re: #1 Thanos
I read the piece as saying “Conservatives have successfully created the myth that it is blacks that abuse the system. Here’s an example of whites accused of abusing SNAP. Therefore, the myth has been destroyed”. I’m skeptical but that seems to be his opinion.
I don’t think it’s fair to say the author is pitting the urban poor against the rural poor. Nowhere in the piece does he say that the rural poor are undeserving of help, abuse the system more than anyone else or make any other judgement about them. He is pushing back against the image of the lazy, black welfare recipient using a factual news story showing non-black people accused of defrauding SNAP.
If he stated that black people never commit fraud or that only rural whites do so then I would agree with you. In fact, nowhere in the piece does he claim that any group commits welfare or SNAP fraud more than any other group.