Rejecting the Trap: Why Black America Must Reclaim Economic Autonomy

By: Richard Graves, November 2, 2025

"But remember, you're not a slave, Cause we was put here to be much more than that,  But we couldn't see it because our mind was trapped"  (Eric B. & Rakim, 1988).

Unfortunately, Black Americans receiving SNAP benefits have long been used as the public face of the “my food stamps are going to be cut off” outrage. Both the political right and left weaponize this image, either casting Black Americans as lazy freeloaders or as helpless perpetual victims in need of paternalistic government control. However, the data rejects this narrative. The reality is, while Black Americans account for about 25.7% of all SNAP participants, they represent 16.8% of the U.S. population living in poverty. By contrast, White Americans make up roughly 35.4% of SNAP recipients but only 8.7% of the national poverty rate. If anyone is “getting over” on the American taxpayers, the numbers make very clear it is not Black Americans, but White Americans benefitting disproportionately from government assistance (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2023; U.S. Census Bureau, 2023). With the government shutdown looming, we are on the brink of a crisis in which people, regardless of race, who depend on this assistance to eat will suffer. This situation should never be a reality, yet because Democrats and Republicans have failed to do their jobs in Congress, here we are.

This forms the core of the conservative argument for Black self-determination. The goal is to position ourselves so that reliance on government assistance becomes minimal, to create support systems within our own communities, and to elevate our collective excellence in a way that honors the sacrifices and aspirations of our ancestors. The enduring call for Black self-determination is not a partisan invention but a deeply rooted tradition articulated by some of the most respected leaders in Black history.

Martin Luther King Jr. warned that a society built on mere subsistence-level government assistance would “perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions” (King, 1967, p. 174). King’s concern was not with assistance itself but that it might lock Black Americans into a permanent cycle of dependency, stripping away the dignity that comes from meaningful work and economic agency.

Decades earlier, Marcus Garvey sounded an even more urgent alarm: “A race that is solely dependent upon another for economic existence sooner or later dies…” (Garvey, 1923, p. 48). Garvey’s message was clear; economic life determined political and cultural survival, and self-reliance was not optional but essential. Similarly, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad argued that welfare and government charity were not acts of benevolence but tools of domination that kept Black people from owning land, building institutions, and accumulating wealth. He insisted that Black Americans must “do for self” and break free of systems designed to undermine their economic autonomy (Muhammad, 1965).

Booker T. Washington championed the same core idea. Wealth, respect, and liberation would come not through protest alone but through “thrift and self-help,” because “the individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of race” (Washington, 1901, p. 220).

Taken together, these voices form a powerful lineage of thought that supports a conservative vision for Black America, not conservative in the narrow partisan sense but in the tradition of self-reliance, economic independence, and institution-building. Their message is not to reject support for the poor but to reject a system that entrenches poverty rather than liberating people from it. True progress, demands that we build our own businesses, strengthen our own communities, and elevate our standards, not just for survival but in honor of the dreams and sacrifices of those who came before us.

References

Eric B. & Rakim. (1988). Follow the leader [Song]. On Follow the Leader. Uni Records.

Garvey, M. (1923). The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans. The Majority Press. p. 48.

King, M. L. Jr. (1967). Where do we go from here: Chaos or community? Beacon Press.

Muhammad, (1965). “The So-Called Negroes’ Salvation” chapter The Message to the Blackman

U.S. Census Bureau. (2023). Poverty in the United States: 2023.https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/poverty-rates-in-united-states-decline.html

U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2023). Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program households: Fiscal year 2023.https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/Characteristics2018.pdf

Washington, B. T. (1901). Up from slavery. Doubleday, Page & Co. ’