Little phrases you hear that might sound like part of everyone’s vocabulary can have a lot of history. For example, the negative connotation ‘welfare queen’”’ has when you hear someone use it. As one Pennsylvania TikToker expertly applies her makeup, she expertly schools everyone on the racist roots of “welfare queens” and how it’s used as a tool to hurt others. As Jess puts it, the purpose was to ultimately “utilize racism to divide the working class.”
Jess Britvich immediately starts her TikTok video discussing the “myth of the welfare queen” and the negativity towards people on food stamps. If you fell for that negativity, then in Jess’s eyes: “It’s probably because you fell for the myth of the welfare queen.” Coined by Ronald Reagan during his presidency, he put it in people’s heads, “predominantly Black women were taking advantage of the welfare system.” From there, people started to associate poverty with a “moral failure” and blame poor people. Ultimately, it was to divide the working class.
This made it easier for the government to convince people those on welfare are just lazy. Does this rhetoric sound familiar? Look at the comments of any Fox News article and you’ll probably find an angry conservative blaming poor families for the failures of the country. In the end, Ronald Reagan wanted people to feel ashamed of needing government assistance. Jess said, by doing this, “nobody will fight for stronger programs,” creating shame among those needing government assistance. Take enough pity on it, and no one will want to use it, right?
The idea of the ‘welfare queen’ has followed us through time. A few years ago, Jess says, it was people criticizing Black people for having an “Obama phone”—now DEI and affirmative action. To Jess, this makes White people “fear” someone is getting something they aren’t. Unsurprisingly, instead of asking for what they think is lacking, they’d rather take it from others.
“The welfare queens are the corporations,” one commenter argued. Amazon gets subsidies that are in the billions, as well as in agriculture.
“Also Food Stamps/SNAP is not a welfare program. Its primary purpose is a back door subsidy to farmers and to stabilize food prices. That’s why it’s part of the farm bill,” said another.
Another chimed in about ‘government cheese’ and the resulting bail out for dairy farmers. To cut down on storage, the government decided to give the cheese to schools and those on welfare. As this commenter said, people still “saw it as free food given out to those on welfare.”
The extra irony here is that many conservatives aren’t even aware that SNAP and food stamps are the same thing. It’s just a bit of rebranding because, once again, ‘food stamps’ had racism attached to it. This is despite many low-income families in rural areas—which are conservative hotbeds, mind you- rely on SNAP, too.
