Policy: Theme Test 4

Critical Race Theory: Six Basic Tenets

1. Endemic Racism 2. Interest Convergence 3. Social Construction 4. Differential Radicalization and its Many Consequences 5. Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism 6. Voices of Color

Critical Race Theory: Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism

Belief that individuals and classes often have shared or overlapping interests or traits and the search for the unique essence of a group - However, no person has a single, unitary identity - Everyone has conflicting, overlapping identities - Double/triple jeopardy

Critical Race Theory: Differential Radicalization and its Many Consequences

Process by which racial and ethnic groups are viewed and treated differently by mainstream society - The ways the dominant society radicalizes different minority groups at different times, in response to shifting needs such as the labor market Examples: Immigration policy, Bracero program, welfare policy like TANF

Pruning Social Welfare Programs under the Regan Administration

The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985: An emergency deficit control act, which put spending constraints on the federal budget - Was intended to make "fair" across-the-board cuts to end the federal deficit by 1991 - Cutbacks on social insurance and public assistance programs - Those given modified cut included Old Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance: Specifically, Postponement of cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for six months increased deductions and optional premiums for Medicare A and B, taxes on one-half of all Social Security benefits for people whose incomes exceeded $34,000, raises in amounts subject to taxes, and decreases in future benefit levels to 70 percent for retirement before age 67 - Supplemental Security Income: A United States government means-tested welfare program that provides cash assistance and health care coverage (i.e., Medicaid) to people with low-income and limited assets who are either aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled - Medicaid: The program itself underwent structural changes and funding cuts; massive federal cutbacks; State options were reduced; Enhanced states' abilities to limit benefits and deregulated prices for many services - Of all programs, children's programs were hit hardest; The average number of children on AFDC per 100 children in poverty dropped dramatically from 71.8 percent in 1979 to only 52.5 percent in 1982, despite the increase of about 1 million children in poverty The Family Support Act (FSA) of 1988: A federal law that emphasized work, child support, and family benefits, as well as on withholding the wages of absentee parents - New assumed income from stepfathers, court-ordered child support, Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) or refundable tax credit for low-to-moderate income, "windfalls" or gifts, insurance benefits, and inheritances - Reporting requirement of casual income (i.e. tips of blood donations) - On retrospective budgeting of the previous month's income - Allowable assets reduced to $1000 - Age limits for children to age 16 (restored to 18 under Bush) - A welfare-to-work program to replace Work Incentive Program (WIC): No incentives for work, however the recipients had to pay back their welfare grants by working or participating in activities oriented to future work; Those who lost job could not reapply for a year - The Child Support Enforcement Amendment of 1984 allowed immediate wage withholding from nonpaying parents - "Paternity establishment quotas" requirement pressured states to establish a certain number of named fathers for each child per year Other Welfare Programs: - Substance related programs (46% cut) - Vietnam veteran's counseling eliminated - Limited affirmative action claims and compensation for past discrimination; decrease in funding for civil rights action and the budgets for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Fed Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) - Less women and nonwhites in his administration - Opened the way to charges of "reverse discrimination"

Progressive: Centralization (Finance: How)

The concentration of control of an activity or organization under a specific leader or location - Local discretion regarding the use of funds is restricted according to precise federal criteria

Monopolies

The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service - The possibility of a high monopoly price well above the seller's marginal cost that leads to a high monopoly profit

The Protestant Work Ethic and Capitalism

The moral basis for American capitalism - An economic system in which profit through business enterprise is mostly uncontrolled by governments - A value accepted by most Americans regardless of religion - individualism, personal achievement and worth, the morality of wealth, and patriotism - However, poverty and public dependency demonstrate immorality and are seen as "unworthy"; poor are viewed as a result of laziness

The Great Depression

The worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939 - It began after the stock market crash of October 1929 (Black Tuesday), which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors

Structural Racism

Ways in which history, ideology, public policies, institutional practices, and culture interact to maintain a racial hierarchy that allows the privileges associated with whiteness and the disadvantages associated with color to endure and adapt over time

Contemporary Culture

While national values help to organize broad views about what is fair, just, and equitable, Americans rely on many other common sense cues as they make everyday judgments about other individuals and groups - These cues, which consist of bits of information about racial, ethnic, gender, immigrant, and other groups, accumulate and become stereotypes that are reinforced in multiple aspects of the mass culture

Critical Race Theory: Voices of Color

- Countering dominant group's accounting or "master narratives" of legal discourse and its system - Minority status (with histories & experiences with oppression) bring with it a presumed competence to speak about race & racism - Minorities provide the insider's point of view - Promotes the "legal storytelling" movement to assess the law's "master narratives"

The Remnants of the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Administration

- Far Right conservatism - Reagan "trickle-down theory" - Tea Party position-conservative political movement - Budget cut on social programs - Less government interference in state and free market - Taxing the rich and corporations would hurt the capitalist economy In 2011, the federal deficit was at $1.267 trillion and the federal debt was at $14 trillion In 2016, the federal debt was at $22.4 trillion

Johnson and the Great Society

A set of domestic programs to eliminate poverty and racial injustice - Value: Any society that is capable of taking care of its citizens should do so - New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, and transportation were launched during this period The Social Security Amendments of 1965: Provisions resulted in creation of two programs, Medicare (social insurance) and Medicaid (public aid) - This legislation initially provided federal health insurance for the elderly (over 65) and for poor families

