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Words & ReflectionsMedia’s Role in Changing the Face of PovertyA Scholar Examines the Convergence of Race and Welfare in the Media.Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Antipoverty PolicyMartin GilensUniversity of Chicago Press. 296 Pages. $25.00.By Sharon GreenOne of the toughest things aboutbeing journalists is separatingourselves from prejudices thatshape us as people. To pretend thatthose prejudices don’t exist or thatthey don’t act as a filter on our perceptionsis either unrealistic or dangerousor both.So it is necessary to note that as ajournalist who also is black I was predisposedto hear the basic premise ofMartin Gilens’s book, “Why AmericansHate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politicsof Antipoverty Policy,” because myexpectations and experience indicatethat racial attitudes and media imageryinfluence public perceptions, in general.However, this book raises questionsabout the ways in which race andmedia shape perceptions about thepoor, in particular.In spite of my predisposition to supportits premise, I was happily surprisedby the content of the book andimpressed by how little of it was devotedto the ideological ranting or simplisticdistortions that too often passfor political debate. Gilens, who is associateprofessor of political scienceand a fellow at the Institution for Socialand Policy Studies at Yale University,dissects a variety of well-documentedexplanations for public resentment ofwelfare: the credo of individualism;middle class self-interest; suspicionabout the true neediness of welfarerecipients, and white perceptions thatthe black poor don’t value a work ethic.Each aspect is important to the complexweb of perceptions Americans haveabout welfare, and Gilens declares hisintent to subject each of them to “empiricalscrutiny.”The result is a scholarly analysisgleaned from original research by theauthor and from studies conducted byothers over many years. (As Gilensstates, the book began as a dissertationand he and his wife had two childrenwhile he was writing it.) The complexitiesand ambiguities that are so oftensubsumed by the politics of race andpoverty are, in Gilens’s book, able tosurface and to be brought into sharperfocus.Insights Gilens offers about racialattitudes are particularly compelling.But before he gets to that presentation,he challenges the widely held view thatthe public hates the principle of welfare;the very idea of giving taxpayerfundedassistance to poor people. Hecollates the findings of dozens of nationalopinion polls that show bothstrong public support for cuts in welfarespending and affirmation of the[Gilens] challenges the widely held view thatthe public hates the principle of welfare; thevery idea of giving taxpayer-funded assistanceto poor people.government’s responsibility to assistthe poor. Gilens writes that the publicis “of two minds”—cut welfare andprovide the poor with specific servicessuch as job training, education, childand elder care.How can Americans want both ofthese policies? Gilens helps us understand.He writes that this seeming contradictionis rooted in the political concernsof ordinary Americans about “whogets what” and “who deserves what.”In their minds, the deserving poor areworthy because they are perceived ashard working, despite their impoverishedstatus.On the other hand, welfare—whichGilens defines as “means-tested, cashpayments to able-bodied, working ageNieman Reports / Fall 1999 69