Blog post written by Liberation is Lit's intern, Kendra Nunnery! As first posted on the Substack The Modest Solid Blog
After 40 days into the government shutdown, I feel a weight in my heart.
Perhaps it’s due to the social media influence—constant back and forth over whose fault the shutdown is—or the recent Daylight Savings that makes the world darker at 5pm, or the fact that my finals are very quickly clouding the days in my calendar. Either way, the toll of the dark winter months is creeping in. Despite having a winter birthday, I don’t like winter at all.
The heaviness I feel, though, is likely due to the fact that SNAP benefits have been in legal limbo since the shutdown. As a social work student, the constant push-and-pull of the social safety net is a common topic of conversation. Some of my assignments even rely on the recent events to facilitate policy discussion. As awful as it is, I can’t run away from reality even if I wanted to, not when it’s baked into the very curriculum I study.
What really boggles my mind, however, is the discussion on social media regarding the state of SNAP. I’ve seen too many comments, the same ones regurgitated during the Reagan administration, about ‘no free handouts’ or ‘getting a job’ with regard to SNAP benefits not being distributed. The very idea that privileged people on the internet can laugh in the face of starving people with no empathy makes my blood boil. I interned at a high-needs school just a year ago. I experienced children coming to me for food. I watched children desperately shovel food into their mouths at lunchtime, out of pure survival, because they didn’t know when their next meal would come from. I hugged children who cried on Fridays because they had no food at home during the weekend, wiping their tears as I hurriedly shoved as many snacks and canned goods into their backpacks as could fit. Not just for them, but for their parents too.
On more than one occasion, I cried myself to sleep knowing one of my kids was going hungry.
I don’t think these people on the internet can comprehend with their little, privileged minds just what food insecurity does to people. It makes children and adults alike not only desperate for a basic biological need, but it also has adverse impacts on their psychology.
Unfortunately, I don’t think people who believe food isn’t a human right are reading the research on the impacts of food insecurity. They’re likely stewing in their own hatred, trying to justify why people shouldn’t access food.
However, I wanted to delve deeper; why do these people think the way they do? What would make them stop complaining about spending, god forbid, $36 of their money a year for SNAP benefits? I want to see why these people hate SNAP recipients so much, just to break down their views.
Step 1: Be White
The Welfare Queen.
It’s a derogatory term that emerged during the Reagan administration, one that particularly targets Black, single mothers. It’s the belief that those that use SNAP are misusing it purposefully, such as by committing welfare fraud or selling their SNAP benefits. Only, the Welfare Queen is a completely false stereotype, meant to harm Black and Brown families.
According to the USDA, the breakdown of who receives SNAP benefits is much more varied than conservative internet trolls would have you believe. The percentages are as follows:
Despite what brain-dead comments would have you believe, White people make up most of SNAP participants. However, in their eyes, it’s the SNAP recipients of color that are ‘freeloaders,’ not their White counterparts. I’ll go over why the ‘freeloading’ comments are flawed in a bit, but the point still stands: SNAP recipients can’t all be ‘welfare queens,’ not when a majority of them are white. Moreover, even according to Congress’ own website and various studies, welfare fraud is rare.
Additionally, the original woman who was based on the welfare queen stereotype wasn’t even Black. She was a white woman.
Linda Taylor, who the welfare queen stereotype was based upon, “was white according to official records and in the view of certain family members who couldn’t imagine it any other way. She was Black…when it suited her needs, or when someone saw a woman they didn’t think, or didn’t want to think, could possibly be Caucasian.”
Step 2: Be Grateful, But Also Miserable
@neurodivergent_nate She’s like my biggest fan at this point, honestly be so for real✨
♬ original sound - Neurodivergent Nate
[https://www.tiktok.com/@neurodivergent_nate/video/7568200292366372110]
During the onset of the government shutdown, a mother on TikTok reported using her SNAP benefits to buy her son cupcakes.
Conservative trolls were, predictably, upset with this development. “Why didn’t she buy real food? Cupcakes for a child aren’t a necessity.”
I would argue, however, that the normalcy in the chaos of food insecurity is required to recover from it. Establishing something happy in the struggle is what makes kids resilient.
But why are conservatives so obsessed with poor families ‘struggling’?
According to Dr. Shwana, a Kentucky educator, “There’s a specific performance people want of poverty, such as being humble, quiet, grateful, and visibly deprived. Any sign of joy or self-expression often gets read as proof that you don’t deserve or need help.”
Indeed, when many think of the stereotypical ‘poor’ family, many would describe a hungry, quiet household. Those that feel rage for poor people ‘treating themselves’ feel that way because they want their image of poor people to be quiet and grateful. The outrage for a mom buying her son cupcakes derives from a belief of moral failure, that any happiness is solid evidence of no struggle.
Step 3: Be Employed
‘Freeloader, no free handouts, no lazy people.’ These are common phrases used to justify hatred against SNAP recipients.
However, a large majority of SNAP recipients do work. About 70% of non-disabled adults work 35 hours or more. Furthermore, 39% of SNAP recipients are children, and 20% are elderly, both of whom cannot work.
The simple fact of the matter is, getting a job is simply not enough for many SNAP recipients. Not when the thinning social safety net they rely on to survive is built to keep them in poverty in the first place.
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Overall, I think people are wildly misinformed about the ins and outs of SNAP. Depressing as this exploration of mine was, I think it illuminated the very thing many need to understand with SNAP in the modern era: everyone deserves to eat, not just white, employed recipients.
If these steps are the ‘criteria’ to being a ‘perfect’ SNAP recipient, no SNAP recipient is perfect. I can pretty confidently say that SNAP recipients do not want to struggle or that every SNAP recipient is white and employed.
The strict idea of what alt-right, SNAP-hating conservatives deem as ‘rightful’ SNAP recipients doesn’t fit with the reality of being food insecure. They don’t take into account the reality of race, disability, or socioeconomic status in society. They seem to conveniently remember the importance of SNAP when it impacts their white communities, while also forgetting that children and the elderly—the ones with the most need—have to eat too. They complain of SNAP recipients buying junk food, yet remain willfully ignorant when food deserts are mentioned.
In times like these, when conservatives in the government are using hunger as a weapon, it’s communities that take center stage. Mutual aid, food drives, and helping neighbors are not only ways we can fight against the government but also feed the hungry.
So, perhaps, that’s my cue to put down my phone and stop engaging with these brain-dead people on TikTok. Perhaps it’s time to stop doomscrolling and instead help people.
I think I’ll make a donation box. Just to spite the trolls on TikTok.
