In response to:

Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation

Chancellor Carlyle Wrote: Jan 20, 2010 3:08 PM
As someone who lives in America's third-poorest city (Buffalo, New York) with its largely self-segregated impoverished black community, and as someone who was a kid on Welfare, I see the effects of Uncle Sam's plantation. Sadly, suggestions of self-reliance, hard work, etc. - of getting off the plantation - are considered racist (and, if blacks suggest these, they're "acting white" or are "traitors to their race").

Here in the empire that is New York State there's a battle raging over how the state government is going to continue to provide all the services, programs, incentives, etc. it provides here where Welfare and Medicaid spending are some of the highest in the country. Our Governor (bless his heart) has proposed massive...

Six years ago I wrote a book called "Uncle Sam's Plantation." I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.

I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.

A vast sea of...