Just in time for Martin Luther King day, Newsweek magazine reveals that Donald Trump thought that all welfare recipients were black. When told, in a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus last March, that not all people on welfare are black, Trump responded, “Really? Then what are they?” – apparently unable to picture a white person on welfare. In fact, most welfare recipients are white. White people without a college degree ages 18 to 64 are the largest class of adults on welfare. The assumption, spoken or unspoken, that welfare recipients are black is a common misconception. We can point to the media and their repetition of stories and pictures of black single mothers on welfare, but that doesn’t explain why the media makes the assumption and why it comes across as plausible to most Americans. In fact this image of welfare recipients as black flows from the racist ideology that permeates US society: the idea that black people are a distinct kind of people –