Some people don’t like reading the news because it seems like the news is always depressing. Recently, there has been an avalanche of such bad news.

But occasionally, there are good things to come out of the doom-and-gloom. For example, CNN Money recently featured Safiyyah Cotton, a young single mom who was earning just $7.50 an hour working at McDonald’s. In very straightforward terms, the brief, six-and-a-half-minute video broke down how little Cotton made and how she was forced to rely on government programs to get by. It’s a heartbreaking look at the struggle of America’s poor—and the counterpoint to anyone who might accuse poor people of not working hard enough.

CNN showed how the woman was limited not only by her wage but also by her work schedule, which was unstable and unreliable. The network also tabulated how much money we spend on the federal programs Cotton relies on. The takeaway message seemed to be that if companies paid better wages and provided better working conditions, life would be less dire for people like Cotton.

After the story aired, people across the country reached out to Cotton wanting to help, so she started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $500. Thirteen days later, she’s raised more than $10,000. Cotton was clearly moved by the outpouring of support, and says she will use the money to buy a bedroom set and winter clothes for her son, and pay rent and bills. The rest she will save for “rainy days.”

Great story, right?

But Cotton’s most recent Facebook post shows that people are now attacking her for receiving help.

Although it's not clear what the commenters said exactly (some of the comments have been turned off on some of her posts), we can tell from her response the nature of the attacks: “Number one the purpose of the video was not to make nobody feel bad for me or for them to help or give me anything I was asked to do it and I just feel like a lot of people live the same life as me and I'm not ashamed to share my story neither am I embarrassed to show the world because I believe and I know that my life will change for the better,” she wrote. “And I never begged for nobody to donate anything they offered because they wanted too.! … I never been a lazy person and I never been a begging person or a person who don't fight to make a living for her child so all them negative comments keep to your self.”

There is undoubtedly ugly racist and classist stereotypes present in these attacks. I also think there's something else reflected here—namely, the jealousy and desperation that pervades a society when there is such disparity between rich and poor. It’s depressing.