Last
year, a struggle by Black farmers, led by the National Black Farmers
Association, forced President Obama to concede an additional $1.15 billion to
be paid to these victims of racist discrimination by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Black farmers had been systematically discriminated against in the
processing of aid and loans. Despite last year’s victory, thousands of these
farmers have not received a penny.
 Mistreated farmers have waited too long. |
The
timing of these payments is crucial, since a majority of the eligible farmers
are over 65 and in poor health.
Congress
has already missed a March 31 deadline to provide long overdue financing. The
farmers agreed to allow the government an extension until May 31, and the House
finally passed a bill providing funding May 28. The legislation still awaits
Senate approval.
“Each
week or month of waiting means more black farmers will not live to see a
resolution of their cases,” said John Boyd Jr., head of the NBFA. This is not
an exaggeration. Boyd has been present at as many as four NBFA members’
funerals in one week.
One
farmer who had been discriminated against by the USDA in 1983 was Addie Haynes.
An elderly widow whose husband left her an 18-acre tobacco and corn farm in
Whiteville, N.C., Haynes and her five children worked for years to pay off
their debt of $56,000 on the farm. However, once denied on her subsidy request
(which was going to be used to purchase seed and equipment) from the USDA,
Haynes was forced to surrender equipment and 14 acres of land to pay off the
debt that had grown to $80,000. She died in 2004, never able to see the light
of justice.
Aside
from losing time to age, these farmers need the funds before the start of the
next crop season. They are counting on this money to pull them out of debt and
keep their farms running to provide for them and their families. Without these
payments, they will continue to sink into debt and, like many already have,
lose their farms and livelihoods.
This
case is a direct hit to Black farmers, and clear negligence to an important
sector of society. Farmers provide us with much of the food, cotton and other
essentials that we need to survive. In 2010, or any year for that matter, no
one should be discriminated against for the color of his or her skin (or any
other distinguishing characteristic). There is no reason these farmers should
not receive the same credits and subsidies that are granted to their white
counterparts other than the racist practices that lie within the capitalist
system.
These farmers have followed every instruction of the courts, but still
they wait. They have given all they have to struggle for something that should
have been granted by law in the first place, but still they wait. These
mistreated farmers have waited too long. We demand an end to economic
discrimination and racism!
