Researcher Sean McElwee debunks myth of the black welfare recipient

On  Thursday’s Radioactivity – our guest was Sean McElwee, Research Associate at Demos, who recently penned an opinion piece for Aljazeera on the prejudice and politics that fuel misconceptions about about welfare recipients. A new study by YouGov found that black people are more likely to be viewed as “takers” from society while white people are more likely to be seen as  contributors. The study also found that racially prejudiced views of welfare recipients tend to fall along political ideology lines than class.  McElwee says this runs counter to research that shows that white people make up the biggest percentage of people who receive welfare.