Who is on Food Stamps?

Let's analyze the numbers. There are about 42 million people on SNAP benefits. 37% are white, 26% are black, 16% are Hispanic, 4% are Asian and 17% are "race unknown. If we assume that the "race unknown" group breaks up in the same percentages then we get  44% white, 31% black, 19%  Hispanic, and 6% Asian.

But now we have to convert this to numbers. That gives up 18.5 million white, 13 million black, 8 million Hispanic and 2.5 million Asian. But these numbers have to be considered in light of the total population. 204 million white, 48 million black, 66 million Hispanic and 19 million Asians. 

So if we look at percentage of the population, we get 9% of the white population, 27% of the black population, 12% of the Hispanic population and 13% of the Asian population.

So there's the issue. Even though numerically there are more white people on Food Stamps than any other group, it's the smallest percentage. A whopping 27% of blacks on the other hand are on Food Stamps. 

This is why there's the impression that more black people are on Food Stamps.