SNAP benefits expiring: “Welfare queen” food stamp stereotypes go viral.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, will be available on Saturday Expire for more than 40 million Americans. These millions of Americans are the collateral damage of what has happened so far second longest government shutdown in the history of the USA.
But while the looming deadline has highlighted the very real impact of gridlock in Washington, DC, it has also marked the latest flare-up in America's decades-long war over benefits. On social media, YouTubers gain attention by posting anger bait pose as people Reception Food aid living a life of luxury at government expense. These videos have garnered millions of views and tons of angry reactions.
Krissy Clark is a journalist who covers the social safety net The uncertain hour Podcast. Clark says these videos are part of a long history of Americans viewing SNAP recipients as lazy and demanding.
Clark spoke along Explained today Host Noel King talks about how the “welfare queen” stereotype has long been present in American politics and continues to shape policy today. Below is an excerpt from their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There's a lot more in the full podcast, so listen Explained today Wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, PandoraAnd Spotify.
We have no idea who these people are or whether or not they actually receive food stamps. I watched one of these videos and it is specifically a parody account that says it is someone who enjoys doing satire and skits. So I think one thing is: Are they actually authentic food stamp recipients themselves?
“Two thirds of the participants are children or adults over 60 or people with disabilities.”
And then the reactions you see in the comments, folks [are] These people are called entitled, parasites, looters, people living on food stamps, generational dependencies. The first thing that comes to mind is: This is simply not an accurate representation of most people who receive food assistance. It's a very old set of tropes and stereotypes, but when you actually look at the numbers, it's not an accurate picture of most food stamp recipients.
On the one hand, two thirds of the participants are children or adults over 60 or people with disabilities. Then when you take those people out and look at most of the SNAP participants who can theoretically work, you find that the majority of those people are working in any month, and the vast majority of them have worked or will work in the next 12 months either in the last 12 months or in the next 12 months.
The average benefit for the average food stamp recipient is about $6 per day. This whole idea that the typical SNAP recipient just sucks at the government's teats, doesn't want to work, and is lazy is not reflected in the data.
What about The Answer – “entitled”, “parasites”, “plunderers”, “intergenerational dependency”? Does that surprise you?
Unfortunately, this is not the case, as history is as old as our country and even older. There is this deep fear that people in the United States have collectively, and that has been reinforced in many ways by politicians – this deep fear that when we help people collectively, are we helping the right people? I believe that for many Americans there is a fundamental divide that runs through American history: who are the poor who deserve it, the people who deserve our help, and who are the poor who don't deserve it.
How are our assumptions and even our guesses translated into policy?
We've all probably heard of Reagan's tropes about “Welfare queens.” This was related to efforts he undertook in the 1980s to severely restrict food stamp eligibility and food stamp payments.
And then you jump to 1996, when Congress passed the most sweeping welfare reform in history. The New Republic magazine had a cover photo in August 1996 with the big, bold headline: “Day of Reckoning: Sign the bill now,” encouraging [President Bill] Clinton should sign the welfare reform bills that would truly destroy welfare as we knew it. And the cover of the magazine features a picture of a black woman with a cigarette in her hand, holding a small baby who is drinking from a bottle.
I remember the 1990s. I was a kid, but I know the term “welfare queen” was kind of in limbo. It makes me think about what's going on in this day and age, where a single tweet claiming to be a video of a woman saying, “I have nine kids and will never get a job because I'm on food stamps” can suddenly reach millions of people.
When you see these videos on social media, is there anything different because they can go so viral?
The feeling I have is not, “Oh, we’re in this new world.” It says: “Here we go again.” It's the same playbook, the same fears. Maybe they will be amplified, they will reach people more quickly. But yeah, I was a kid in the '90s too, and it was in the water. It was just like that, there were certain stereotypes and certain suspicions that we didn't need social media for. They were already there. And I think that this message and this suspicion will spread one way or another.
There's a big difference in 2025 from the past, and we talked about it on the show: safety net programs are typically viewed as democratic territory. Democrats vote for her; Democrats need them.
But after the 2024 election, the situation changed because many poor and working people voted for Donald Trump. Recently you saw Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri, write one Editorial in the New York Times say we need to fund SNAP.
Are you seeing Republicans changing their stance on welfare because more people who need welfare are voting Republican?
I would push it back a bit. I read it more from the perspective, [Hawley is] I’m trying to focus on the “deserving poor” here.
I also think that if you look at his voting record this summer, he voted for the sweeping changes to eligibility for food stamps and other forms of public assistance eligibility that were included in the law so-called One Big, Beautiful Bill. In some ways, these will have a much longer-term and far-reaching impact as they limit access to food stamps and other types of government assistance.
The benefits end on Saturday. You've been reporting on this for a long time, Krissy. When people lose their benefits, and when they lose them in such large numbers, where can they turn for help? Where do they go to find food?
There is a network of food banks and pantries. The nonprofit sector is obviously trying to fill the gap, but I think everyone you talk to in the world says there's no way we can replace the kind of support that food stamps provide and that we collectively offer as a nation through our government.
A few years ago, I was in Dayton, Ohio, and I was in a Walmart at exactly midnight because I knew you got your monthly benefits when the clock struck 12:01. The number of people who went to Walmart late at night to start grocery shopping just as the clock struck 12:01 showed the immediate need. You can't wait until the next day to do this [for] even.
I met this woman who was with her 8 year old son. Her food stamps from last month had already been used up. As much as she tried to budget, she also had a job; I think she worked for a Dollar General – without that help she just couldn't make ends meet. So remember this on November 1st.
