Congressman-elect Allen West says the Congressional Black Caucus has failed African-Americans by promoting dependence on government welfare programs. Still, the Florida Republican says he plans to join the organization, “The Congressional Black Caucus cannot continue to be a monolithic voice that promotes these liberal social welfare policies and programs that are failing in the Black community, that are preaching victimization and dependency, that’s not the way that we should go,” West said on Fox News Friday. “And those are not the types of principles that my mother and father raised me with in the inner city of Atlanta, Georgia.”

West is one of two black Republicans elected to Congress during the mid-term; Tim Scott of South Carolina says he won’t join the CBC after it said it would welcome both men. West said despite his criticisms, his deceased parents would be “absolutely appalled” if he chose not to join the caucus.

“I think it’s important that we have varying perspectives and insights that can challenge in the Congressional Black Caucus, and I think it will make things better for the Black community as we go forth in the 21st century,” he said.