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welfare queens, japanese style

In the United States, single moms on welfare are often assumed to be lazy, low-class young women living large on the overly generous resources of the welfare state. So familiar and engrained is this stereotype that even its critics sometimes fail to consider how culturally specific and consequential it may be.

In contrast, the common picture of single mothers in Japan is of middle-class, highly educated workers who don’t really need state support. While these assumptions are obviously quite different from the American welfare queen stereotypes, they’re no less problematic.

According to Chisa Fujiwara (Japan Focus, January 2008), the majority of single moms in Japan do work—and at much higher levels than any other country in the world. For example, 87 percent of Japanese single moms hold full-time jobs, compared with 77 percent in the United States, one of the next-highest national rates.

The problem, according to Fujiwara, is that Japan’s extreme gender gap in wages makes these hard-working moms among the poorest workers in the country. The disjuncture is particularly troubling because the stereotypes—not the facts—have informed Japan’s extensive welfare-to-work reforms over the last decade.

Perhaps welfare stereotypes are as diverse as they are prevalent and problematic—not that this cross-cultural insight makes social policy any easier. C.S.

when to trust someone over 30

Generations of young radicals have found inspiration in Abbie Hoffman’s famous dictum about never trusting adults, but Hava Rachel Gordan (Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, December 2007) found an exception to the rule.

After two years observing two youth activist organizations on the west coast and numerous interviews, Gordon found that young political activists were willing to work with adults when those adults acted as mentors and/or represented the cause to elected officials or others unsympathetic to the cause. Such roles and relationships allowed for sustained adult input and advice that helped the young activists accomplish their goals and shift their energies from one issue and action to another.

In contrast, young political organizers who took pride in their unencumbered radicalism had difficulty sustaining their actions beyond a single issue.

Perhaps Hoffman should have said: “Don’t trust anyone over 30, unless it works to your advantage.” K.C.

what would jesus protest?

Albert Cleage’s Black Messiah may have provoked surprise or even outrage among white Americans when published in the 1970s, but the idea was far from new. The belief that Jesus was black has a long history in the African American community and still resonates with many black Christians today. According to recent polling, in fact, about one-third of African Americans who attend church at least once a year think of Christ as black.

A recent study by Laura A. Reese, Ronald E. Brown, and James David Ivers (Journal of Political Behavior, December 2007) explored the effects of these beliefs on political participation. Analyzing data from the 1993–94 National Black Politics Study, the authors found the belief in a black Christ is a “radicalizing” political force.

African Americans who believe Christ to be black are more likely to engage in radical forms of political participation, such as protests, marches, attending political meetings, and signing petitions. For some, the perception that Jesus was black is also associated with the desire for economic autonomy.

More research will help us fully understand the role of black-Christ beliefs in the African American community, especially in terms of how they interact with the political nature of many contemporary black churches. Still, the authors stress that the political effects of seeing Christ as black is not a function of radical political beliefs but rather the result of envisioning God as part of “one’s spiritual and natural self.” K.C.