Conservative and Progressive Values in Public Assistance

Conservative: 1. Cost Effectiveness 2. Freedom of Choice 3. Freedom of Dissent (Disagreement) 4. Local Autonomy Progressive: 1. Social Effectiveness 2. Social Control 3. Efficiency 4. Centralization

The Resurgence of Social Work after World War II

Less involvement in social reforms; viewed poverty as individual fault; middle to upper class focused; focused on juvenile delinquency, child development, and drug abuse The Expansion and Professionalization of Social Work: - The number of social workers expanded in the 1930s from 31,000 to 70,000 - Foundation of the American Association of Medical Social Workers; the National Association of School of Social Workers; the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers; the American Association of Social Workers; the National Council on Social Education, 1946; the Social Work Research Association, 1949; the Association of the Study of Community Organization Fostered a split in approaches: 1. Psychosocial casework (Gordon Hamilton and Florence Hollis): proFreudian; long term relationships; in-depth investigation and differential diagnoses; individual change 2. Functionalist (Jessie Taft and Virginia Robinson): antiFreudian; client and environment; structural change; here and now; short term; on immediate issues 3. Group work (Mary Follett): focused on spontaneous and grassroots development

Laissez-Faire (French: "allow to do")

Policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society - An economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government intervention

Explain privatization of social welfare in the Reagan/Bush era. Why was it a step backward from public and social responsibility?

Privatization is instrumental in the polarization of social services - Federal funding to private profit-making agencies - Stressed that competition will promote the quality of service delivery - Also, was intended to save money through competition - Financially secure agencies could lobby and receive higher funding, however that often eliminated services to the poor - Profit-making agencies can set their own client profiles, pick who they are going to serve - Open for discrimination and abuse Privatization is, in fact, a step backward from public and social responsibility because when there is no access to care, a socially moral government has an obligation to provide. Finally, privatization abrogates the application of broad-based standards and regulations that prevent discrimination or abuse. Given that abuse and discrimination have occurred throughout our past when government standards were not enforced, we should not have allowed that to happen again (p. 392).

Critical Race Theory: Social Construction

Process of endowing a group or concept with a delineation, name, or reality - Race is socially constructed - Races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient

Social Insurance Programs

Programs that provides protection against various economic risks (e.g., loss of income due to sickness, old age, or unemployment) and participation is compulsory - The social insurance was considered a basic human right earned through tax contributions - The basis for fed services for the "general welfare" - Institutional perspective

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945 - Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 - Eisenhower's main goals in office were to contain the expansion of the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits - Removed McCarthy - Continued The New Deal - Promoted desegregation - Supreme Court's Decision: Brown v. Board of Education, 1954, overruled Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate but equal doctrine, 1896) - Eisenhower used federal troops to subdue the massive revolts in effort to enforce the court's ruling

George W. H. Bush

Served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 - Foreign policy drove the Bush Presidency - Bush also signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada, and Mexico - Domestically, Bush signed a bill to increase taxes, but did not do much otherwise

Bill Clinton

Served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 - Clinton was ideologically a New Democrat and many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy - He presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement

Barack Obama

Served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017 - Signed many landmark bills into law Health Care and Stimulus Acts - Allocated the bail out $787 billion as jump start - $700 billion was spent bailing out Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns-financial/investment firms - In the following three years, $224 billion to extend unemployment benefits, education and health care, $275 billion to create jobs, $288 billion in tax cuts The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Obamacare: It represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 - Provides numerous rights and protections that make health coverage more fair and easy to understand, along with subsidies (through "premium tax credits" and "cost-sharing reductions") to make it more affordable. - The law also expands the Medicaid program to cover more people with low incomes TANF: - In 2009, Obama created a $5 billion TANF emergency fund - The TANF block grant of $16.5 billion was extended to 2011, but the supplemental grants to 17 poor or rapidly growing states were reduced by 66% - The ongoing conflict between the eligibility and the job insecurities The Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Developed in response to the Great Recession, the ARRA's primary objective was to save existing jobs and create new ones as soon as possible - The federal funding to improve public education ($5 billion for the early learning, $77 billion for the elementary and secondary schools, $48.6 billion to help states stabilize their education budgets) - Ongoing debate between Republicans and Democrats on how these should be done - Republicans wanted the use of voucher and competition module - Democrats wanted the use of the federal and state funding for the public schools instead of the property tax as the main source To address the mass incarceration and its concerns including the inadequate health care, the court started using an alternative strategy - Drug court system to order treatment under the supervision in lieu of conviction/prison (deferred adjudication) - Different standard for clinical social work (i.e. domestic violence)

Past Ideology in a Post-Industrial World

The George H.W. Bush years solidified what Reagan began simply by not dealing adequately with domestic issues - Reagan's domestic social policies, a return to Pre-Civil War ideology - In 1980, all social programs constituted only 18.7 percent of the gross national wealth - This set the stage for a society whose politicians believe cutbacks in social programs and laissez-faire civil rights are the appropriate way of conducting a county

