"As Martin Gilens notes in his 1999 book, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics..."

“As Martin Gilens notes in his 1999 book, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy, there is a strong correlation between views on race and opposition to welfare. “Most white Americans believe that blacks are less committed to the work ethic than are whites, and this belief is strongly related to opposition to welfare,” Gilens writes. This association began in the mid-1960s, when, Gilens notes, the ratio of African-Americans in photos attached to articles about poverty jumped drastically. Until then, Americans largely associated poverty with Appalachia, but as depictions of poverty changed, so did stereotypes. “Despite the fact that African Americans constitute only 36 percent of welfare recipients and only 27 percent of poor Americans, whites’ attitudes toward poverty and welfare are dominated by their beliefs about blacks,” Gilens says.

Voters have different associations, however, when it comes to Social Security. In Dangerous Frames, political scientist Nicholas Winter shows that in contrast to welfare, Social Security has been framed as a system which one has “earned” entry to, and is more often than not associated with white Americans. “Social Security has been linked symbolically with the in-group and with hard work and legitimacy earned rewards,” Winter writes. Thus Romney’s ad, which shows Social Security as a savings account that others are dipping into. Race need not be mentioned explicitly as long as the schemas typically associated with the stereotypes are present.”

- Romney’s Race-Based Initiative