They are and they aren't. The thing is, there genuinely are some places--not near as many as the SJWs like to claim, but some--where it is genuinely difficult/more difficult to find fresh produce etc. in grocery stores, or to find grocery stores at all. The problems with this as an indicator of anything are sort of two separate categories of problems, the first being that with cars, public transport, and delivery it's hard to argue that people who don't live within walking distance of a grocery store are therefore incapable of getting proper food (which is the argument SJWs are making). This definition of "food desert" also ignores the fact that yes, a rural area might have only one grocery store, and for some people it's a half-hour drive to it so technically they live in a "food desert," but they happily make that half hour drive and eat just fine. Calling it a "food desert" just because there's no grocery store within a mile is highly misleading, but hey, it makes the US look bad by implying there are huge areas of the country where people can't get food, so why bother with actual reality? The second problem is, of course, that in a capitalist society, the customer drives the grocery store stock. That ghetto might be full of convenience stores stocked with shit and no real grocery store because the grocery store could not stay in business due to theft or lack of patronage or inability to find decent employees; or there might be a grocery store there but that grocery store may not carry fresh produce beyond potatoes and maybe carrots because nobody who shops there buys that stuff, so why keep carrying it? Why throw money away on product that won't sell just so some smug pricks can tick off a box in a checklist? It's literally like SJWs did a food giveaway where people could choose ice cream or kale, and then as they looked around at all the fats with their free ice cream they said, "See? None of these people are eating kale! They have no healthful food in their baskets! FOOD DESERT IS REAL! Healthy food is being withheld from them! This is RACISM!" and then a bunch of gullible dipshits just like them took up the call. When in fact it's just the free market working the way the free market works (and again, don't underestimate the idea that some areas are "food deserts" because people literally will not open grocery stores there, no matter how much the SJWs think people have a duty to allow themselves to be robbed and their property destroyed because Racism or something. Again, not the case with all "food deserts," but it absolutely is the case with some/many. If you live in a crime-ridden shithole, then it's your responsibility to do something to make it safer and attract businesses, it's not the duty of business owners to move in and lose money just in case someone there might want to buy real food).