The Nation's Pulse
The Real Problem With ACORN
When idealism gives way to moral gangsterism.
I found myself glued to the television last week as Fox broadcast its special investigation of ACORN. It was a terrific piece of journalism -- something worthy of 60 Minutes in its heyday.
But the real fascination for me was personal. Wade Rathke, the 61-year-old founder of ACORN, is exactly my age and vintage (he went to Williams, I went to Amherst). He even looks like me. Moreover, he started the organization after going South to work in the Welfare Rights Movement in 1970. I was working for Welfare Rights in Clark County, Alabama in 1970. (I remember noticing there were a lot of redheads in the movement at the time.)
But that's where the similarity ends. I ended up feeling a little ambivalent about "The Movement" and came back and started a newspaper career. Rathke says he liked community organizing so much he started his own group in Little Rock after Welfare Rights ran out of steam. He built the organization into an incredible, multi-million-dollar octopus with tentacles almost everywhere. He finally had to resign when it was discovered he covered up his brother's million-dollar embezzlement from the organization. The interview with Fox was the first he has ever granted.
Welfare Rights at the time was a second generation of the Civil Rights Movement. I was in Mississippi in 1964 and that was the first generation. We were in danger of our lives -- and of course three volunteers, Michael Schwerner, James Cheney and Andrew Goodman, were murdered.
It was also an effort of which any American should be proud. When we started about 1 percent of the African-American population was registered to vote. Today Mississippi has the highest number of black elected officials in the nation.
In Holly Springs, the town where I worked, there was a bright 16-year-old named Roy DeBerry who became the subject of many accounts of Freedom Summer. A couple of the volunteers got him into Brandeis and he was later featured on the cover of a book called Don't Shoot, We Are Your Children, by Anthony Lukas, who was chronicling the stories of 1960s rebels. Roy went on to become Secretary of Education of Mississippi, county executive of Hinds County (Jackson) and is now vice president of Jackson State University. My son visited Holly Springs a year ago (he's trying to make a movie of the era) and Roy's brother is now the mayor! My son got a kind of hero's welcome.
About that much I feel proud. When I went back in 1970, "The Movement" had pretty much achieved its political goals and Welfare Rights had taken its place. Things had changed completely. The threat of extreme violence was gone, although there were still little incidents. Things weren't friendly but civilized. The old Southern caste system that had kept blacks bowing and scraping before white overlords had been overthrown in a way no one had ever thought possible.
And so we set to work trying to get single mothers and older people on welfare. The mothers were not hard to find. In almost every household, there was a daughter in her late teens who was raising a baby. It was the way of the world -- and in fact the local people refused to believe that the young white women in our group didn't have babies waiting for them back home as well.
We had varying success. At the county offices, the women welfare workers sat in stony silence while we went through the interviews. One woman finally exploded in a tirade about "having illegitimate children and expecting the state to take care of them," but to me that was just bad form. The law was on our side, plain as day. We were helping unfortunates and bringing money into the community.
It was later, when welfare became a national issue in the 1980s, that the pieces began to fall in place. The debate was between liberals who argued welfare mothers were merely unfortunates abandoned by their boyfriends and conservatives who argued that welfare was encouraging teenagers to have illegitimate children. I realized the truth fell about halfway in between. Among the African-American I had met, it was a social custom for girls to have one or two children before getting married. Their parents would support them. Then by the time the third child came along their parents would be too old and tired and the young woman would get married. Most marriages in the community had been formed that way.
I read Herbert Gutman's The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom and found the pattern stretched back into slavery. In fact you could trace it all the way to Africa, where men have much weaker paternal rights and women commonly have one or two "children of fortune" before choosing a husband. This produced a kind of lottery, where men surrendered some paternal claims for the chance to sow their own "children of fortune." It also allowed girls to prove their fertility, an important thing in a fairly monogamous society.
All this made it clear why the American welfare system had had such a disastrous effect on black family formation. Traditionally, women had had one or two children and then married. The welfare system intervened precisely at the point where they married. Instead of marrying the father of their child, they married the state. The result was something unprecedented in human history -- a culture in which single motherhood became the norm
I wrote this up several times for The American Spectator, particularly in a review of Nicholas Lemann's The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, published in 1991. Lemann had gone down to the same Alabama neighborhood I had been in to find out what was causing single parenthood. He met some people in the towns who informed him that single motherhood had always been the norm "in the rural," meaning the tenant farms outside of town. The rural migrants had carried the custom north, he posited, from whence it spread across America. Welfare had nothing to do with it. The book won several prizes.
Strangely enough, it wasn't my experience with single mothers that made me begin to doubt the virtue of my efforts. It was a visit I made one day to an elderly couple. I've told this story many times but still consider it the starting point of my migration over to conservatism.
