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[–] 7 points 1 month ago (8 children)

When looking at stats, you shouldn’t look at absolute numbers, you need to look at distribution too. According to google US is approximately 59% white, and 13% black, and food stamp numbers are 38% white and 25% black. So there does seem to be truth to if you are black you are more likely to be on food stamps.

Systemic racism might play a factor here.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    So there does seem to be truth to if you are black you are more likely to be on food stamps

    Sure but in context that should not matter at all if the question is what demographic is the appropriate choice to represent the typical US welfare recipient. In this case total numbers are more relevant than relative proportion, you'd want the median person.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    More than 1/3 of just under 2/3 of the population vs 1/4 of slightly over 1/10 of the population.

    Rough estimates

    White on food stamps: 76.2 million

    Black on food stamps: 11.1 million

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    That’s my point though, those numbers are meaningless. What if I gave you these numbers:

    White not on food stamps: 122.6 million

    Black not on food stamps: 33.2 million

    There are zero valid conclusions to be drawn.

    Analyzing the actual numbers, it seems a random black person is 3x more likely to be on food stamps than a random white person in the US.

    (0.25/0.13) / (0.38/0.59) = 2.99

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (3 children)

    Systemic racism might play a factor here.

    Might? Centuries of being held down at every turn and prevented from accumulating generational wealth "might" be a factor in modern poverty?

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