The Big Lie: "If those lazy blacks would just get a job, we wouldn't have a welfare problem."

In his first campaign for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan obtained a snapshot of a black female, with a long history of welfare fraud. Reagan dubbed her the "Welfare Queen." And his campaign portrayed her as the poster girl for "Blacks." His shrewd political propaganda labeled the democrats as bleeding-heart liberals, pro-Black, and pro-Welfare. Big Government entitlement programs would result in skyrocketing taxes paid for out of the hard-earned paychecks of working white men and women.

The Whole Truth: During the Reagan/Bush years there were 12,162,000 Blacks on welfare, and 26,319,000 Whites on welfare. Similarly, while there were 7,169,000 Whites unemployed during that period, the number of Blacks unemployed was 2,016,000. Traditionally, in this country, Americans will share their last piece of bread with a stranger, if they believe him to be truly needy; but they have total disdain for a deadbeat. This is a core value, commonly held by blacks and whites. Reagan and his "Welfare Queen," co-opted and exploited this core value and portrayed "deadbeat," as a stereotypical of all blacks.