Chapter 4 explores the fate of the idea of a culture of poverty, tracing how it went from an idea articulated mostly by liberals for ostensibly liberal reasons to being a popular idea on the neoconservative right. It particularly explores how Daniel Patrick Moynihan contributed to this conservative version of the culture of poverty by his refusal to recognize the problems with the Moynihan Report and his engagement with neoconservative outlets and authors. Critiques of the culture of poverty articulated by leftists and civil rights activists are also explored, contrasting their emphases to that of Moynihan and other liberals and neoconservatives. The work of Edward Banfield is presented as the culmination of an idea which, while it originally tried to justify helping the black poor, ultimately ended up assisting a reactionary turn against them. The chapter argues, however, that this potential was built into the culture of poverty idea as articulated by liberalism, embedded as it was in racial capitalism. As it concludes, racial liberalism is liberal racism.
The Moynihan Report as an Event: From the Civil Rights Movement to the Writing of History