Roosevelt's Emergency Measures Following the Great Depression

The Norris-LaGuardia Act, 1932: - Legitimating unions and collective bargaining - Restricting fed courts from sanctioning unions engaged in strikes - The workers were supported rather than employers National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA, 1933): - Instituted federal control of production, prices, creating jobs, and the rights of workers in industry - Based on Keynesian economics-demand-side consumerism (putting money in the hands of consumers would increase buying and begin the upward spiral of the economy) Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA, 1933): - Released the fed $ to the states on a matching basis for the direct relief and indirect/work relief - The FERA workers determined eligibility; means testing - The discrimination against people of color was discouraged, although not forbidden The Works Progress Administration (WPA, 1935) replaced the Public Works Administration (PWA): - Hired many unemployed workers for government jobs - The wages were higher than poor relief - Financed projects and constructions The Walsh-Healy Act, 1936: - Abolished child labor - Set standards for workers in industries The National Labor Relations Act, 1938, or the Wagner's Act: - The aim to control labor and management practices - Outlawed the company-dominated unions - Gave the Labor Relations Board power to determine bargaining units - Enforced courts to hear unfair labor practices, set the min wage, working hrs and min age of 16 for child labor

The Social Security Act of 1935

This act laid the groundwork for the modern Welfare System in the United States, with its primary focus to provide aid for the elderly, the unemployed, and children - Collected tax from the employers and employees and distributed from the federal reserve fund - Direct payments from the federal government to retirees, their survivors or dependents - The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW) housed Social Security Administration

Clinton and the Republican Congress

"Contract with America": A document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign - To reduce national debt and induce an economic surplus - In the context of the "Contract," blame for the national deficit was laid not to faulty tax structure or unwise fiscal planning - Rather, it was defined as lack of "personal responsibility" of public dependents, primarily women The Clinton Stimulus Package of 1993: A budget resolution that authorizes federal spending of $1.5 trillion to stimulate economy - Tax increase mainly on the wealthy - Reduction on the defense budget - Restraint in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid - Create more jobs - Tax incentives for small business - Empowerment Enterprise Zones-money into disadvantaged areas & social services (i.e. child development and drug treatment) The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993/the Balanced Budget Act of 1997: - Raised the tax rate for higher incomes and corporations over $10 million - Cutback in the national defense spending to $253.9 billion in 1998 - Cut jobs from the government workforce - Economic growth under Clinton created more than 22.5 million jobs - Small businesses and disadvantaged areas improved - Children's social programs and young adults benefitted - Cutback in some social services Reduced the federal debt by $50 billion; the federal budget surplus $69 billion

What are the dominant American social values?

- Judaeo-Christian Values - Democratic Egalitarianism and Individualism - The Protestant Work Ethic and Capitalism - Social Darwinism - The New Puritanism - Patriarchy - White Privilege - Marriage and the Nuclear Family - The "American Ideal"

The Structural Racism Lens Allows Us to See and Understand...

- The racial legacy of our past - How racism persists in our national policies, institutional practices, and cultural representations - How racism is transmitted and either amplified or mitigated through public, private, and community institutions - How individuals internalize and respond to racialized structures As a society, we more or less take for granted a context of white leadership, dominance, and privilege

Structural Racism: The Four Social Processes to Maintain Hierarchies and Status Quo

1. Marginalization 2. Social Isolation/Exclusion 3. Exploitation 4. Sorting or Redlining

Reagan's New Federalism

1978-1984: poverty rose by 41% for white families and 25% for African Americans - Homelessness rose drastically during this time too due to cutbacks in housing (children were the fastest-growing group) Domestic spending for human resources was cut by $101.1 billion - Which $65.4 billion came from programs that provided benefits to poor families Returning Programs to States/Locals - Elimination of federal regulations and state matching requirements - Specifically, earmarked for the poor - Because states no longer had to match funds, many reduced programs by up to 50 percent of previous funding

Clinton: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)

A major welfare reform bill, which instituted Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) - TANF replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which had been in effect since 1935 - Clinton fulfilled his promise to "end welfare as we know it" - The strong belief—common in the late 1880s and part of our public assistance heritage—that local administration served to better control the poor - Cutbacks in OASDI, cost living adjustments with the earning limit - Decrease in EITC (Earned Income Tax Credits) and CDCCs (Child and Dependent Care Credits) - The low income programs including summer jobs, HUD programs, child care, education programs and legal services for the disadvantaged lost about 13% funding; other programs 1 % - PRWORA tightened SSI eligibility by eliminating functional disabilities, so that only the more restrictive medical diagnoses could be used - Those most likely to lose benefits were children with multiple impairments, where none is severe enough to meet medical disability requirements but in combination create disablement - Expecting that church-affiliated agencies would help their local poor, PRWORA included the "charitable choice" option, meant to allow programs otherwise disqualified as religious-oriented to access TANF funds

Public Assistance Programs

Government aid to the poor, disabled, or aged or to dependent children, as financial assistance or food stamps - The social insurance was for the workers or "worthy poor" and kept separate from the public assistance programs for "unworthy poor" - The federal/state public assistance was granted partly financed by the fed government and administered on state/local levels on matching funds - The eligibility based on means testing, home investigation, the discretion of workers (non-social workers at the time)-the legacy of the "unworthy poor" - The benefits were minimal and temporary - Residual perspective

Clinton: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

In 1996, AFDC was replaced by the more restrictive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program - This policy provides temporary financial assistance while aiming to get people off of that assistance, primarily through employment - It was a comprehensive (and bipartisan) plan to rid the United States of responsibility for the poor by demanding work for a time-limited period: two years for any one stay on assistance, with a five-year lifetime maximum - Each state, territory, or tribe determined its own eligibility and benefit levels; Therefore, states had great latitude in designing their welfare-to-work programs - For instance, Florida required drug testing and penalized for positive tests - Block grant monies were used for any plan that furthered TANF purposes, allowing local entities such as counties or community entities to administer new or old programs - With the advent of TANF, state public assistance rolls diminished drastically Under the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992: Willful failure to pay the child support became a felony crime - Penalties were jail time, fine, and public aids were denied - In 1997, Congress prohibited public housing authorities from lowering tenant rents to the TANF recipients in response to loss of income from TANF, meaning that people with reduced grants from TANF and those put off TANF, with problems of low-wage and irregular employment, probably were unable to pay their rents and were evicted - Many landlords refused to rent to TANF recipients - The non-poor continued to benefit from mortgage interest tax deductions, which are the primary mechanism to promote home ownership

