Gingrich singles out blacks in food stamp remark
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during a campaign stop at the Plymouth Senior Center, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012, in Plymouth, N.H.
/ AP Photo/Jim ColeUpdated: Jan. 6, 5:40 p.m. ET
Just days after Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum took heat for singling out blacks on entitlement reform, Newt Gingrich called out the African-American community for being dependent on food stamps -- despite the fact that blacks make up less than one third of recipients in the food stamp program.
Gingrich, during an appearance in Plymouth, New Hampshire, spoke about remarks he would theoretically make if invited to speak to the NAACP.
"I'm prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps," Gingrich said.
The former House speaker has made a habit of calling President Obama the "food stamp president" -- a nickname he used on Thursday as well -- and has often painted the contrast between himself and Mr. Obama as a choice between paychecks and food stamps.
"The fact is, if I become your nominee we will make the key test very simple: Food stamps versus paychecks," Gingrich said. "Obama is the best food stamp president in American history. More people are on food stamps today because of Obama's policies than ever in history. I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history."
The use of food stamps in America has continued to climb in recent years, and hit an all-time high of nearly 45 million in 2011.
According to U.S. Census Bureau, about 28 percent of households that receive food stamps are African American, while 59 percent are white. According to the same report, about 78 percent of American households are white, while about 12 percent are black. (The overall population is 72.4 percent white and 12.6 percent black.)
In a statement, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous called Gingrich's comments "inaccurate" and "divisive."
"It is a shame that the former Speaker feels that these types of inaccurate, divisive statements are in any way helpful to our country," Jealous said in a Friday statement. "The majority of people using food stamps are not African-American, and most people using food stamps have a job."
He continued: "We invited Speaker Gingrich to attend our annual convention several times when he was Speaker of the House, but he declined to join us. If he is invited again, I hope that he would come, with the intention to unite rather than divide."
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond told CBS News/National Journal on Thursday that the candidate wants Americans of "all backgrounds" to "have the opportunity to earn a paycheck."
Gingrich "believes that every American should have the opportunity to earn a paycheck, rather than be given a food stamp, and he is prepared to make that case in every neighborhood to all groups of all backgrounds in America," Hammond said.
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Second the Population is 59% over the age of 65.....
Vetreans over the age 65 are 55% ...HOMELESS...
1/3 Of MORTGAGE forclosures are by the Military.......
so no need to go by color ....Senoir and vetreans are in NEED of a "paycheck=SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK =Living wages === not the crumbs that fall of a rich men table...put poeple first then money+lobbist..
beside President O`Bama iussed $ 25.in foodtsamps?snap in Fed. 2010 And the REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR cut the foodsamps/snap 3X In ONE YEAR.....so instead of $ 9.00 a day per USDA it is now $ 3,00 and our vetreans ONLY qualified for $ 10.00 a months......so much for our HONOR to our Soldiers and sailors (for there life === our freedom)//!
But then again apparently you don't.
What would a lying, racist misanthrope have to say to those against whom he wants to declare a "culture war"?
No discussion is necessary, the causes have been known and even exacerbated by such baggers as Gingrich for generations.
He has nothing positive to say on the matter.
Mr. Gingrich, I will try to be a civil as possible.
Ever since the beginning of this racist country, "black" people, in fact, all non-"whites" were regarded as beasts of burden, to be bought and sold, or, in the case of the aboriginal inhabitants, slaughtered.
Later, when Lincoln sought to weaken the distorting influence of slave-labor states on the democratic process, he abolished slavery.
Ever since then, to this day, there have been generations of "white" racists, unable to accept the fact that "black" people were every bit as human as they, and just as much a citizen of the country as they.
When the US was still developing and growing, the assets, such as land grants for railroads, etc., contracts for construction, broadcast bandwidth, and all other components of the US economic infrastructure, were distributed in such an anti-meritocratic way as to exclude "black" people from participating, except as low-wage labor.
