Oops! Paul Ryan didn't really mean it about inner city lazy black and brown folks, you guys. He was just 'inarticulate', is all.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) caused a stir yesterday with provocative comments on “inner-city” men who are “not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.” By way of a follow-up, it’s worth noting that the congressman attempted to clarify matters in a statement. Ryan issued this response to NBC News this morning:
“After reading the transcript of yesterday morning’s interview, it is clear that I was inarticulate about the point I was trying to make. I was not implicating the culture of one community – but of society as a whole. We have allowed our society to isolate or quarantine the poor rather than integrate people into our communities. The predictable result has been multi-generational poverty and little opportunity. I also believe the government’s response has inadvertently created a poverty trap that builds barriers to work. A stable, good-paying job is the best bridge out of poverty. “The broader point I was trying to make is that we cannot settle for this status quo and that government and families have to do more and rethink our approach to fighting poverty. I have witnessed amazing people fighting against great odds with impressive success in poor communities. We can learn so much from them, and that is where this conversation should begin.”
Boy, was he inarticulate, because what he said in no way resembles what he says he meant. Yesterday, he said “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 the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with,” he said."
Today it's all about the isolation of poor folks in their communities?
We all know Ryan said what he meant yesterday. You don't cite the author of The Bell Curve, a book that argues blacks are genetically inferior to white people, and then stand back and say you're not slamming black people for being lazy, but the culture.
Maybe some people are stupid enough to buy that explanation, but for me it's just an extension of Ryan's elitist and yes, racist, view of the world.
