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Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan has been on the defensive after not just offending, but “highly” offending some members of the Congressional Black Caucus with recent remarks he made regarding poverty in the inner city.

 

According to Reuters, the storm first began brewing Wednesday when Ryan was a guest on William Bennett’s talk radio program, Morning in America.

 

“(There’s 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 of work,” said Ryan.

 

Last week, Ryan also released a report on the federal government’s 50-year-old “War on Poverty” which perhaps added more fuel to the fire. In the report Ryan expressed the idea that federal programs, while designed to help the poor, were actually “haphazard” and lead to a “poverty trap” where people became stuck and relied on welfare benefits.

 

While it’s reasonable to assume that Congressman Ryan’s comments stem from good intentions, as the old adage goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

 

Among the first to let their displeasure with Paul Ryan’s comments be known was Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Democrat from the East Bay District of California. A member of Ryan’s House Budget Committee, Congresswoman Lee didn’t hold back, saying in a statement that Ryan’s words were a “racial attack.”

 

“My colleague Congressman Ryan’s comments about ‘inner city’ poverty are a thinly veiled racial attack and cannot be tolerated,” said Lee. “Let’s be clear, when Mr. Ryan says ‘inner city,’ when he says, ‘culture,’ these are simply code words for what he really means: ‘black’.”

 

Mr. Ryan has yet to comment on the existence or validity of these alleged “code words.”

 

“Instead of demonizing ‘culture,’ and blaming black men for their poverty,” Congresswoman Lee continued, “Mr. Ryan should step up and produce some legitimate proposals on how to tackle poverty and racial discrimination in America. His uninformed policy proposals continue to increase poverty, not solve it. My colleague is demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues in urban and black communities.”

 

Others to call out Ryan for his views were chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Marcia Fudge, and her colleague, Representative Gwen Moore, also from Wisconsin. In a letter to Ryan, they labeled his radio commentary “highly offensive” and asked him to meet with the caucus regarding the eradication of poverty.

 

“A serious policy conversation on poverty should not begin with assumptions or stereotypes,” they said.

 

Ryan said that his comments may have been “inarticulate,” but his intent wasn’t to focus on race.

 

“I was not implicating the culture of one community—but of society as a whole,” said Ryan. “We have allowed our society to isolate or quarantine the poor rather than integrate people into our communities. The predictable result has been multi-generational poverty and little opportunity. I also believe the government’s response has inadvertently created a poverty trap that builds barriers to work. A stable, good-paying job is the best bridge out of poverty.”

 

“The broader point I was trying to make is that we cannot settle for this status quo and that government and families have to do more and rethink our approach to fighting poverty,” Ryan continued. “I have witnessed amazing people fighting against great odds with impressive success in poor communities. We can learn so much from them, and that is where this conversation should begin.”

 

Whether or not Congressman Ryan’s explanations soothe those who have deemed themselves highly offended remains to be seen.