Many people know that Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), was behind many of the programs that have benefitted poor persons of all colors. That support included food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (LINK program in Illinois). BTW, SNAP is a huge social service program in 2022, feeding millions of Americans indeed (What is the SNAP schedule for 2022 for each state? (msn.com)).
MLK did not support a program only for Blacks, despite the comments of some racists who have said since the beginning of the funding that only Blacks could—or would—receive food stamps, or that only Blacks make much use of the program, or worse yet, that it is mainly Blacks who are the ones abusing the program.
The facts simply do not support any of these racist notions.
Racists at the beginning of this essential and now huge social service program did not want poor people to receive free food… even going as far to say that the program would be a disincentive for the “nigras” to ever want to go to work (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/racism-dr-king-and-food-s_b_1208690). In fact, many of them stated it would be the Blacks who would ruin the program, with some even saying that it was too bad that such a good program that could maybe help so many people would, unfortunately, be destroyed by “the Blacks.”
I will not go on here citing all the negative statements some racists would try to spin as facts because as we have all found out recently talking about facts that are not real just takes away time from facts that are real—and those which we need to champion and embrace. Giving fools more time that they deserve just burns up time that could be spent doing something more purposeful. Others who understand what “real facts” are might agree with me on this point, I believe. One example is Dr. Clifford Lazarus, explaining his opinions on all this in Psychology Today (Facts, Truths, Beliefs, Opinions, and "Alternative Facts" | Psychology Today).
Suffice it to say that these hateful things are just some of the false information pushed by famous (but confused) persons, some of whom seem to have been decent persons—except for the fact they were overt and committed racists. I am intentionally using the word “fact” here, note.
These are just a few of the things these racist and/or cheap persons said to attempt to convince our nation that food stamps were evil—and they tried to convince people that it was at least partly the fault of “the Blacks” the program was so evil.
Sadly, over time many Americans would come to embrace the lie that most of the poor people using food stamps have been Blacks.
To summarize most of the racists’ arguments, we could report some people insist the following claims are real: Most of the people using and abusing food stamp funds are Blacks who do not work, who are poor, and who live in big ghettos in cities like Chicago and out east in New York City.
Further, making “the Blacks” show they are trying to work and get out of poverty means they are deserving of food (see Reagan) during their struggle. What’s more, funding the food stamp program empowers those who are destroying the cities which are taking tons of money away from the rest of the country where most the people are not Black and the poor people living out on the farms and in the little hamlets out there are more “deserving” of help because at least they try to work.
One major problem I see with the above—and similar—opinions is that they are not based on fact. There’s that damn word again!
The majority of the poor people – or people facing a variety of income, health, and safety issues – and using food stamps have been White. In a recent article, figures show that “40.2 percent of SNAP recipients are white, 25.7 percent are black, 10.3 percent are Hispanic, 2.1 percent are Asian and 1.2 percent are Native American” (Food stamps: The data behind the government's SNAP food assistance program (usafacts.org)).
Although the exact percentages may change slightly each year, they are doubtless very similar in range and in actual number, and the attempt at blaming Blacks for using a lot of food stamp dollars would be foolish (Who Gets Food Stamps? White People, Mostly | HuffPost Latest News).
The majority of the poor people – or again, at least the persons using SNAP dollars—seem to be living in California and the highest percentage of a state’s population seem be those in New Mexico (Food stamps: The data behind the government's SNAP food assistance program (usafacts.org)). Now I am not a cartographer, but this indicates to me that the majority of hungry people are not people living in the big-city ghettos in states from the Mississippi east—like Chicago in Illinois and NYC in New York—but people out west.
I assume there are Blacks in California and at least a few in New Mexico, but I do not think there are many. This dispels the myth that Blacks living in the big-city ghettos from Chicago east are the ones eating up all the food stamp dollars.
The majority of the poor people (using SNAP, etc.) who can work, do.
However, the Trump administration figured it could reduce SNAP funds and get their hands on money they could do something else with. So they proposed this rule about reporting income levels. However, they had not done their homework. Writing about this proposal back in 2019, Parker Gilkesson explained, “Research shows that mandatory work requirements do not increase employment outcomes, but receipt of SNAP does. Therefore, taking away food assistance from Americans struggling to get employment is not based in strengthening work, but really is rooted in racial discrimination to justify program cuts” (Finalized SNAP Rule is Rooted in Racial Discrimination | CLASP).
Gilkesson saw this clever idea for what it was: a quick way to grab some money for use elsewhere—and to punish African Americans for not working. “Proposals to cut SNAP benefits based on unemployment or underemployment do not consider the realities of today’s labor market, nor do they consider the real economic implications of systemic racism for people of color in this country,” Gilkesson wrote (Finalized SNAP Rule is Rooted in Racial Discrimination | CLASP).
What started out as a way for people to survive while trying to make it, trying to find a job and keep their family fed, has turned out to be grist for the myth mill. Food stamps have become just one more topic for some uninformed persons to claim they know everything about.
There would be many Americans who would starve without food from SNAP. It is important to look at the numbers and consider the impact: “The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which manages the program, has more than 9.3 million households and over 21 million people who received SNAP benefits in August 2021” (What is the SNAP schedule for 2022 for each state? (msn.com)).
Dealing with strong opinions on the world of SNAP—not based on fact—is sometimes not easy.
At the very least, it is disappointing that such an essential program and its supporters are so often vilified. It’s like trying to find a polite way to respond to some fool who says something crazy like, “There might be feces in those vaccine syringes—who knows what they are really putting in them?” Or maybe trying to find the right answer for the guy who asks, “Am I right? Or am I right?”