So exactly what color is a “welfare queen?” Stereotypes, stigmas and racial profiling don’t apply to the More Than 30 Arrested in NY Food Stamp Fraud. While some ask “does it matter if you’re black or white?” others point out how, well…nobody’s really talking about this. If the arrests were people of color would this be a different story? Is the way we look at food stamp benefits all wrong to begin with?
This is actually not the first time the owner of the Old Time Butcher Block Store in Brushton, New York has been convicted on fraud charges, and this is definitely not the first time a group of non-colored offenders have been charged for the same. The More Than 30 Arrested in NY Food Stamp Fraud reflect not only the reality that 40% whites compared to 26% blacks and 10% Hispanics use food stamps according to the USDA, but that while politicians paint communities of color as ‘lazy,’ leeching and conniving for using them, 46.5 million people depend on them. Actually, the country’s ‘food stamp capital’ is Owsley, Kentucky–“a 99% white and 95% Republican community” to bring that reality home.
“In his presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan promoted the idea of the “welfare queen” — the stereotypical inner city black woman who has numerous children out of wedlock, and buys drugs and Cadillacs with welfare money.”
More Than 30 Arrested in NY Food Stamp Fraud were arrested after a reported two-month probe of various cases and a year-long investigation into the Brushton store, in which 45 year old owner Dennis Suave had been previously arrested for fraud. The 34 adults cited in the probe were caught trying to use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to illegally obtain alcohol, cash and other illegal trades. The arrestees were released on returnable court tickets and range from the youngest of 21 years of age to the oldest at 72 (damn).
“Despite the past Republican successes in labeling food stamps as a black program, whites make up the largest share of food stamp recipients…Moreover, the shaming and criminalization of Americans on food stamps obscures the fact that there is a hunger crisis in America, the land of plenty, and millions really need food stamps to survive.”
The More Than 30 Arrested in NY Food Stamp Fraud have been charged with “petite larceny, misuse of food stamps and second degree criminal use of a public benefit card.” Do you think the stereotype will be broken or will people and politicians keep baiting racist ideas no matter the #facts?
Oh FFS. Are they all white…. yeah well…no shit. That “Village” has under 500 people, 98.33% of whom are white. For a further break down: “This works out to be 471 Whites, two African Americans, one Native American, two Asians, and six Hispanics or Latinos.” So..yeah…of course they were white. Smfh.
Now post something like this about a larger CITY in New York, and perhaps the results will be more evenly distributed. You can’t go into an all black place, an all white place etc etc and use that race as the national problem when the results are so heavily biased. Just doesn’t work that way. Not an accurate statement. People are jumping on the bandwagon with this without actually doing any research into the subject matter. This is why this country is struggling…people are more ready to accept what someone else says as truth and a fact versus actually figuring life out for themselves.
Thanks 4 your observation & stats @Lilian–(though it seems like you want an all-black article to even this out which is a little funny?), however people have* “gone into all black places” and “used that race to create national problems,” history proves that. BUT that’s still* NOT what this article is about. This is a question about how WE view benefits/fraud and how politicians* have criminalized communities of color when the reality is EVERY race is on food stamps–most because they need them not because they’re lazy. Still though, there’s no consistency across races when with major arrests and convictions no one criminalizes white communities who actually fraud the system–repeatedly. Imagine the reaction (or none) if black politicians started calling white welfare families criminals and leeches? You make a good point about truth mos def…but how are the stated USDA facts not truth??? Appreciate your sober reaction though!
STRAIGHT up