The elderly couple owned a small property near the edge of town where they had farmed for many years. They were in their 80s but still working the land. Some people in town had told me about them and I went out to make my pitch. I met them working in their fields. They stood listening for a few minutes in that way Southern blacks had, politely nodding their heads while I told them about the wonders of the welfare system. They were old enough, they were sure to qualify, it would be a nice check every month.
About the Author
William Tucker is the author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey.
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Campy| 10.13.09 @ 7:13AM
It isn't simply that ACORN doesn't produce good citizens; entitlement by it's very definition precludes reward of personal pride and confidence which comes from self-determined achievement, ability and responsibility; there's no acknowledgment of value... the reason for the elderly couple's tears. So how do we expect entitlement to produce good citizens?
Alan Brooks| 10.13.09 @ 7:52PM
You are all correct. But when we dislike govt but want govt to give megabucks to each of our grandparents who often don't even need financial help, then we erode the premise of a smaller state. No, I don't suggest means testing, because that just makes the Gordian Knot of statism more...gnarly.
There is no solution for decades, at least.
Alan Brooks| 10.14.09 @ 12:23AM
BTW, compared to me, Mencken was an optimist; a 19th industrial-optimist.
Alan Brooks| 10.14.09 @ 12:25AM
...pardon'
Mencken, IMO, was a 19th century industrio-rationalist.
Melvin| 10.13.09 @ 7:35AM
"Sophisticated begging." I never quite heard welfare put that way, but the more I think about it the more correct it is.
Another way to look at this is, during the 2005 Tsunami that struck in the Indian Ocean, a reporter found the most pitiful looking individual that they could find and was asking this man questions and somewhere the conversation turned to Hurricane Katrina victims. The old fella made a comment that has stayed with me since both of those events and his comment to the reporter was, "Here in my country the poor are so skinny and we live in very small huts and the poor in your country are so fat and live in large houses."
This man was eluding to that fact that most Katrina victims were obese and helpless and couldn't or wouldn't provide for themselves and just waited on the government to provide.
In my travels around the world during various natural calamities especially in Asia, people draw together and help themselves out and begin rebuilding immediately after the typhoons pass. Here in the US after a hurricane many stand helplessly in waste deep water crying, "Where's FEMA!"
Bram| 10.13.09 @ 3:24PM
I just has the same reaction. I always had a distinct dislike for government handouts but could never explain it very well.
"a sophisticated form of begging" is a perect term for it and why I despise it.
Roark| 10.13.09 @ 6:08PM
Dependency is the purest and most insidious form of subjegation.
Big J| 10.13.09 @ 8:06AM
"Here in the US after a hurricane many stand helplessly in waste deep water crying, "Where's FEMA!" ".
I don't wholeheartedly agree, Melvin.
There is a stark contrast between the way New Orleans dealt with their natural disaster and the way we Texans deal with them. In neighborhoods all around south Texas, entire streets would join together in cleaning up each others yards, sharing food, and generator power. Our mayor literally tried to kick FEMA out because they were doing more harm than good.
That's the difference in a group dependent on welfare their entire lives and self sufficiency.
CC| 10.14.09 @ 11:23PM
I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico (FL panhandle), lived through many a hurricane. You pull yourself together, start cleaning up and know that it might happen again next month or next year. It's going to happen again. You decide if can live with it or not. I am so sick of the "Katrina Victims". You chose to be a victim or not.
Becky| 10.13.09 @ 8:08AM
I have never heard about traditional patterns of marriage among blacks both in America and Africa, and found it interesting.
Chronic dependency on the state robs the receipients of self efficacy; the inability to do for themselves, or to believe they can. I believe they call it learned helplessness.
The story about ACORN could be applied to any organization that is not deligent about its stated mission, and not choosy about its members. Most non profits are vulnerable to being philosophically hijacked, but ACORN started out philosophically challenged, and thrived by people not understanding or knowing much about it.
I have heard that the government has made forming a 501(c)3 harder because a great number are formed, overlap an existing organization (think how many popped up when Katrina hit), and are hard to monitor.
After being involved in a few, I have come to the conclusion, very few of them are worth it in the long run. If they collect money to directly help out the poor, I think I would go with the Salvation Army over even my own church.
R Martin| 10.13.09 @ 8:38AM
It's a bit odd that after campaigning effectively and successfully for "welfare rights" (am I the only one who shuddered at those words?) Mr. Tucker laments that recipients developed a sense of entitlement and lost self sufficiency. Duh! At least he saw the light...eventually.
Unfortunately Mr. Tucker is in the minority when it comes to such insight. The movement he helped propagate has become entrenched, it has its own strong political proponents and it is growing in areas beyond the narrow definition of welfare.