White Privilege

Refers to whites' historical and contemporary advantage in all of the principal opportunity domains, including education, employment, housing, health care, political representation, media influence, and so on White Americans... - Benefited from access to good educational institutions - Had access to decent jobs and fair wages - Accumulated retirement benefits through company programs, union membership, and social security - Benefited from homeownership policies and programs that allowed them to buy property in rising neighborhoods Whereas, Adults of Color... - Came from a background of slavery or labor exploitation; - Were limited by de jure or de facto segregation - Were generally confined to jobs in areas such as agricultural, manual, or domestic labor, and excluded from jobs that allowed them to accumulate savings and retirement benefits - Were discriminated against by lending institutions and were excluded from owning homes in economically desirable locations through redlining and other policies

National Values

The backdrop of core American values also sets the stage for our national consensus on race Personal Responsibility and Individualism: The belief that people control their fates regardless of social position, and that individual behaviors and choices determine material outcomes Meritocracy: The belief that resources and opportunities are distributed according to individual talent and effort, and that social factors—such as access to inside information or powerful social networks—do not play a significant role Equal Opportunity: The belief that arenas such as employment, education, and wealth accumulation are "level playing fields" and that race is no longer a barrier to progress in these areas

Social Darwinism

A biological theory never intended to become economic, says that organisms unable to survive in an ecological niche will die out - People who are "economically unfit" should not be saved by giving them public assistance - Poor are by choice because of moral degeneracy, and so should perish - Legitimatizes stigma, discrimination, and exploitation against those deemed "unfit" regardless of their economic situation

Post WWII Cold War with Soviet Union

A new *"Red Scare,"* which increased an intense sensitivity to communism - Increased in budget in the defense and investment in foreign countries - Socialism banned; suspected books removed from the library Required loyalty oaths as criteria for employment - The House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC, 1947): Investigated allegations of communist activity - Six concentration camps established to house political prisoners and allowing imprisonment without trial for those suspected of treason - McCarran Act/Internal Security Act of 1950: Under Senator Joseph McCarthy leadership, Roosevelt and Truman administration were charged with "twenty years of treason" for their social programs; viewed Social Security Act "communist plot" - The Labor Management Relations Act/Fed Employee Act of 1947/ the Taft-Hartley Act: Restricted the activities and power of the labor unions - Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) procedures firmly in place

The New Deal Era

A series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt - It responded to needs for relief, reform and recovery from the Great Depression - Also, included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply

Social Welfare under George Bush

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): A civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability - Addition of "New Freedom Initiative" in 2001 - Released federal funding to train for new technology, open new educational and employment opportunities, and promote increased access to community life by allowing those considered "homebound" to occasionally leave their homes without losing Medicare coverage Faith-Based Initiatives of 2002: Crossed the boundaries between church and state - Created the "Compassion Capital Fund" (CCF) to provide federal funding and support to grassroots and religious orgs to provide social services (i.e day care, gang-prevention programs, mentor programs, and controlled substance prevention programs No Child Left Behind (NCLB): A federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress - Was signed into law by Bush in 2002 and reauthorized in 2007 - Based on accountability for educational results, parental school choice, greater local control and flexibility, and an emphasis on research-based education The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act/Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was legislated in 2006: The mandate to monitor released sex offenders

Conservative: Cost Effectiveness (Allocation: Who)

Benefit is allocated to those in need - Requires a high degree of selectivity, of means testing, in determining those eligible of benefits—Do not want to waste any resources - Individual treatment varies according to individual circumstances, which can divide communities into groups the incompetent and the self-sufficient

Progressive: Social Effectiveness (Allocation: Who)

Benefit is allocated universally - All individuals are treated as equal members of the social body - Those who are potentially eligible will not feel inhibited about applying for benefits because of shame or stigma - An individual's special need or defect need will not be exposed for scrutiny in order to become eligible for benefits

Joseph McCarthy

Chair of Senate Government Operations Committee from 1953-1955 - He is known for alleging that numerous Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere - He charged the Roosevelt and Truman administrations with "twenty years of treason" because of their social programs

Clinton and Civil Rights

Defense of Marriage Act of 1996: Defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman - This denied federal recognition of same-sex marriages recognized by states "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT): A official policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians - This policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service

Civil Rights for Mexican Americans

In the 1950s... Traditionally, Hispanics in the United States have been agricultural workers - Excluded from labor unions, Hispanic agricultural workers were continually denied economic advancement until Cesar Chavez organized the National Farm Workers Association - During the 1950s, one-fifth of the Puerto Rican population left the island, encouraged by the government to migrate both to relieve unemployment on the island and to work on the mainland as cheap labor - In the United States, when they could find work, they became concentrated in blue-collar jobs, with women in sales and clerical jobs In 1970s... Significant provisions were made for bilingual education under ESEA (1968), and in 1974 the Law v. Nichols decision determined that schools could not ignore the language problems of non-English speakers - Yet we continued to weaken bilingual programs - Little real progress was made to ensure equality for Mexican Americans, partly because of lack of differentiation between Mexican American citizens and illegal immigrant Mexicans

