Who’s Most Affected By Federal Cuts To DEI And EBT

The inherent threat of socialist programs rests in the fact that they can be used by a political party or a politician as a means to bribe voters from certain demographics to support destructive policies in exchange for handouts.  The Democratic Party understood this well when they introduced “The Great Society” welfare programs under President  Lyndon B Johnson in the 1960s. 

The idea?  Primarily to secure the votes of minorities and people under the poverty line in the US for the Democrats for generations by offering taxpayer funded subsidies that would eventually make these groups dependent on the government for their very survival.  Specifically, the welfare system lured in black women and single mothers, offering increasing incentives per child as long as there was no father in the picture. 

This encouraged black women to have multiple children out of wedlock and increased their divorce rate from 17% in 1960 to 48% in 2024.  Single mother households in the black community skyrocketed from 20% in 1960 to 65% in 2024.  Compare this to the white community in the US, which has an 18% single mother rate. 

Economist Thomas Sowell cites the Great Society programs and endless welfare as more destructive to black Americans than any other factor in US history, including the legacy of slavery that progressive activists often rant about.

In the past decade, welfare privilege took a backseat to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.  Black women received overwhelming special treatment in college admissions (until 2023 when the Supreme Court stepped in) as well as job applications.  Schools and corporations were given access to government subsidies in exchange for increasing their minority quotas.    

DEI also gave black women preferential access to the jobs market through a multitude of subsidies offered to corporations.  These included tax cuts through the Work Opportunity Tax Credit and Affirmative Action.  Government programs, largely created by Democrats, funded a 103% jump in black female employment in white collar jobs from 2010 to 2024.    

The problem is, many of these women did not get those jobs based on ability, they got those jobs simply because of racial identity.  What happens when the government stops pumping cash into special privileges?  The result is a mass exodus of DEI workers because they no longer have any value for the companies that hired them.  It’s a catastrophe for women that relied on handouts for so long. 

When Uncle Sam is no longer your sugar daddy, what do you do?

Over 300,000 black women have reportedly lost their jobs since February and the ending of DEI initiatives is cited as the most likely cause.  The black female unemployment rate has spiked to nearly 7%. 

Black women (and single mothers in general) have also been hit hardest by cuts to SNAP benefits (EBT). 

The percentage of black households on SNAP benefits in 2024 was around 25% (compared to 8% of white households).  Approximately 1.3 million of these families are slated to lose benefits this quarter.  Many more will lose benefits if the government shutdown continues into November and the programs run out of money.

The change has caused a panic among recipients who complain that they are required to apply for or hold a job in order to get the benefits back.

Critics of DEI argue that the disruption of subsidies is a reckoning for black women and single mothers after at least 15 years of life on easy mode.  Democrats argue that DEI is similar to “reparations”; a transfer of wealth to make up for slavery and segregation.  Regardless of the supposed effects of historic “inequality”, a society cannot function based on “fairness”, because fairness is largely subjective. 

Only merit keeps the world running smoothly, and it would appear that the black female community is learning quickly that merit matters far more than skin color.