Inflation Reduction Act Rewrites Embattled Black Farmer Relief Program

[Secure Da Bag]

You mean... like Shirley Sherrod?

Firing of Shirley Sherrod - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This shyt was a fiasco and they got her ass fired because of white supremacist fragile egos

Didn't Obama fire her?

 

[Secure Da Bag]

I wished they had increased it more to better ensure that money got to the Black farmers it was meant to actually help.

I wonder if the language was lineage-based instead of race-based would it have been blocked just as easily by the courts.

 

[Amo Husserl]

Good move but end of the day you need black people at the USDA specifically to greenlight farm relief and aid for black people. Until they get serious about putting black people in these positions to give black people the same breaks white people been getting for decades, nothing changes.

I'm not blaming Biden for the start of this either. This literally happened because white farms filed lawsuits and a racist Trump judge bought the nonsensical argument that it's discrimination against white farmers. Only thing I'd say is when you look at most laws we consider racist or racially motivated...none of them say "black people aren't qualified to benefit from this law" in the fine print. It's how the law is IMPLEMENTED. The original GI Bill didn't say no nikkas. Yet no black men benefited from it. Why? Because the white people implementing rejected their applications. There's a lesson there we need to learn. That's why I laugh at "we need laws for black people" nonsense from the "tangibles" crowd. Nah. We need black people in administration positions to dole out federal money to black people. We need black people at banks to give black people mortgages and loans.

Combine this with our own institutions, and we'd be golden.

 

[get these nets]

These legislators live and work in the REAL WORLD. Not internet-land. Motherfukkers are using the courts to challenge and block everything that they disagree with.

YTer-land, social media-ville are not real places.

 

[saturn7]

this is why we have to fight hard to make sure policies for Freedman/ADOS are LINEAGE BASED not based on race or color.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Combine this with our own institutions, and we'd be golden.

The funny thing is you could greenlight every black farm for funds without even being noticed. I'm not saying don't give white people farm money. Get a black person in there who puts us first, the way their guys put them first.

 

[Amo Husserl]

The funny thing is you could greenlight every black farm for funds without even being noticed. I'm not saying don't give white people farm money. Get a black person in there who puts us first, the way their guys put them first.

It's really that simple, however if we can't on code with each other before getting in those positions, it's not going to help once we do.
We've already seen previous generations drop the ball in this way.
Black people gotta realize they need to bum rush those positions.
Gotta get into the human resource department and every other key position and make sure black people stay there.
With those jobs, we also need the numbers.
We can't do it with other groups outnumbering us or us mixing out.
Until we get on code and in position, we here.

 

[FAH1223]

Good move but end of the day you need black people at the USDA specifically to greenlight farm relief and aid for black people. Until they get serious about putting black people in these positions to give black people the same breaks white people been getting for decades, nothing changes.

I'm not blaming Biden for the start of this either. This literally happened because white farms filed lawsuits and a racist Trump judge bought the nonsensical argument that it's discrimination against white farmers. Only thing I'd say is when you look at most laws we consider racist or racially motivated...none of them say "black people aren't qualified to benefit from this law" in the fine print. It's how the law is IMPLEMENTED. The original GI Bill didn't say no nikkas. Yet no black men benefited from it. Why? Because the white people implementing rejected their applications. There's a lesson there we need to learn. That's why I laugh at "we need laws for black people" nonsense from the "tangibles" crowd. Nah. We need black people in administration positions to dole out federal money to black people. We need black people at banks to give black people mortgages and loans.

Where’s @ORDER_66

 

[Piff Perkins]

Biden Administration Begins Paying Farmers Who Faced Discrimination​

The thousands of payouts, which will total $2 billion, follow years of delays and lawsuits that frustrated struggling Black farmers.

The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it had started disbursing $2 billion to thousands of farmers who have faced discrimination, after years of delays and legal battles thwarted the federal government’s efforts to compensate them.

The payouts come nearly two years after the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a fund to help farmers of any ethnicity who experienced discrimination from the federal government when applying for loans or trying to repay their debts. The slow rollout of the program became a political problem for President Biden this year, with Black farmers accusing him of failing to live up to his promises to help them.

“For too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Wednesday. “I promised to address this inequity when I became president. Today that promise has become a reality.”

The Agriculture Department is making payments to 43,000 farmers across all 50 states, with Mississippi and Alabama having the most recipients. The average payment, which is subject to taxes, is $82,000.

About 60,000 farmers applied for the money. Applications were vetted by independent consulting firms that the Agriculture Department hired, and farmers were eligible to receive funds if they faced discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

The Agriculture Department said it was still analyzing the applications and payouts to determine demographic information about payment recipients.
However, John Boyd, the president of the National Black Farmers Association, said that he was told by the White House that Black farmers received about $1.5 billion of the available funds.

“It’s long overdue,” Mr. Boyd said in an interview. “These are payments that these farmers desperately need.”
He added, “Justice comes slow for Black people.”

Mr. Boyd said in June that he would not support Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign because he believed the president had failed to keep his promises to help Black farmers. But on Wednesday, he said that he was open to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and hoped to have a conversation with her about the financial challenges that Black farmers are facing.

The support of Black farmers could be particularly helpful to Ms. Harris in states like Georgia, where there was substantial frustration about the Biden administration’s handling of the money.

“These payments, which I was proud to secure, will go a long way towards helping Georgia farmers stay on their farms and get out of the red,” said Senator Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat.

The $2 billion program was created after a Biden administration program that aimed to provide $4 billion of debt relief for Black farmers was shut down amid lawsuits from white farmers. Rather than fighting the lawsuits, which argued that the federal government should not be awarding money based on race, Democrats designed a broader initiative that would be less vulnerable to litigation.

Black farmers have endured decades of discrimination from banks and the federal government. Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, has carried out an extensive review of the agency to try to root out discrimination.

“What we’re attempting to do is to greatly create a new narrative for the department,” Mr. Vilsack said on Wednesday. “While this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s losses or pain endured, it is an acknowledgment — and my hope is that this financial assistance will help many farmers stay on their farms.”

Biden Administration Begins Paying Farmers Who Faced Discrimination

The thousands of payouts, which will total $2 billion, follow years of delays and lawsuits that frustrated struggling Black farmers.

www.nytimes.com

https://archive.ph/i3Doc

Years of white racism at the highest levels delayed the fukk out of this, but it's finally done. I maintain that the most effective way to help black farmers going forward is to make sure black people are in position within the USDA to cut through red tape and rubber stamp more black farm aid. This does not have to be at the expense of white farmers, in fact I think continuing to ensure white farmers get paid is a perfect way to protect this process for black farmers. Let the white farmers be the vanguard if that's what is needed to provide political cover to get this done quietly.

I would also hope for more education and outreach. Farming is a hard life but if you aren't doing shyt it can be more rewarding than paying rent monthly in the city working dead end jobs. Too many able bodied young black men out here for there not to be anyone to take over some of these farms. A lot of them are run by black men in their 50s-70s. Hopefully ensuring there's fed money will incentivize younger generations to get involved.