Iowa, Santorum, and Other People’s Money

Polling is done and the victory speeches are over. The Iowa caucus, the first of the 2012 primaries, has started the season off with a loud bang on the Republican side of the US two-party political system. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, both, can claim a major victory going into the next primary as there were only 14 votes that separated them from taking the GOP brass ring as the presidential nominee of this year’s fall elections. For some folks, everything is starting to smell a bit rosier for the future. But for African Americans paying close attention to the proceedings, there seems to be the hint of a foul smell in the air that may need eliminating.

Rick Santorum, a latest Johnny-come-lately challenger to the Republican presidential nomination, caused a bit of a stir when he made a statement during a pre-caucus interview that started the foul smell lingering so slightly of the primary proceedings. Mr. Santorum stated, in his own words, that he doesn’t “want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” He went on further to say that he wants to “give them (Black people) the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.” Ouch! Did he really mean to say all of that? By all accounts, he did and the GOPers, who are mostly white, love him for his “honesty”. But for black Americans, his comments raised negative and racially-related concerns and questions. Our immediate thought; what is this guy really saying and how is this going to hurt us?

A possible way to view Mr. Santorum’s comments is through the lens of a capitalistic society.  One basic capitalistic principle is that there are those who produce and those who consume what is produced. Those that produce are generating value to the society in which they are active. Those that consume are not. And right now, based upon rapidly deteriorating economic data about the US’ black population, the implications are that there doesn’t seem to be too many places where black folks are not consumers of the wealth created by the producers of our nation who incidentally happen to be primarily white. BAM! So we don’t need to go any further to understand the point Mr. Santorum was making and should be more concerned that there is more here than a funny racist fragrance in the air.

So, black America, are the unspoken implications behind Mr. Santorum’s comments speaking some truth? Has our larger community just become consumers and thereby is producing little value to the American economic engine? Have we unwittingly accepted a economically-dependent role in our modern-day society that would make our forefathers, who were able to generate businesses and create wealth under the system of slavery and Jim Crow, fight to get out of their graves? Have we become takers of other people’s money? Is the foul scent not from Mr. Santorum, but of our own making?

Sniff, sniff, sniff. Where’s the deodorizer?