Gender Disparity in Civil Rights

Kennedy appointed the first Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt - The commission deplored the trend to blame women for juvenile delinquency and confirmed in 1966 that the EEOC should take action against sex discrimination - Women argued that patriarchy was the oldest and most basic form of oppression - Others argued that the romanticization of domesticity, the infantilization of women, and the transformation of the suburban home into a comfortable concentration camp Equal Rights Amendment: A proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex - To enforce anti-discrimination legislation - To end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters - Specifically, for equal and unsegregated education, maternity leaves that preserved job security and seniority, tax deductions for child care, inexpensive day care centers, reform of the welfare system, and equality of benefits

Civil Rights under Barack Obama

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009: The women and others could sue for wage discrimination; also overruled the time restriction (180 days) to file lawsuits The Defense Marriage Act of 1996: In 2009/2010, Obama expanded benefits for same-sex partners of federal employees, including family assistance services, hardship transfers, relocation funds, healthcare, sick leave and medical evacuation services In 2010, Obama repealed/revoked the Clinton's 1994 military policy of "don't ask, don't tell" In 2011, six states made it legal for LGBTQ persons to marry and now in 2016 every same-sex couple has the right to marry

Public Assistance under George Bush

Medicaid: The Medicare D Prescription Drug Plan was another privatization scheme - The shift of drug expenses to Medicare D - Changes in treatment of high-cost patients - Moving the elderly from nursing home to home health care - More aggressive investigation of fraud Bush vetoed the bill proposing the increased in funding for State Children's Health Insurance Program to provide health care to children in families too poor for health insurance and but with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: Funding cut by $36 million - Criminalization and incarceration of the mentally ill is a growing and ominous trend Budget cuts for education as a whole: Of 141 programs proposed for elimination, 42 were for disadvantaged students applying for college and vocational education TANF: The funding remained capped at the 1996 level of $16 billion - Drug testing required - No work-no welfare Positive changes: - States could exempt 20 % of their caseloads from federal time limits - The child support money to families - The Out-of-Wedlock Birth Bonus to states with lowered illegitimacy rates on the rolls (1996) was eliminated

Social Programs in the 1970s

Nixon's New Federalism revenue sharing - the retreat to conservatism: Moved the nation away from citizen and individual rights and toward the monolithic power of the transnational economy - Distributed portion of the general revenues (tax $) to the states for their control over social welfare programs Title XX Social Services of 1974: Provided the fed "Block Grants" with the cap to states for social services - Block grants were allocated to states on the basis of population, with state matching required - The national goals were set; each service provided had to have at least one of the following goals - reduce the dependency of clients, help the recipients gain economic independence, prevent and remedy the child abuse and neglect, the family preservation, provide for the least intrusive care, secure institutional care only if the other kinds were exhausted The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974 (an amendment of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act): Accelerated the development of state programs to aid the mistreated child - Authorized runaway shelters and hotlines, and promoted research and professional training in the areas of child abuse and protection Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC): A federal assistance program that provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income - Increased hostility toward recipients, searches for men in the house (midnight raids despite the Supreme Court's decision against it) - Imposed restrictive requirements for work and job training despite the decrease in job opportunities The 1972 Social Security Acts, Title IV.D. (Child Support and Dependency Programs): Enacted for child support enforcement - Required the AFDC mothers to file suit against their children's fathers to collect back the child support - Often against their will - The new offices of Child Support searched absent parents or "absent pappy" and collected the child support from the wages and stipends

Public Assistance Programs Based on the Social Security Act of 1935

Old Age Assistance (OAA), Title I: Set up to provide an income for people over 65 who did not have enough savings for retirement or had never worked - This program was established as a form of outdoor relief for the elderly Aid to the Blind (AB) and Aid to the Disabled (AD): Financial aid to people who have a physical, mental, and emotional disability - The eligibility determined by the state appointed doctors Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), Title IV/AFDC became a federal-state program: Became a federal-state program where provisions were to be made for dependent children as those deprived of "parental support" rather than those in need - Eligibility determinations often excluded out-of wedlock children, those from divorced parents (because the mothers were considered sexually immoral), and African American children (racism) - However, it was criticized for offering incentives for women to have children, and for providing disincentives for women to join the workforce Maternal and Child Welfare Act, Title V, under Children's Bureau: Set up preventive and remedial health care for children - Included the Women's, Infant's and Children's food program (WIC) for the homeless, dependent, neglected children and those in danger of becoming delinquent The National Lunch Program of 1946: Provided a special milk program for poor children in 1954 The Housing Act of 1949: Authorized 135,000 public housing units per year, but only 25,000 to 40,000 per year were built in the following decade - Was meant to promote the movement of middle-class whites to the suburbs, while people of color and poor people moved into the central cities

Social Insurance Programs Based on the Social Security Act of 1935

Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI), Title II, 1937: Retirement pensions for retirees over 65 - No means tested - Survivor's Insurance (OASI) was added in 1939 for widows and children of deceased workers Unemployment Compensation, Title III: The states and employers were required to provide insurance for unemployed workers - No fault of their own - Purpose was to prevent layoffs, so employers with stable employment records pay reduced taxes Workers' Compensation: To provide benefits to victims of work-related accidents and illnesses - States could impose a penalty against employers that do not have insurance - Still excluded agricultural workers, domestic workers, and workers in casual employment

