Mitt Romney’s supporters might have wanted to distance themselves from the controversial “47 percent” remark at a taped fundraiser last May but some in the community and ethnic media embraced it, declaring that their constituencies are part of the 47 percent.

Much like the “we are the 99 percent” cry of the Occupy Wall St. movement, the Republican candidate’s off-the-cuff comment was quickly dissected and adopted.

“Women Probably Dominate Romney’s ’47 Percent,’” was the headline of an article by Samantha Kimmey in Women’s eNews, which explained:

Women were 54 percent of those who filed with the IRS but paid no income tax in 2004, the most recent year available in an analysis by the Tax Foundation, a policy research organization. Women headed two-thirds of households that made so little that they did not even file taxes in the same year.

Last week, the National Women’s Law Center announced that the poverty rate for women in 2011 was noticeably higher for women — 14.6 percent, compared to men’s 10.9 percent.

The No. 1 reason Americans don’t pay federal income taxes?

Low income.

Jovita González Agosto (Photo by Humberto Arellano via El Diario)

Similarly, El Diario La Prensa’s reported that “Hispanics are the face of the 47 percent in New York,” in a story by Juan Matossian and Cristina Loboguerrero featuring Jovita Gonzalez Agosto, a wheelchair-bound retired New Yorker who they wrote is among the 47 percent that Romney said “are dependent upon government,” and “believe that they are victims.”

Jovita or “Julia,” as she is known in East  Harlem where she has lived for most of her 76 years of life, has worked tirelessly for more than half a century, with a steadiness and dedication that only a serious injury to her spinal marrow and five heart surgeries were able to stop.

“If the body would have allowed me, I would not have asked anyone for a pension,” dijo Gonzalez.

 

Related posts: