And when food stamps were first created they were made for middle-income, white families who were hit with tough times. It wasn’t until these benefits started helping people of color that it became such a problem and we started to become a “welfare” state. 

readnfight:

The WORST comments; I don’t know why I subject myself to things like that. The whole article is kinda, ehh. Yes, many people are on food stamps in the US, and the number has risen along with unemployment. Food stamps are nothing new, though. The only two families shown in photos are people of color; those are two of the three people quoted in the article, even though people of color are far from 2/3 of food stamps recipients. Standard.

“Food Stamp Nation” is a pretty misleading title to give the country, anyway—it implies a whole lot more unification than we’ve got going on. It implies that shortages of food and lack of nutritious food are problems that everyone is dealing with, which is false. Unemployment has been high in communities of color and rural communities; it’s a mainstream issue now that it’s creeping into the white middle class.

And, no, of course being dependent on the whims of a government in which you have very little say in order to feed your kids is not sustainable. No one thinks it is except the media-shits who fear monger about welfare queens. (I dare anyone who uses the phrases “welfare queen” or “anchor baby” seriously to make friends with a woman of color who isn’t cleaning up after them.)

There are only two categories of people I have ever heard talk so flippantly about food stamps and other people’s need to feed their family: republicans/right-wing/mainstream media, and white anarchists who didn’t grow up on food stamps. (Damn.) I can’t imagine that someone trying to feed a dependent on food stamps will say that it is sustainable on this kind of scale. According to the article, about 15% of people in the US are on food stamps—of course that isn’t sustainable! Hunger and unemployment are not sustainable! Can we talk about why so many people can’t get food, and can we talk about what options for food people do have? Can we talk about what areas have lots of people on food stamps but no fresh produce available? Can we get nutrition education programs going on in schools, and affordable groceries, and then talk about are we doing something sustainable yet?

(via rematiration)