Social Insurance under George Bush

Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance: The Bush administration tried to cut back or privatize Social Security pensions, but was unsuccessful - Delays in OASI payments Unemployment Insurance & Worker's compensation with new Occupational Safety Act (OSHA) regulations: The office that sets safety standards and regulates worker conditions - The president favored private industries - Re-categorization of recognized injuries - "Voluntary compliance standards" replaced the government regulation; therefore, corporations could regulate their own standards, thus maximizing business profits at the cost of worker safety - This resulted in looser safety regulations such as truckers' driving hours, logging in forests, and corporate mergers, but increased corporate profits The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003/Tax Relief Healthcare Act of 2006: Produced the largest overhaul of Medicare - The cost to consumers was more than traditional Medicare - Little or no choice in health service providers - Corporation-dictated service caps - Limited services - Non-negotiable drug prices - The PACE program (all-inclusive care for the elderly): a joint Medicare and Medicaid program

Processes that Maintain Racial Hierarchies

Our history, national values, and culture are the backdrop for understanding structural racism. But it is important to recognize that the racial status quo is maintained in part because it adapts and changes over time Racial Sorting: Refers to both the physical segregation of racial and ethnic groups and the psychological sorting that occurs through social and cultural processes and stereotyping - In theory, physical and psychological racial segregation does not need to equate with advantage and disadvantage Progress and Retrenchment: Perhaps the most discouraging characteristic of structural racism is its adaptability and resilience. The forces that permit structural racism to endure are dynamic and shift with the times - The clearest examples of this retrenchment have been in the consistent challenges to affirmative action - It is helpful here to remind ourselves that race is a social construct - Racial hierarchy preserves a social order in which power, privilege, and resources are unequally distributed, and no individual, institution, or policy needs to be activated to preserve the current way of operating: it is built in

Critical Race Theory: Endemic Racism

Regularly found among particular people or group - Ordinary, everyday occurrence - Deeply embedded in our social structures and practices - Invisible, which makes it difficult to address

Harry S. Truman

Served as the 33rd President of the United States - He is known for implementing the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, for establishing the Truman Doctrine and NATO against Soviet and Chinese Communism, and for intervening in the Korean War - In domestic affairs, he was a moderate Democrat whose liberal proposals were a continuation of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal - Social Security Act; social insurance/stability for the workers; however, public assistance in question - Economic prosperity & a growth of middle class; however, "personal good" suffered - Emotional problems took on new meaning; separation, isolation, & mental health related issues - *Social revolution* with new ideological struggle and the greatest hostility toward women because of their "sexual immorality"; the "great numbers" of out-of-wedlock children

John F. Kennedy

Served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963 - He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union - Active supporter of civil rights movements, strengthening public assistance

Lyndon B. Johnson

Served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 - In domestic policy, Johnson designed the "Great Society" legislation to expand civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, public services and his "War on Poverty" - Civil-rights bills that he signed into law banned racial discrimination in public facilities, interstate commerce, the workplace and housing - Johnson's presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism after the New Deal era

Richard Nixon

Served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974 - Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft - His administration generally transferred power from Washington D.C. to the states (decentralized) - Economic recessions and increase in unemployment - Embroiled in the internal affairs of other nations - The tax break for the transnational corporations - Increase in the flow of jobs to foreign countries - Established a Guaranteed National Minimum Income (GAI) - Social Security Amendments of 1972 issued supplemental security income (SSI), expanding social insurance - Increased expenditures for Old Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance (OASDHI)-increased cost-of-living adjustments

Ronald Reagan

Served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989 - Regan implemented supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", which advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending - He also increased military spending which contributed to increased federal outlays overall

George W. Bush

Served as the as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 - Along side, Dick Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009; has been cited among the least favored politicians in the history of the United States - A spiraling synergism of polity, economy, and religion marked the Bush/Cheney presidency: the politics of war for oil resources and purported national security against terrorism; the neoconservative economy that traded social responsibility for corporate gain; and a religiosity that intimated a God-directed presidency - Corporate welfare: Compares corporate subsidies to welfare payments for the poor - Republican Congress and a Conservative Supreme Court - September, 11 2001 attacks heighten nationalism - Umbrella of national security against his "war on terrorism" - Bush and Cheney structured a "Homeland Security" agency with unknown powers under the "state secrets privilege" - Two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan & involvement in Syria & Libya: the politics of war for oil resources vs. the anti-terrorism involvement - By 2004, America's war costs were approximately $400 billion, twice that of all NATO nations combined - The national surplus became an immense deficit ($218 billion in 2009) - The looming economic recession increased income polarization and poverty

Where Are the Social Workers?

Since its beginnings, social work's mission has been to aid the helpless and poverty stricken among us and to take action against social structures that perpetuate social and economic injustice - Every mission statement, in social work programs or agencies, endorses our mission to ensure justice for those with whom we work - However, there seems to be a disconnect from mission to practice: We rarely practice in areas directly connected with clients in poverty or victims of direct or institutional discrimination - Rather, we practice in "tidier" areas, perhaps more personally rewarding ones, such as ensuring mental health for people who find themselves at odds with their lives - We ignore the intersections of "isms," such as racism, sexism, and classism, without realizing the broader consequences of our neglect - Society's need to maintain its racist, sexist, and classist status quo - Whenever we have been involved in social action and have realized successes (the Social Security Acts of 1935, the 1950s' amalgamation of state and federal welfare into AFDC, the gains of clients' rights in the 1960s), we have then abandoned the field, leaving it to nonprofessional workers, political appointees, and civil servants - Our desertion of mission leads us to "accommodate" injustices rather than to use our many resources to end them - As social responsibility spirals downward under the Bush/Cheney imperial presidency, where created foreign wars have distracted the nation from attention to the needs of our most vulnerable, we should be at the forefront of social change: Why are we not?

