Arguably, the only thing in America that MAGA has made great again is societal acceptance of casual racism.
If the recent revelations of what goes on in Republican chat rooms have taught us anything at all, it’s that many white conservatives think nothing of expressing blatant bigotry against Black people and people of color, whether they’re U.S. citizens or not. So, it should come as no surprise that, amid nationwide discussions about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and how it’s impacted by the ongoing government shutdown, MAGA supporters have not only resurrected their stale and factless narratives about food stamp recipients being drug addicts, having expensive things like cell phones and tattoos, filling their grocery carts with steak and lobster, and refusing to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and work for a living — but they have also brought back the racist welfare queen myth that should have died with the Reagan administration.
On Friday, the fine folks at Newsmax were discussing their thoughts on SNAP recipients, whom they generalized as scammers who are abusing the system, a common right-wing narrative that has been debunked to death for years by people who understand how facts and data actually work. But Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt refused to stop at his and his guest’s propaganda-infused hatred of poor people, claiming SNAP recipients are using their benefits to “get their weaves” done, which we all know was an attack against Black women.
While speaking with GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (not the Ron Johnson we recognize, but the one who thinks mouthwash is a COVID cure and Black Lives Matter protesters are scary, unlike those lovable Jan. 6 rioters), Schmitt said the following about SNAP:
“This is a program that has exploded over the last 20 years, and we are just dumping 100 billion a year into a program that we all know is being so woefully corrupted and exploited. People are selling their benefits. People are using them to get their nails done, to get their weaves, and their hair. I mean, this is a this is a really ugly program.”
First of all, if there’s one thing President Donald Trump, his supporters, and the lazy propagandists right-wing media outlets pass off as journalists have in common, it’s their tendency to just say things their ilk likes to hear without doing even the barest of bare-minimum fact-checking to determine whether there’s any truth to it whatsoever.
According to Julia Wolfson, an associate professor in International Health and Health Policy and Management, the average SNAP recipient receives approximately $187 in food assistance per month. Now, I’ll leave it up to y’all to do a quick Google search to see what kind of money it costs women of all races to get their nails and hair done, including hair extensions.
“It’s a very efficient program,” Wolfson said. “There aren’t a lot of administrative costs, there’s not a lot of waste, fraud, or abuse. The overwhelming majority of the money is actually getting to Americans to buy food.”
But hey, why listen to the experts when Schmitt has his notes from Trust-Me-Bro-pedia tucked underneath his favorite Klan robe?
Again, we know who Schmitt is talking about when he references SNAP recipients using their benefits “to get their nails done” and “to get their weaves.” He’s certainly not citing stereotypes that have ever been associated with the racial demographic that makes up, by far, the largest percentage of SNAP recipients, and probably an even larger percentage of people who bathe bi-monthly, clap on the 1 and 3 and a half, and wonder why that guy Jim Crow gets such a bad rap. (I mean, if we’re playing on stereotypes, let’s play all the way.)
Schmitt might have been careful enough not to say the quiet part out loud, but, at this point, the out loud part is getting more and more indecipherable from whatever they think the quiet part is by the day. These people were already regularly calling Black women “ghetto” just for being anything other than the version of Candace Owens that they used to like. Now, they are, once again, making Black women out to be the face of welfare and the myth of rampant welfare abuse.
It’s almost as if anti-Black bigotry is simply their default.
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