Look at the above meme. What do you think about the statement? Does it resonate, or do you feel the need to explain it, debate it, or dismiss it? When I see these memes, especially about Social Security, I ask myself, “Why is America so divided on Social Security? In fact, why is America even debating the semantics of entitlement vs. entitled to?
I wrote an essay back in 2020 called, “Social Security Solvency, the Gaslight Argument and My Special Kind of Stupid” where I discussed the so-called impending insolvency question and expounded upon Reagan’s attempt to sabotage the fund. Now, I am compelled to write about the ongoing struggle that at least one-half of the country has with whether or not Americans are entitled to Social Security and the irony of debates that surround and manage to skirt the issues of one’s entitlement to the benefit.
Any person who has read my previous essays knows that I will find the traditionally Racist history of structures and institutions in this country by people who often identify today as MAGA, Alt-Right, Conservative, and Republican. All of these people who identify as such reside on the Racist spectrum and believe wholeheartedly in the sovereignty of white supremacism, and who deem certain institutions and structures necessary to eliminate from society, especially if benefits begin to shift toward a proportionate dispersion of the benefit to Black people.
Every so often, memes with statements such as the meme referenced above are misinterpreted by the usually cognitively dissonant among some white people, who will pick apart the semantics of the term entitlement to debate whether or not the money actually “belongs” to us. Some will argue that there are no “separate accounts” in the names of the beneficiaries that current beneficiaries are being paid through the taxes of current workers and that Social Security is not an annuity but simply a tax. At the same time, these individuals will say, ” Of course if qualified, you are entitled to it.”
The term entitlement by definition means, “the right to a particular privilege or benefit, granted by law or custom.”[1] However, notwithstanding the semantics involved with the term, at its core, we are indeed "entitled" to receive the money we put into the same fund for the express purpose of getting it back as a way to guarantee income after retirement. We pay into the fund through a payroll tax that both employees and employers contribute to. As of 2024, both employers and employees pay 6.2% of their wages up to a taxable maximum of $168,600.[2]
Pay special attention to the words, “contribute and contribution,” as these terms are very careful not to refer to taxation, even as the benefit is funded through payroll taxes. According to Vocabulary.com, the term, “contribute” means “to provide a part of the whole.”[3]
Ideally, the Social Security Act, enacted on August 14, 1935, was intended to provide:
…a new federally administered system of social insurance for the aged financed through payroll taxes paid by employees and their employers. Under the system, which applied only to workers in commerce and industry, people would earn retirement benefit eligibility as they worked.[4]
As Americans, we provide a part of the whole to the Social Security fund to benefit Americans upon retirement or disability. How it is derived is actually beside the point. Nevertheless, arguments and debates will undoubtedly arise from people who believe that “entitlement” is somehow not deserved by some. This idea of an undeserved populace is what helped change the entire landscape of the Social Security benefit since its inception eighty-nine years ago.
Historically, Social Security was not initially available to most Black people. Although heralded by a 1947 Advisory Council of the Senate Committee of Finance as an "Opportunity for the individual to secure protection for himself and his family against the economic hazards of old age and death…” and “…essential to the sustained welfare, freedom, and dignity of the American citizen,”[4] this same Social Security Act of 1935 excluded agricultural and domestic workers, which disproportionately affected Black workers. Although scholars discuss ad nauseum that this exclusion was due to racial biases at the time, this statement, as ironic as it sounds, simply adds to the ridiculous nature of debates scholarly or otherwise, and speaks directly to the continued reluctance to admit structural and institutional Racism in the U.S. even as the nation was deep into the muck and mire of Jim Crow at that time. In the 1950s, the exemption was repealed, and Social Security became an important source of income for Black families after retirement. Ever since, much like the Civil Rights Act provisions of Affirmative Action and the Voting Rights Act, there has been an ongoing and deliberate drive to get rid of Social Security. Now ask yourself why?
A huge white elephant is sauntering around the room, relative to Social Security benefit entitlement and whether the money received upon retirement is ours. It appears only the cognitively dissonant miss it entirely, opting to discuss the semantics of the term or the fund. The above meme and others are not written by people concerned about where the money comes from. The words contained therein represent people who do not want Social Security taken away and who understand all too well the fragility of disenfranchisement and democracy and the precarious nature of Black lives in the minds of those who can so easily eliminate rights and benefits gained over time. What these cognitively dissonant white people do not realize is some entities do not care if white people lose Social Security as long as Black people do not receive it.
It is already well known that at least half the country votes away their best interests in all areas where the benefits are extended to Black people as well. In an article written by Thom Hartmann in October 2023, he discussed how Dr. Eugene R. Corson “led a movement suggesting that people of African ancestry, now lacking the protective womb of slavery, would die out for the simple reason that the Black race was inferior to whites.”[5] Hartmann concluded:
The simple fact is that, were it not for slavery, white supremacy, and the legacy of “scientific racism,” America would have had a national, single-payer healthcare system in 1915, just 31 years after Germany put into place the modern world’s first such program.[5]
As long as the Affordable Health Care Act was called “Obamacare,” most white people did not want to participate in it and there continues to be a concerted effort to eliminate it outright as long as they think of Obama as the architect. Anyone who would argue that Race is not the major factor would need to gain knowledge of the history of healthcare in America.
There has never been a shortage of white people who would vote or do things against their own best interests if there is a perceived benefit to Black people. For example, recall when owners of pools drained them so nobody could use them because Black people dared to try.[6] Then there were the various school systems that shut down entirely because, well Black children...[7]
Consequently, memes like the one above and others are attempting to draw attention to the fact that Social Security may disappear thanks to white people who would vote for a dictator and criminal for president, and sit idly by as Racists "drain the entire pool" or "close the entire school system" to keep Black people from benefiting, even if it meant they would suffer as well.
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[6] Pools Close Down
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