Kennedy's Social Security Amendments

Social Security Amendments of 1962: Increased benefits for social insurance and public assistance - Actively addressed poverty; liberalized public aids; increased benefits for job training, rehab/mental health services, day care, AFDC programs, etc

Cycles of History and Cycles of Power

Social welfare does not exist in a vacuum but is a product of the "moral state" - As groups gain power, they desire more power - Although altruism and its connection with spirituality have existed from earliest times, rarely has altruism—or love—been enough to institute or maintain policies and programs that did not offer advantages to the elite - Love is not enough to change the world, but it is surely the best place to begin How can social workers promote social and economic justice during periods of restrictive social welfare programs?

Functionalist Theory

Society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole - Emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts Manifest Function: Functions that are evident, usually written into the laws, mandates, or organizational constitutions and bylaws of a program - Conscious, deliberate Latent Functions: Functions that are unstated and either assumed or hidden - Does not necessarily mean it is bad - But it does mean that workers, clients, and relevant others may be unaware of its real purposes - Unconscious, unintended Examples: Welfare programs to maintain society's structures; public assistance save tax money; get people off welfare; provide employers with cheap labor; provide social workers jobs, etc.

Reaganomics: The Conservative Political Economy-Shift in the Power Structure

Supply-side economics: High production induces buying & prices lowered through competition Foreign investments; less domestic jobs Trickle-Down Theory: A theory that claims benefits for the wealthy trickle down to everyone else - Benefiting the rich will benefit the poor - Has been called "the rich pissing on the poor" Opposed Taxation: Reduced individual taxes by 500 billion in 6 years, also abolished corporate income taxes Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) ("Star Wars" Defense Budget): A proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons - $339.6 million in 1981 to $456.5 billion in 1987 The federal debt increased: Increased four and a half times over the Reagan administration, and when Reagan left office the deficit was $1 trillion - Highest and largest The shift in the welfare system: Social responsibility to local responsibility (laissez-faire) - Budget was extremely cut - Program cuts and losses of revenue were compounded with each new bill under the pretense that money was being retargeted to the needier - Reagan, with a few strokes of his pen, set back human and civil rights for decades, or perhaps four centuries

Clinton and Welfare Reform

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), 1997 The National Community Service Trust Act of 1993: The exchange of community services for the school loans and tuition; college tax credit Increased funding for Early and Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT): The child health component of Medicaid to improve the health of low-income children Increased funding for Vaccines for Children (VFS) program: To provide free vaccines to immunize uninsured children and those covered by Medicaid (vaccine-preventable disease dec to all time lows) Issued $48 billion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) under the Health Care Financing Amendment Title XXI to cover other medical services for non-insured, non-Medicaid children in families Medicare/Medicaid cuts about half the roughly $1 trillion in spending - Medicare: Increased premiums, out-of-pocket spending, an end to fed caps on health provider fees - Medicaid: Received block grants without state matching fund requirements; a 30% loss in state funds; more restrictive eligibility rules - Privatized managed care: A cost-containment mechanism - Powerful health insurance lobby - Istook Amendment (led by Republican Earnest Istook) resulted in the Lobby Disclosure Act of 1995-prohibited individuals and nonprofits receiving federal grants from lobbying and advocating

Policies under the George H.W. Bush Administration

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990: Protects the rights of people with physical, emotional, or mental impairments that limit "one or more major life activities" - Add-on provision of reasonable accommodation Cranston Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 (HUD): Introduced the emergency/transitional housings for the homeless - Pursued home ownership rather than shelter housing - Initiated some emergency relief - One intention was surely to divest the government of ownership, maintenance costs, and overall responsibility for public housing

Structural Racism Produces Racialized Outcomes

The Context: The Dominant Consensus on Race - White Privilege - National Values - Contemporary Culture ↓ The Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics - Processes that maintain racial hierarchies - Racialized public policies and institutional practices ↓ The Outcomes: Racial Disparities - Racial inequalities in current levels of well-being - Capacity for individuals and community improvement is undermined ↓ Ongoing Racial Inequalities

Social Programs in the 1970s-80s

The Housing Act of 1974: Shifted federal resources to revenue-sharing strategies - Low-rent public housing, home loans for low-income families, and rent supplement programs were made available to the poor, along with special Department of Housing and Urban Development programs for the aged (HUD Title 8) Jimmy Carter: Served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 - Carter tried to move the nation toward social progress with a new welfare reform bill aimed at a guaranteed annual income, inflation reduction, and more jobs Developmental Disabled Bill of Rights Act of 1975 - 23% of the 298 federal judges were minorities and 15% were women - Breakthrough for people with disabilities because every child was required to have an individualized program in the least restricted feasible environment—the regular classroom where possible—with teachers specifically trained in special education Carter's one case benefit plan (similar to Nixon's FAP-Family Assistance Plan) failed in Congress - His proposal was to provide a negative income tax (NIT) or supplemental income or work incentives to all poor people regardless of family status

