We've been reaching peak awkwardness between prominent Republicans and the African-American political community quite a lot the last few years, between Mitt Romney at the NAACP, Rand Paul lecturing at Howard University students and now this. National Journal: "Republican Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, whose remarks about inner-city poverty were described by another member of Congress as a 'thinly veiled racial attack,' has accepted the invitation of the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss poverty. CBC Chairwoman Marcia Fudge and Rep. Gwen Moore sent a letter to Ryan, saying they were 'deeply troubled' and offended by his remarks on Bill Bennett's influential Morning in Americaradio show Wednesday about a 'tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working, and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.' Ryan has since said that he was 'inarticulate' in making those comments. 'I was not implicating the culture of one community—but of society as a whole. We have allowed our society to isolate or quarantine the poor rather than integrate people in our communities.' Fudge and Moore pushed back against the idea that isolation is the main culprit behind poverty, saying that the problem is instead a lack of resources." [NJ]

 

 

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