Mississippians tend to be suspicious. We are, generally speaking, conformists at heart and are therefore ill at ease with those who disturb the status quo.
So Mississippians are, in turn, suspicious of Northerners, foreigners, liberals, Common Core math, people who speak in a language other than English (or what passes for English here), the federal government and communists and socialists.
But mostly what we are suspicious of are poor people. We go out of our way to think the absolute worst of them.
Truth be told, they are barely tolerable. These people lack gumption and character. They refuse to pull themselves up by their bootstraps because they know they can rely on hard-working taxpayers to take care of them. They live large on welfare and food stamps and free health care while the rest of us have to earn those things by the sweat of our brows (not literally, in most cases, but you get the idea).
It is only our superior character and moral fortitude that prevents us from also living the life of carefree ease and lazy comfort that the poor enjoy at the expense of the rest of us.
I don’t really know where that suspicion comes from. Most multi-generational Mississippians don’t have to scratch too deep to find ancestors who were so poor they could barely pay attention, never mind the bills.
Yet our suspicion of poor people – let’s face it, poor Black people mainly – is steeped in Mississippi history.
When the first Food Stamp program (now called SNAP) was implemented in 1964, the federal government gave states great latitude in how the program operated. In Mississippi, those who applied for Food Stamps were expected to pay the amount of money they normally paid for groceries up front in order to receive Food Stamps in an amount that would make up the difference between what poor people could pay for and what they actually needed.
It was an absurd proposition. The first thing to know about poor people is that they don’t have “up front” money. That was the whole point, of course. Historically, Mississippi may not have always been able to prevent poor people from getting assistance, but they could sure as hell make it hard to get.
A US Senate subcommittee on poverty traveled to Mississippi in 1967, holding several field hearings to give lawmakers a firsthand look at just how poorly the Food Stamps program in Mississippi operated.
The field hearings took place in Jackson, Greenville and Clarksdale. However, Mississippi legislators not only declined to attend the hearings but also refused to acknowledge hunger as a prominent issue in the state. Where committee members saw the horror of Black children with distended bellies (a telltale sign of severe malnutrition), Mississippi Governor Paul Johnson stated, “All the Negroes I’ve seen around here are so fat they shine.” (Incidentally, Gov. Johnson’s grandson, Josiah Coleman, is the presiding justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court.)
Nearly 60 years later, Mississippi families face a similar threat of food insecurity under the Trump administration, as policy decisions once again risk limiting access to critical support for low-income communities. The “Big Beautiful Bill” has significant implications for the SNAP program, cutting about $186 billion from SNAP funding over the next 10 years. It will be the largest cut in the program’s history at a time when inflation has pushed grocery costs up by 5.7% compared to last year.
According to World Population Review, current average grocery expenses in Mississippi are approximately $290.64 per week. Meanwhile, the average SNAP benefits in Mississippi was approximately $365 a month. Do the math on that to find out just how high on the hog poor people are living.
Budget apologists say the cuts will come mainly by getting people who refuse to work out of the program, which is like blaming the sinking of the Titanic on cold weather. Fact: 74% of Mississippi households who receive snap benefits include at least one working person. Furthermore, 51% of Mississippi households receiving SNAP benefits include children, while 50% have a disabled person in the home and 35% have people who are age 65 or older. Almost 10,000 Mississippi veterans receive SNAP benefits. So, unless the plan is to put children, disabled people and old folks to work, the savings from these work requirements aren’t going to make much difference. Make no mistake: This legislation doesn’t cut fat. It cuts bone. Low wages, not low character, is the greatest factor.
The good news: It mostly affects poor people.
Of course, we’ve always had our doubts about them anyway.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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