What Brett Favre’s Welfare Scandal Means For Black People In Mississippi
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It seems like Brett Favre’s legal troubles are just beginning.
On Thursday, former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, John Davis entered a plea deal with state and federal prosecutors for his involvement in a Mississippi welfare scam in which $70 million in welfare money was diverted to the rich.
According to Yahoo, Davis is expected to fully cooperate with investigators as they seek additional indictments.
One of those recipients of the welfare money was none other than Hall Of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
Earlier this month an auditor revealed that $70 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare funds were dished out to a multimillionaire athlete, a professional wrestler, a horse farm, and a volleyball complex.
From that money, $8.1 million was allegedly given to entities tied to Brett Favre. According to reports, Favre was paid $1.1 million in federal welfare funds in 2017 and 2018 for motivational speeches he allegedly never gave.
Text messages released Monday suggested former Gov. Phil Bryant helped channel at least $5 million of the state’s welfare funds into a volleyball stadium project for Brett Favre and the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre’s daughter plays volleyball for the university and he received most of the fundraising credit for the project.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the union; 18.8% of its residents live at or below the poverty line. The state also boasts the highest child poverty rate, with 27.9% of its under-18 population meeting federal poverty guidelines.
Sadly, 33.8% of the state’s Black population lives below the poverty line and the state’s biggest city, Jackson, has been engulfed in a water crisis for decades.
When $70 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare funds are taken away from Black families in need, the effects can be disastrous.
The majority of Mississippi’s welfare recipients are also Black. According to Statistical Atlas, Black and brown people make up 59% of Mississippi’s food stamp recipients.
How can a state say they care about their residents when the money allotted to help the impoverished portions of a community is handed over to rich folks in an alleged illegal scheme? It’s hard not to believe this is a purposeful slight to hurt Black folks.
Maybe Brett Favre didn’t know where the money came from, it’s a fair argument. But $70 million doesn’t grow on trees and in a community that desperately needs resources, that money could have gone a long way.
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