defines welfare as all entitlement programs funded through taxes. These programs, listed as "direct benefit payments for individuals" by the Office of Management and Budget, make up $730 billion or 43 percent of the $1.47 trillion the government will spend this fiscal year.

Social Security is the nation's largest welfare program, although many Caucasians prefer to call it a retirement plan. The government writes retirement and disability benefit checks to 35.4 million recipients of whom 88.7 percent are White and 9.6 percent are Black. The reason behind this shocking disparity is that the life expectancy rate for Blacks is six years shorter than that of Whites, meaning Black workers spend years paying into a retirement system only to have White retirees reap the benefits for a longer time.

Welfare critics rarely search the Social Security rolls for "welfare cheats," yet train their sights on people getting Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Medicaid and food stamps, the relief programs with the most Black clients. Yet government figures show that Whites not Blacks make up the bulk of clients on these public aid programs.

The numbers go like this: 61% of the population receiving welfare, listed as "means-tested cash assistance" by the Census Bureau, is identified as white, while only 33% is identified as black. Yet it’s important to remember that welfare is a program for very, very poor people. African Americans are three times as likely as Whites to fall below the poverty level and hence to have a chance of qualifying for welfare benefits.  The people most likely to be eligible are single mothers living in poverty with children under 18 to care for. You find little difference in welfare participation by ethnicity: 74.6% of African Americans in such dire straits are on welfare, compared with 64.5% of the poor White single moms. This is due to the high proportion of Black families headed by single women (44%, compared with 13% for Caucasians).

Reference Links:  

US Census Bureau

(link to be added)

This Myth has been BUSTED!