One such area is the invasive multi-culti industry. The philosophy of that industry has pretty much taken over American schools and universities. Today our children are being indoctrinated with a new batch of entitlements which in effect represent a broad quota system and lend credibility to Mr. Tucker’s observation that "getting ahead" simply means making more and more strident demands on more and more people. Sadly, the teaching of these new entitlements has relegated more traditional education to a lower status.
Andrew B| 10.13.09 @ 8:42AM
I believe that nothing on Earth is so perfectly designed to strip away a human's dignity as unnecessary dependence. My father never deprived me of anything essential, but he made me feel uncomfortable asking for more. I resented the hell out of him then, but I now see that he taught me a valuable lesson.
Earning one's own way in life is one of the greatest gifts a person can possess. I may not have much, but what I have is MINE.
Karen| 10.14.09 @ 10:07AM
Andrew,
My parents did the same thing, they learned it from their parents who called it going "cap in hand". It was considered shameful to go begging for something rather than working to attain it. Working for and EARNING what I have is infinitely satsifying.
fred| 10.13.09 @ 9:07AM
There are always unintended consequences.
When Welfare was reformed, women could no longer collect extra money for each child.
Planned parenthood moved their abortiontoriums into poor neighborhoods and now black women have 40% of all abortions yet represent only 13% of the female population.
Melvin| 10.13.09 @ 9:10AM
Exactly Big J, that is the comparison that I was trying to make between the differences of the self-reliant, and the helpless that could be self-reliant if the desire to do so was present.
Pingback| 10.13.09 @ 9:16AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Real Problem With ACORN [spectat links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Michael L. Hauschild| 10.13.09 @ 10:06AM
When I was in the service it was SOP to team up with someone who you could count on to "watch your back." My partner was a young man from St. Louis. Correspondence was delivered in the field whenever possible and "mail call" was always a bright spot in our drudgery. My partner got a letter from a girl back home saying that she was pregnant with his child. He seemed happy about this and I asked him if he was going to marry her on his return. He actually laughed at my ignorance of the black culture and proceeded to educate me on the male role in such a situation.
Now, if anyone here thinks that the plight of the "welfare culture" is to be solved economically or educationally they are smoking the ganja. This attitude and lifestyle is so prevalent and ingrained, enabled by the "new deal" that there is no longer even the remotest memory of personal responsibility in many of the benefactors of the government dole. There is going to be a considerable amount of suffering for some very innocent children, very soon. The seemingly endless stream of money has run out. The anger of the diminishing few paying for this debacle will only be equaled by the anger of the increasingly greater number ACORN enabled recipients that will be denied.
Pingback| 10.13.09 @ 10:20AM
Observations » Blog Archive » The Real Problem With ACORN – When idealism gives way t links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 11:20AM
Let's not limit the concern to ACORN alone. Every one of these publicly funded NGOs is inherently corrupt by virtue of their funding. They lobby for ever more3 money from taxpayers to pursue their personal agendas often in opposition to the public interest. We were warned that when people could vote themselves money from the public weal there would be problems. Again the founders, with their wisely placed distrust of government, were right.
JimJam| 10.13.09 @ 11:41AM
Someday the minorities will discover that the only way to achieve true power is through self reliance and achievement. For over a hundred years the carpetbaggers have been throwing money to the poor and minority population in the form of welfare in order to keep them "in their place" and "victims" of society. If Jesse and Al had preached the truth, as someone like Bill Cosby or Alan Keyes does, the welfare mess we are in now may have been avoided a long time ago.
Michael Tomlinson| 10.13.09 @ 11:50AM
If that ugly guy in the picture posted on TAS represents ACORN leadership then man they are in trouble. Ugly!
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 5:59PM
Yep. There's reason why these guys look so scary!
Son Of Sam| 10.13.09 @ 11:59AM
ACORN, like all ObamaNazi organizations, is nothing more than attack against the middle class. It does very little to help the poor and downtrodden, because the poor are only useful to the likes of ACORN as battering rams to be used against us. And just as the so-called "war on poverty" has eaten up TRILLIONS of middle class dollars, thrown the poor a dogbone to gnaw on, but built gigantic, billion dollar unaccountable government bureaucracies, so is ACORN nothing more than a shakedown racket. Only, they're smart enough to keep their attacks aimed at the middle class: they would never DREAM of touching the Kennedys, the Hollywood set, Congressmen, lobbyists, ambulance chasing lawyers, etc.
