I can’t find it now, because this new study is totally dominant in the search results, but I’m sure I read an article on these same lines before.
I think it was a journalist in Toronto, who gave debit cards loaded with some money to some homeless people who agreed to let him see their spending. And they totally confounded the standard stereotypes. The most common purchase- a swimming pool pass. Access to lockers to store your stuff, hot showers and space indoors away from the worst of the weather is incredibly valuable when you’ve no housing.
I’ve read about these kinds of studies. It’s promising.
The “unconditional cash [assistance] given to the unhoused” studies are varied.
The U.S. has this long weird history of Calvinist bias that pushes the ethic of “work hard and live a clean Christian life [and then God takes note and favors you with prosperity]” on its every resident for centuries now. Such biases (Reagonomics neoliberalism cemented this recently) argue against giving the “undeserving” unhoused any cash at all even as it makes better economic sense.
A core cause of homelessness is a lack of money, yet few services provide immediate cash assistance as a solution. We provided a one-time unconditional CAD$7,500 cash transfer to individuals experiencing homelessness, which reduced homelessness and generated net societal savings over 1 y. Two additional studies revealed public mistrust in homeless individuals’ ability to manage money and the benefit of counter-stereotypical or utilitarian messaging in garnering policy support for cash transfers. This research adds to growing global evidence on cash transfers’ benefits for marginalized populations and strategies to increase policy support. Although not a panacea, cash transfers may hasten housing stability with existing social supports. Together, this research offers a new tool to reduce homelessness to improve homelessness reduction policies.
NatGeo excerpt: Future first lady Jackie Kennedy didn’t mention her by name when asked who designed her wedding dress. Only now—42 years after Lowe’s death—is the pioneering fashion designer getting her own exhibition. What was the holdup?
This ignores the fact that even if she had African ancestry, she was considered and treated as white (Jackie Kennedy). Since race is a made up category, what matters in terms of considering one to be Black or white is how the world perceives a person. No one perceived Jackie Kennedy as Black in the same way that Michelle Obama is seen as Black.
Also, WTF is this line:
and went native in North Africa
And it’s not even actually clear how she was related to them apparently…
How, exactly, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was related to Anthony or Abraham van Salee is unclear, at least to the New England Historical Society. (Perhaps a genealogist can help us out.)
So yeah, this reeks of the kind of “white people actually did it first” BS that’s often trotted out to deny Black Americans their due… Maybe several US presidents had African ancestry, but they were not “Black” in the sense of dealing with racism, enslavement, legacies of enslavement, etc. They did not engage in Black culture or understand themselves as being Black. So…
You’d think they would know better, but far too often, these types of amateur historical societies often just reinforce ruling historical narratives that are harmful and distort the truth.
That whole piece reads like it appeared in some trashy tabloid. Not at all “interesting and thoughtful.” I wouldn’t be surprised if that “society” is a front for white supremacists.
But not those trashy, poor, southern, redneck Klannish ones - smart sophisticated racists “just asking questions” and reminding people of just how great white can be! /s
How much you want to bet they regularly elude to anglo-saxon blood!
I will say, an awful lot of southern families have “Cherokee Princess” legends in their family lore… and other than the fact that the Cherokee did not have princesses, this was more often than not employed to cover up a Black ancestor.
This kind of discourse reminds me of how there were rumors of queen Caroline (I think or some one like that) being Moorish. All these stories do is remind me of the fact that white people use race and racism to police and harass each other too.
Who is white has changed over time. When it was advantageous to consider the Irish a separate race (like with regards to British colonization) they were not white. When it was advantageous to consider them white (US in the late antebellum/Civil War era) they all of a sudden became white.
