Improving black people's lives is not racist

Government benefits, ideally, should be a stop-gap measure to help people though a difficult time and let them get on their feet.

This is where we are in racial politics in America: Recognizing the problems faced by minorities and proposing the need to fix those problems is a "racist" argument that amounts to "scapegoating" minorities. This is why it is so difficult to address racial issues in America.

Enter Newt Gingrich, who has criticized Barack Obama as a "food stamp President" and argues we need to find a way to have blacks earning paychecks instead of getting government benefits. Gingrich was immediately attacked for being divisive and racist, and his rhetoric was compared to shouting "n****r, n****r, n****r."

Because I live in Literalville, I am compelled to examine the statistics. TheGrio.com article even admits that 2010 Census data shows that 26 percent of food stamp recipients were black. That is more than double the percentage of blacks in the population. Clearly, this is a problem.

Government benefits, ideally, should be a stop-gap measure to help people though a difficult time and let them get on their feet. (Of course, in a perfect world all poor relief would be handled by churches and private charities.) For far too many people off all races, government benefits have become a way of life instead. This is not compassionate. It is oppressive. People are designed by God to want to provide for themselves, not to be provided for by others.

There are reasons why blacks tend to get some government benefits at a higher rate than whites, and some of those root causes (like out of wedlock births) will need to be addressed in a rational and adult manner. (It should be pointed out that illegitimacy is a problem across all races.) But the important thing here is solutions to improve the lives of as many blacks as possible. How could that possibly be racist?