We spoke on Wednesday about racism and White Privilege.

We mentioned that too many of the privileged White folks believe that poverty only exists because folks are lazy or that they don’t deserve any help

But, guess what?  Like in Kentucky, where most of the folks that are on expanded Medicaid, most of the folks who are struggling in America are White.

But, even if that were not true, that’s no excuse to arrange our “safety net” to leave manifold people slammed down on the pavement without a drop of aid.

For example, 25% of those who are poor don’t get Food Stamps. (SNAP is the official new title.)  Or housing subsidies, welfare or child care assistance either.  (Erica Greenberg, Nancy Pindus, & Laudan Aron, Urban Institute, 2019).  That’s some 13 million folks who live below the poverty line.  And, for those at the very bottom of the strata- about 1/3 are denied benefits from the federal ‘safety net’.

Interestingly, most Blacks do get such aid (about 85%), which makes them more likely than poor Whites to get help (70%), while Hispanics and Asians lagged behind.  Imagine if you had a little bit of money in the bank (say $ 250,  $ 500, or even $ 750) and you were told that you don’t get any benefits when you lose your job, get hit with medical bills, etc.

And, I know many of you won’t care, but about 20% of all undocumented immigrants live below the poverty line.  (That means 80% do- which is the same percentage for many other American denizens (since undocumented immigrants are not citizens).

But, even when discussing America’s poor, we are confronted with racist beliefs. Consider that 57% of White folks believe that only irresponsible folks don’t get the help they need or that only 38% feel that needy folks don’t get benefits.  Blacks discern that 51% of those in need don’t get benefits.  (2017 Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation national poll.)

But, here are the real facts.  43% of those receiving Federal assistance are white, 25% are Hispanic, 23% are Black, and 8% are Asian.   They comprise the 59 million of us that are obtaining benefits- roughly 18% of the US population.  And, those receiving benefits are not uniformly spread across the US.  (2/3 of the DC population obtains at least one Federal benefit; slightly more than 1/3 of those residing in Utah do so.)

The numbers receiving benefits can be higher, since the Urban Institute study did not include all the Federal programs.  Only 6 were included- senior and disability cash assistance, welfare, subsidized housing, child-care assistances, SNAP (Food Stamps), and Supplemental Nutrition for pregnant mothers and mothers with young children.  CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) and Medicaid were not included because the Affordable Care Act changes were not fully operational during the study.

But, the census for Medicaid recipients has already shown that significant numbers of White folks are obtaining those benefits.  Which means the lament of the Wrong Wing that the benefits are for lazy Black folks simply doesn’t hold up.

Another example of ‘hidden’ racism.

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