White People Problems

Spirit Hearts Song
Jan 6
2 min read

A few weeks ago at my local health food co-op, I saw something I was not expecting: in the honey aisle stood a young, white couple with a baby strapped to the father's chest. They were wearing clothes closer to the early 2010s Hipster aesthetic than the "quiet luxury" yuppie of today, and in the father's hand sat an EBT card.

They were calling to find out how much they had on their balance.

Now, I wasn't twisting my neck to take this all in: I was simply looking for some honey. How, then, could I discern on a passing, and quickly averted, glance that this young couple was on food stamps?

Because I'd been on food stamps, too, and could recognize the card instantly.

"White people problems," it seems, are problems for "we the people," too.

In my 2024 zine "Notes from the Road*" I wrote this poem:

"The Second Look"

Poor white people

did not own

the enslaved.

Do you know how much

Africa's delicate children

were worth?

The one percent,

it was the one percent,

of this I am 100% sure.

They were not 100% human

for their actions were inhumane--

of unhuman

means.

If you know people

who are proud to be

legitimate descendants of slavers,

take a good look

and then look

again.

You might see their true colors

clearly

on the second look.

P.S.

Imagine all the money

impoverished white people

could have been paid

to pick the cotton that fueled

the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade;

those Robber Barons

robbed

all.

Thinking back to that couple, I think of all the wealth America held due to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Imagine if their ancestors had been paid to pick cotton, given a chance then to establish generational wealth that would give their progeny a leg-up now.

And, yes, inheriting money does not prevent one from facing financial hardships; for all I know those two shoppers could have been trust fund babies.

I see them now in my mind's eye and I wonder about their journey.

Over 40 million Americans received SNAP benefits in 2024.

Did you know: a majority of SNAP recipients are white people? I'd heard this whispered before, but the USDA's yearly SNAP report consistently confirms this:

2019

2025

It's clear: many white Americans are struggling in ways we're conditioned to believe only people of color struggle.

In concealing their plight, the chance of alleviating their struggles is greatly reduced. Thus, "white people problems" when it comes to being a poor, white American are doubled in that (culturally speaking) no one acknowledges nor legitimizes this struggle.

This erasure helps this community remain insular, which furthers disempowers We the People.

For We the People are strongest when we band together. It is for this reason so many forces seek to keep us apart.

On this day, I pray for unity between all races, ethnicities, and tax brackets.

We've been pointing fingers--and guns--at each other long enough.

It's time we point our fingers up.