Shift of Civil Rights Policies for Native Americans

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 or the Wheeler-Howard Act: The centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian New Deal," and the major goal was to reverse the traditional goal of assimilation of Indians into American society and to strengthen, encourage and perpetuate the tribes and their historic traditions and culture - The act stopped allotment of Native American lands to white people and ended the forced assimilation of their cultures - Allowed Native Americans to develop their own constitutions and elect tribal council (centralization) - Created a fund to provide credit for agriculture and industrial projects so that Native Americans could develop tribal business corporations - Gave them over a million acres of new land - Health and school services were improved Termination of 1934 Reorganization Act: In 1949, Congress began to turn Native American programs over to state governments (decentralization) to rid itself of the "Indian problem" - In 1953, it began the process of "termination," ending federal supervision of the tribes and freeing Native Americans from government wardship - Termination gave certain states the right to overturn or replace laws of the 1934 Reorganization Act - Supporters of termination included land-hungry whites and members of Congress seeking to cut costs, along with some tribal member - Between 1954 and 1960, several dozen tribes were terminated from federal guardianship - Many necessary support programs were abandoned through termination - Ostensibly, termination gave Native Americans the same privileges and responsibilities as other citizens; However, their tax base was too small to support adequate schools and health services, so many lost their homes and life savings

Johnson and Civil Rights

The Voting Rights Act of 1964/1965: Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations/federally assisted programs The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: Authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies partake in strengthening War on Poverty - Gave money directly to grassroots agencies bypassing the state and local governments - Promoted maximum participation of the poor The Older Americans Act, 1965: Expanded nutrition, supportive home, community-based services, disease prevention/health promotion services, elder rights programs - The Miranda Rights of 1966: The right to silence - The Gault decision of 1967: Secured due process for juveniles Affirmative Action order of 1961, 1965, 1967: Gender eligibility was added - Promoted the equal access to minority groups in labor force and education setting

Clinton: Anti-Crime Legislation/Law Enforcement Act of 1994

The largest crime law dealing with crime and law enforcement - Increase in police forces/officers - New prison construction ($9.7 billion) - Prevention programs ($6.1 billion) - Death penalty for over 50 crimes - Banned at least 150 brands of semiautomatic weapons - The urban poor and nonwhite were targeted (racism) - Despite 72% of all drug users were white, more arrests of nonwhites - "Three strikes and you're out" plan for habitual criminals, which applies life imprisonment after three convictions - Harsh guidelines such as "three strikes, you're out" means that a disproportionate number of young African American and Hispanic men are likely to be imprisoned for life for drug-related offenses, virtually warehousing them into old age - People with felonies lost their right to vote - While less crime, more inmates where stuck in prison due to longer sentences - Aside from the cost of maintaining enough prison space for these men, their imprisonment means an end to any kind of family or fatherhood, poorer lives for their spouses and children, and higher social costs for the ensuing poverty of their families Unfortunately, the latent functions of this "lock-'em-up" program intensified action against people who were poor or from minority groups. The bill grew out of not only fear of increased crime, but also from the Reagan war on drugs, which ghettoized neighborhoods in poverty, closing them off for further crime and police action. Disproportionate reporting and apprehension of suspects, along with more convictions and more severe punishment for crimes committed by African Americans and other minorities, are a given in the United States. Heightened efforts to stop the drug business by making more arrests and giving longer sentences made this bill another weapon not only against crime but also against the urban poor.

Conservative: Local Autonomy (Finance: How)

The transfer of authority from central to local government - Caries few specifications or requirements on how the money should be spent beyond requirements that it be applied to a general program realm such as health, community, development, or education - High degree of local autonomy

Civil Rights under George Bush

The war against terrorism has brought forth fear or condemnation of all Muslims or Islam The Secure Fence Act of 2006 to make the borders more secure - But this is unlikely to end the influx of people seeking a better life - Merely symbolic of our prejudice against "outsiders" The deletion of the Matthew Shepard Amendment/Hate Crime Prevention Act of 1998 for gays - Few changes have occurred in discrimination against gay, lesbian, and transgendered people, although there is apparently less tolerance for heterosexist bias in the public media

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

Theoretical framework in the social sciences that uses critical theory to examine society and culture as they relate to categorizations of race, law, and power - Radical legal movement that seeks to transform the relationship among race, racism, and power

Critical Race Theory: Interest Convergence

Thesis pioneered by Derrick Bell that the majority group tolerates advances for racial justice only when it suits its interest to do so - The interests of the powerless in achieving racial equality will be accommodated only when it converges with the interest of the privilege - Not out of generosity but self interest

Judaeo-Christian Values

Values are based, first, on Judaic teachings of social justice and, second, on the teachings of Jesus as practiced in the early centuries of Christianity - People have intrinsic worth, charity should be given without thought of self - Altruism, love, and charity - Social work ethics reflect Judaeo-Christian values, but social work practice owes more to other, more individualistic values

The New Puritanism

Values include chastity, particularly for women, honesty in dealing with others, abstinence from things defined by religion and custom as immoral - However, the hidden reality is that it legitimates "otherization" of working class, ethnic and racial minorities, and poor people groups - Ultimately leads to exclusion

Conflict Theory

Views society as composed of different groups and interest competing for power and resources - Explains various aspects of our social world by looking at which groups have power and benefit from a particular social arrangement - The division of society into two broad classes of people—the "haves" and the "have nots" Examples: Feminist theory argues that we live in a patriarchal society—a hierarchical system of organization controlled by men; welfare programs are not altruistic but political and economical; to curb rebellions