To date this practice continues, access to business capital, broadcast bandwidth, construction contracts, even access to export-import licenses are still granted almost exclusively to "whites".
Add to this such racists as yourself and santorum, calling for "culture wars" against us, falsely blaming us for the logical results of your own racist agenda, and that of your semi civilized progenitors.
Then you dare utter that you want to speak to the NAACP about paychecks, as if you were deserving of an audience with people with whom you want to declare a "culture war"?
Here is your paycheck, as civilized as I can put it, go to hell, go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
We neither need, nor want your "paychecks", and we don't want your joke called food stamps, what we need is to eliminate racists like yourself from any sociopolitical discussion, then begin to rebuild America from the ground up, without the influence of such lying, cowardly, ignorant, racist, un-evolved, hate-filled primordial ooze as yourself, polluting any discussion.
It is time to re-balance the assets of our country to better reflect the population diversity.
To those "whites" who lived for generations on the proceeds from that which they did not earn, but were simply granted because they were "white", I could not care less how much you scream and holler about "wealth redistribution", and the false claim of "socialism".
The fact is that it was unfairly distributed in the first place, and peaking with Reagan's "trickle down" BS, has continued to be distributed in an anti-meritocratic fashion until now, so you have nothing valid whatsoever to say in the matter.
I have no wish whatsoever to work for you, or anyone like you, I say that we need to penalize the institutions both public and private, and politicians like yourself, that hinder or prevent us in our efforts to build our own businesses, and hire our own people, and build our own economy.
I challenge you Mr. Gingrich, before you speak to the NAACP, try speaking first to me, on international TV. Then if you prove yourself capable of a debate with a no-one such as myself, then you might be deemed worthy of an audience with the NAACP.
"...There is some truth in what you say. Now address the following:
1. Too many Black households with no male/husband/father
Partially irrelevant, because many productive Americans of all ethnic stripe come from single-family homes. Funny how you imply that if a "black" man can say that he comes from a two-parent home, that racist "white" employers are then going to accept him for employment.
Also the fact that the ongoing history of hostility towards the idea of giving "black" males employment (check any stat you want), and denying venture capital to those qualified to start their own businesses, (again, check any stat) means that an unemployed male presents more of a liability in a household where what he eats is that much less that the child can eat.
"...2. Blacks doing worse in schools than other ethnic groups."
Look at the schools in which they are doing worse, underfunded, obsolete, irrelevant, and downright false study materials, corruption taking needed funding from those schools, the ridiculous "voucher" system which sends "black" students to schools where they are not welcome, instead of spending the same money at a school in a "black" neighborhood as is spent in the "white" schools.
"...3. Not taking advantage to affirmative action and college preferences, acceptance and financial aid..."
That is a myth, all those who can take whatever advantage they can, but when the remaining costs of schooling still exceeds what you can afford, because the "white" employers aren't hiring "black" people, (indeed they are really not hiring anybody these days)who would need to have a job to afford the cost of the education, such students are forced to drop out.
"...There is a significant Black under class that doesn's deserve the excuse of institutional racism (even if it exists)..."
That underclass exists at all because of institutionalized racism, and the destruction of hope that it causes. In a society where you must have money to survive, but where opportunities to earn money legally don't exist, only an ASPD-afflicted misanthrope would tell someone in that circumstance to continue to hope for the impossible, while starving.
"...They need to rais their children better and working harder at getting a good education..."
There is a lame cop-out if ever there was one, most "black" people work harder than most "white" people just to survive, and you posit that they should accept that condition, and work even harder, instead of working to end the cause, of which which you seem bent on denying the existence.
The real choice isn't between paychecks and food stamps, it's between paychecks and paychecks you can actually survive on. Why don't more people ask themselves why food assistance is necessary in the first place?
Eason should invite Gingrich to speak at the NAACP, and let him explain what he was attempting to say. Gingrich wasn't calling anyone lazy, he was talking about bad policy coming out of Washington.