btw, want to know how you can tell you're middle class? Simple: if you have to get up every morning, oh say at about I don't know, 5am (my case) or 6 am (my wife), go to do a job all day to get the money to pay your bills, then you're middle class. On the other hand, if your needs are met by the taxpayers, then you're either on welfare or dispensing it. Or, if your needs are met by a trust fund, then you're living off the 5am wakeup times of someone who died after a lifetime of work
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com
Kris Lepine| 10.13.09 @ 12:46PM
As an evangelican Christian most of my adult life, I recall a chapter out of one of Chuck Colsen's excellent books. It told how the Jewish prisoners maintained a will to live in the most horrendous conditions anyone can imagine. Why was that? Because they had meaningful work to do, even when it was done under slave conditions. Shortly before they were rescued, the Nazi's changed the working conditions for the prisoners and began having the workers move a pile of dirt from one end of the grounds to the other. Day after day, week after week it was the same. Then the men began commiting suicide, some throwing themselves into the electric fence. I see the suicide of drug and alcohol abuse a similar result of our welfare programs. God made us and meaningful work is important to our mental and spiritual health. Kris Lepine
Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 5:33PM
Indeed I recall the same story from Colsen and indeed the comfort of dependancy inures us to our humanity. Without purpose, without hope (irony) our very nature as human beings, our self-worth if you will, falters. Government, through well intended act, dehumanizes the very people the intend to help. The road to where is paved with good intentions?
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 6:02PM
Hey you guys, it's Colson. And I love him. Get his e newsletters at Breakpoint.org
Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 6:13PM
Right, Margie. My apologies to Chuck.
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 12:47PM
Son Of Sam....Bravo!! Well said.
Tish| 10.13.09 @ 1:28PM
I can't understand how any liberal/progressive could stand to look at the victims of Katrina, the hundreds of people who just sat, waiting for someone else to save them, having long ago sacrificed their dignity and self-reliance for a government check. Liberals have farmed those people as surely as any slave owner ever did. The government plantation is quite efficient at harvesting souls, but since it regards them as valueless, it tosses them into a corner to rot.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 6:04PM
Excellent post. You paint the true picture.
Marc Jeric| 10.13.09 @ 2:02PM
We declared War on Poverty some 44 years ago. What is the definition of victory in this ongoing war? What is our exit strategy? How come the far-left never asked tose questions?
Pingback| 10.13.09 @ 3:38PM
AoD – The Real Problem With ACORN | The Layman's Corner links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Mick| 10.13.09 @ 5:18PM
The down trodden are but cannon fodder for all the political shake down artists. It is clear to me these people are all a Cancer on America and the sooner they are excised the better.
Pingback| 10.13.09 @ 5:43PM
The American Spectator : The Real Problem With ACORN · entertainment life links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Kent| 10.13.09 @ 10:34PM
Interesting article. Sad to hear how young idealistic students went down South to recruit independent minded and capable people into becoming wards of the state. I don't care if it was legal - slavery was legal for a time. Making people slaves to government is no better than being a slave to a master. I have read some of Charles Murray's (I think it was Murray) commentary on early 19th century illigitimacy rates - among both blacks and whites. I believe the rate in the black community in the 30s and 40s was about 6%, versus 2-3 % for whites. Both these groups have mastered illigitimacy and their numbers are much higher now, with the black community figures definitely helped along by the aggressive promotion of the welfare state. I believe I have also read Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas speak of very conservative family values being the norm when they were growing up. This is not the picture Mr. Tucker paints, and I tend to think Sowell and Thomas had better insight into this.
Kent| 10.13.09 @ 10:36PM
Make that early 20th century illegitimacy rates in the comment above.
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Is It Possible To Follow A Strict Diet Program And Still Have A … | Food Health Wisdo links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.14.09 @ 1:49AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Real Problem With ACORN [spectat links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 10.14.09 @ 8:43AM
Moral gangsterism, a nice turn of phrase, was the reason behind the founding of ACORN, not uplift or anything else. Listen to the founders of this criminal enterprise and you'll know the truth. Moral? ACORN?
Robert| 10.14.09 @ 7:48PM
Nothing like a big, deep, and nasty Greater Depression to wipe out the insanities like the welfare state, the entitlement mentality, and Keynsianism. And if the Democrats do pass government control of access to medical care, the Greater Depression should wipe that out, too. Those who have chosen to be dependent on others are about to learn a very hard lesson, assuming they survive it.
The Quadfather| 10.15.09 @ 1:22AM
This idea that welfare is a "right" is what got us in our current troubles. Those who live off the teat of government should be denied the right to vote. If they want a say in the way government is run, then they get off the teat, and after about five years of self sufficiency, they can vote again. If they are on the teat for more than five years contiguos or not, they lose the right to vote permanently. Voting should only be for the responsible. And if saying that makes me racist, so...?
William Free| 12.28.09 @ 12:37PM
Racist? Most people on welfare are white.
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