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A review by nerdyrev
The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth by Josh Levin
4.0
In the 70s Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan began telling a story about a welfare queen out of Chicago who drove Cadillacs and scammed the system. The story he told was true, her name was Linda Taylor who could look white, African American, or Hispanic with a change of a wig.
The issue was Reagan kept enhancing this story and began painting a whole race (using dog whistles) as welfare recipients who were lazy and scamming the system.
This great book shares two stories- Linda Taylor we had several aliases and did indeed scam a system even to the point of murder.
The other story is Reagan’s story as he moved from governor to President by criticizing the welfare system while using and popularizing the idea of the welfare queen to encourage systemic racism.
I really loved this as Linda’s story is fascinating, but it was the first real negative picture of the Reagan Presidency in a long time. Some how he has become a sainted President, but he had some whammies.
The issue was Reagan kept enhancing this story and began painting a whole race (using dog whistles) as welfare recipients who were lazy and scamming the system.
This great book shares two stories- Linda Taylor we had several aliases and did indeed scam a system even to the point of murder.
The other story is Reagan’s story as he moved from governor to President by criticizing the welfare system while using and popularizing the idea of the welfare queen to encourage systemic racism.
I really loved this as Linda’s story is fascinating, but it was the first real negative picture of the Reagan Presidency in a long time. Some how he has become a sainted President, but he had some whammies.