SNAP, Medicaid and Mandates: A New Form of Slavery? (Black History Heals Pt. 1)

The Paper Field (copyright 26)

Mandated Work: Barriers and Burdens

In early 2025, the White House advanced a sweeping plan to impose mandatory work or volunteer requirements for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and Medicaid recipients, programs that provide essential support for millions of low-income Americans. ¹ ²

 Political advocates frame these changes as tools that promote "self-sufficiency" and "personal responsibility." They propose that all "able-bodied citizens without dependents" (ABAWD) between the ages of 18 and 64 (a remarkable age range for reasons I will reveal at the conclusion of this post) should trade labor for benefits as a form of dignity and contribution. 

Yet, I suggest that terms such as "work," "volunteering," and "community service" within this context conceals a harsher truth: these policies significantly reduce access to food and healthcare for vulnerable families and deepen an already entrenched racial and economic divide. ¹ ²

Welfare to Workfare and Back

Linking labor to survival isn't a new concept; its modern roots are found in the history of the term "Workfare." In 1961, Joseph Mitchell, the City Manager of Newburgh, NY, pioneered this idea through his racially charged "13 Point Plan" to deter Black migrants arriving from the South during "The Great Migration." It wasn't until 1968 that the term "Workfare" was actually coined by James Charles Evers, brother of Medgar Evers, while vying for a congressional seat in Mississippi. Not wanting to alienate white voters who were huge opponents of welfare for African Americans, Evers decided to rebrand the term "welfare" to "workfare" changing its perception, at least temporarily. The term was later popularized by President Nixon in a speech made to the nation in 1969. ⁴

Over time, this expectation evolved into formal welfare-to-work systems. The biggest shift came in 1996, when President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law. It introduced strict work requirements into programs like TANF (Temporary Assistance For Needy Families), setting the stage for today's proposals targeting SNAP and Medicaid. ⁵

To understand the implications today, we need to acknowledge how racial bias shaped ideas about who was 'deserving' and 'undeserving.' These narratives were built on racist theories that Black Americans were less industrious, dishonest, and intellectually inferior. These same narratives were used to justify both slavery and punitive labor conditions for decades after emancipation. ⁶

This history didn't disappear...it evolved. Black Americans make up a disproportionate share of SNAP and Medicaid recipients today, not because we're less capable, but because racist policies left us with fewer opportunities. Generations were blocked from decent jobs, quality education, and homeownership. Those barriers didn't vanish when slavery ended or when civil rights laws passed. The wealth gap they created is still here. So when work mandates target these programs, they hit Black communities the hardest, communities still trying to climb out of a hole that policy dug.

"What we've got here is failure to communicate."

While framed as an incentive for labor force participation, existing research shows that mandatory work requirements seldom deliver their promised benefits. Instead, they create layers of bureaucracy that significantly reduce participation in these programs. ¹ ² ⁷ 

Linking labor to survival often results in policy failure rather than progress. When Arkansas mandated work requirements for Medicaid in 2018, over 18,000 people lost coverage due to noncompliance, losing access to vital care while employment rates failed to rise. This pattern mirrors broader issues with TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), where strict work mandates haven't delivered. Nationally, for every 100 families in poverty, only 21 receive TANF benefits today, a massive drop from 68 families in 1996. ³ ⁹

So who suffers most when these policies fail? Black Americans are 34% of SNAP recipients and nearly 30% of Medicaid enrollees, numbers that reflect historic exclusion as well as present-day discrimination, not personal failing. When bureaucratic barriers push people off these programs, when paper walls replace iron chains, it's Black families that are disproportionally losing meals and medication. Not to mention dealing with unstable or part-time jobs, childcare and transportation issues.  Policies such as these ultimately divert attention from what actually needs fixing: job availability, wage stagnation, and labor discrimination. These are the real barriers that keep people in poverty.

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."-  Karl Marx

Critics argue that when access to food or healthcare is contingent on meeting any type of strict requirement, the choice to participate inevitably disappears; it's no longer voluntary. Some call this a 'new form of slavery,' though rooted in policy rather than chains. This isn't chattel slavery, there are no chains, no auction blocks. But it's control nonetheless: the idea that you must work to deserve food and healthcare, that your worth is measured by your productivity. ⁶

Instead of punishing individuals for failing to meet arbitrary standards, we should focus on dismantling the barriers to employment and education that have been reinforced by the recent elimination of DEI and Affirmative Action programs. We need safety nets that honor human dignity, regardless of race, color, or creed.

So where do we go from here? I challenge everyone affected by this mandate, or who knows someone who is, to contact the officials who created it: your local state representatives, your mayor, your governor. Yes, there's often a disconnect between political leaders and citizens. But every letter, every call, every peaceful protest matters. Change happens when enough people demand it.

An Aside:

In relation to Black Americans, while researching this post I noticed something striking about the age requirement of 18–64. These numbers mirror 1864, the year the Senate passed the 13th Amendment, ending slavery on paper. Lived freedom took decades longer proving that laws and liberation have never really aligned. Is it coincidence? Perhaps. But the pattern is familiar: freedom debated in chambers, compliance enforced on the ground.

History doesn't repeat exactly. It evolves. Forcing us to answer the question: as human beings, have we truly changed in the ways that matter?

COMING UP: 

Pt. 2: SNAP & Medicaid Work Requirements: Strategies to Comply Without Losing Benefits

References & Suggested Further Reading

1. Economic Policy Institute. Work requirements for safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid: A punitive solution that solves no real problem.

2. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Expanding Work Requirements Would Make It Harder for People to Meet Them.

3. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. States’ Experiences Confirm Harmful Effects of Medicaid Work Requirements.

4. History of Workfare in the United States (overview of Nixon-era proposals and Newburgh experiments).

5. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (1996).

6. Heflin et al., JAMA Network Open (2020). SNAP work requirements and racial disparities in participation.

7. Brookings Institution. Research on SNAP recipients and employment instability.

8. Federal court decisions overturning Medicaid work requirements (e.g., Stewart v. Azar, 2019).