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‘Give it a rest’: CNN slammed for report accusing the lottery of ‘systemic racism’

November 11, 2022 | | Print Article

The lottery is racist, according to the media, because minorities apparently lack the financial discipline to play it responsibly.

“[D]espite the extremely low chances of anyone winning, state lotteries continue to market and sell tickets to low-income communities at higher rates leading those Americans to believe it’s a quick way to build wealth, researchers say,” CNN complained in a report published Wednesday.

“These communities are disproportionately made up of Black and brown people. Critics say the consequence is that marginalized people will be driven into deeper debt by a system that is transferring wealth out of their communities,” the left-wing network continued, eagerly adding a racial element to the story.

But critics say it doesn’t matter if mainly black and brown people purchase lottery tickets, because ultimately, they’re doing it voluntarily.

One of CNN’s researchers/”experts,” Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling, nevertheless called it a form of “systemic racism” and “consumer financial fraud.”

“They’re hoping to pay their rent at the end of the month or pay an outstanding medical bill or put their kids through college or they just lost their job and they’re just trying to find a way to make ends meet. And here you have what is a government program encouraging citizens to lose their money on rigged games,” he said to CNN.

Except lottery games aren’t rigged. The chances of winning are extremely low, but the grown adults who play it should already know this.

“Poor people are collateral damage to a cause of raising money for what the legislators feel is good purposes … public safety, local schools. State governments become dependent on the revenue and any moral considerations get pushed out of view and out of mind,” another “expert,” former Massachusetts inspector general Gregory W. Sullivan, reportedly added.

But again, the lottery is voluntary. Paying taxes, on the other hand, is not voluntary,  yet there seem to be no complaints from the media about working class Americans being taxed to death to pay for “public safety, local schools,” etc.

Plus, say critics, personal responsibility matters, even when talking about minorities:

In fact, say critics, the way the media constantly try to act like a white knight for minorities suggests they think they’re too dumb to handle themselves in the real world.

It’d explain why they seem to think minorities are incapable of getting a photo ID to vote. It’d likewise explain why they appear to believe minorities lack the financial discipline and common sense to play the lottery responsibly.

NPR also recently ran a report about the allegedly racist lottery.

“[T]he drive to get rich off a winning ticket has a dark side, critics say, arguing that state-run lotteries often negatively impact low-income and minority groups,” the equally left-wing network complained on Sunday.

Which critics? Critics like Bernal again.

“State lotteries are the most neglected example of systemic racism in the United States than any other issue or problem, I should say, in our country,” he said to NPR.

There, too, is that “systemic racism” again.

“Bernal says that, through marketing and advertising, state-run lotteries have no regulation to their ‘predatory practices’ that affect low-income communities — which are made up of primarily Black and brown people,” according to NPR.

But the word “predatory” suggests there’s something illegitimate about the lottery. There’s not, however. It’s a legitimate game that fortunate people do sometimes win:

Continuing his remarks to NPR, Bernal complained about how the money raised from the lottery is used to benefit wealthier communities.

“You have low-income people, essentially paying for college scholarships for middle-class and upper-class families to go to college. It’s the American dream, completely in reverse,” he said.

This does seem to be a fair criticism. Though on the other hand, the same thing is happening via President Joe Biden’s loan forgiveness program.

Announced earlier this year, the program erased the debts of countless mainly upper-class students, all at the expense of working-class taxpayers. Yet for some reason, neither CNN nor NPR has complained about this …

Vivek Saxena
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