The meta “welfare queen” and her kings

5 P’s of Storytelling for Incitement

I read this incredible story of the original “welfare queen” who turns out to be a “white” woman from the south, who claimed black and claimed husbands, lives, professions and identities for at least 50 years. I spent over an hour digging through the story of “Linda Taylor” at 2:00 am and she remains stuck in my head.

Linda’s story is so incredulous; the uncanny shapeshifting and longtail devastation ripe for an HBO treatment. What’s even more interesting, is the story surrounding the story. While Reagan was busy building his populist base in the late 70s around a potentially nonexistent person (the opposition believed the unnamed “welfare queen” a racist fiction), the real “Linda” had wreaked havoc over many lives beyond the welfare fraud she became known for. Equally provoking, is the author’s framing of the story and apparent hero — a maverick policeman bent on justice in a political system stacked against him. Even in it’s telling — one can see the author’s disgust for partisan (particularly republican) mythmaking at the detriment of the “truth”. Yet, he opts for another familiar myth, quite like our popular understanding of Reagan — the singular man bent on saving the day (the author picking up the job in the present where his policeman protagonist left off). And the stories unfolding in real-time (in the comments) remind us of the persistent power of cultural tropes even in the face of an opportunity to create new meaning.

Totally fascinated by all of the layers in The Welfare Queen and the intersection of the past, present, personal, political and the persuasive. Inspired to further develop and flesh out a 5 P’s of Storytelling for Incitement.

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