the fact that people don't understand that it's welfare is a big problem with the American welfare state as a whole. To make the country function, we've had to hide welfare under cozier rhetoric to make people feel like they're not part of the welfare state because Americans want to "do it for themselves." The fact of the matter is that the welfare state ALLOWS you to do just that.

I don’t think we’ve had to hide the true nature of welfare from people so that they won’t realize they’re taking it. I think the term “welfare” has become so strongly associated with shiftless, lazy, poor people (who are more often than not people of color in the public imagination) in our society that most people can’t believe that the same thing that enables someone else to live a life of slovenly idleness is what helps keep them—good, honest, hard-working people!—afloat during tough times. Welfare becomes defined not by what it actually is, but by who receives it.

You’ll never see a conservative get up on national television and call Medicare “welfare” or blue-haired grannies who draw SSI benefits “welfare queens.” If you talk about a young black woman on food stamps, though, just sit back and wait for it…