In this past COVID Relief bill, $ 5 Billion went specifically to Black farmers. Something Senator PittyPat of South Carolina had the nerve to call reparations. AS IF.
This is only part of the truth that Black farmers have always faced.
………………………….
USDA issued billions in subsidies this year. Black farmers are still waiting for their share.
“We have lived under economic terrorism for decades,” said Georgia farmer Eddie Slaughter. Subsidies issued during Covid-19 are just another form of exclusion, he and other farmers say.
Oct. 28, 2020, 1:26 PM CDT
By Patrice Gaines
USDA issued billions in subsidies this year. Black farmers are still waiting for their share. – NBC News
“We have lived under economic terrorism for decades,” said Georgia farmer Eddie Slaughter. Subsidies issued during Covid-19 are just another form of exclusion, he and other farmers say.
The federal government is projected to issue record subsidies to farmers across America this year. The cash has been a boon to a significant part of President Donald Trump’s rural base, particularly in the run-up to the election next week. However, Black farmers, whose numbers have been dwindling for generations for many reasons, say they have yet to see any big changes to keep their farms afloat.
“In a few instances, some Black farmers we know have been saved by Covid relief funds,” said Angie Provost, wife of Wenceslaus “June” Provost, whose family owned a 5,000-acre sugar cane farm in New Iberia, Louisiana. They lost it in 2014 because of underfunding and because federal loans did not arrive soon enough. Their experience is part of a larger, documented form of discrimination that Angie Provost refers to as “the plantation economics of the South.
“The bailout should be called a buyout for votes — not that the farmers don’t need them,” she said.
Trump engaged in a trade war with China in 2018, and his administration created a subsidy program to mitigate farmers’ losses. Retaliatory tariffs by China, natural disasters and the pandemic have dealt such big blows to nearly all of the country’s agricultural exports that this year alone, the subsidies are estimated to reach a record $46 billion, according to the New York Times.
Black farmers say this level of aid has passed them by, not just in 2020, but also historically.
“We have lived under economic terrorism for decades,” said Georgia farmer Eddie Slaughter, one of the hundreds of Black farmers whose land is in foreclosure because of documented racist practices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
John Boyd of Baskerville, Virginia, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, which has 116,000 members in 42 states, said, “That money went predominantly to white farmers and large corporate farmers.” In 2019, The Counter, a nonprofit news organization focused on food and agriculture, reported that 99 percent of the subsidies provided to farmers linked to the trade war with China went to white farmers.
YES 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Marilyn J. Mosby (@MarilynMosbyEsq) Tweeted:
“Given the scurrilous accusations made by BLOGS & certain members of the media, I asked for the State Ethics Commission to determine any illegality on my part. Today, the State Ethics Commission has found what I knew all along- I have done nothing wrong.”https://t.co/dOEobPQFPe https://twitter.com/MarilynMosbyEsq/status/1379963608180854787?s=20
Skeptical Brotha 💛🐝🌈 (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
A study looked at COVID-19 deaths in Michigan and Georgia and found alarming disparities in how race and gender intersect. https://t.co/s7qUvLSKei via @HuffPostPol https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1380026866044530689?s=20
I was reviewing tweets from yesterday’s Press Briefing, and they actually had the nerve to question about MVP going to the bakery during her visit to Chicago.
I mean, how can you purse your lips about MVP going to a bakery?
Besides it being the dispensary for some of the most delicious 😋 sweets that you will ever taste, it’s an example of a small business, owned by a Black woman, that survived the Pandemic.
It’s the question-just ridiculous 😡
The host should have been Tom Joyner or Donnie Simpson
https://youtu.be/QE3GI_cxs5U
I love this😍😍
https://youtu.be/Bhp-wOGVO8Q
You know that it kills the MSM that they can’t tone police 46 for calling these voter laws
“the new Jim Crow.”
The Democrats may have a messaging problem usually, but not with this issue.
The language used is strong, powerful and THE TRUTH.
It kills them that they can’t “both sides” the issue.
The step up of corporations killed any chance of them doing that.
Keep on calling it out, 46.
Never stop calling it what it is.
The new Jim Crow.😠😠
Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) Tweeted:
Let me be clear: there’s no serious comparison between voting laws in Colorado and Georgia.
Colorado is a vote-by-mail state — we send every registered voter a ballot. We also have same day voter registration.
Oh, and you can hand out water in line. https://twitter.com/RepJasonCrow/status/1379519524928692227?s=20
MVP visited my favorite bakery during her trip to Chicago yesterday.😋😋🤗🤗
https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct-food-kamala-harris-brown-sugar-bakery-20210407-44g5dgeiofai7bw7v5urdp2f7m-story.html
Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) Tweeted:
After months spent living in temporary quarters at Blair House, Vice President Kamala Harris will move into her 33-room official residence this evening following the completion of renovations. https://t.co/MKkPRRKIYC https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1379573950770974722?s=20
Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) Tweeted:
Another interesting parallel between the New Deal and the present:
“The New Deal was really Roosevelt’s program for defusing extremism” and “fascism,” says @rauchway.
Big public investments right now, he adds, can similarly “defuse illiberal tendencies and promote democracy.” https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1379412803228942340?s=20
Get the ENTIRE PHUCK OUTTA HERE 😡😡
POLITICO (@politico) Tweeted:
Once again, the president and his party are poised to completely sidestep Senate Republicans whom Biden long argued he could work with https://t.co/TW6RpSSAoh https://twitter.com/politico/status/1379283983175925760?s=20
We did it, Joe🗽 (@snowmanomics) Tweeted:
Interesting nugget. The US economy has added more jobs in Biden’s young presidency than during the presidencies of the last 3 Republican presidents combined. https://twitter.com/snowmanomics/status/1379301386626732033?s=20
I appreciate how 46 keeps on calling them Jim Crow laws.👊🏾
Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) Tweeted:
Asked if @TheMasters should be moved out of Georgia, Biden told us: “I think that’s up to the Masters.”
He added that it’s “reassuring” to see businesses “speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.” https://t.co/WDP3miwBdE https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1379543791804235778?s=20
White Boy Bummer 🏳️🌈🙄 (@SJGrunewald) Tweeted:
The media is so desperate for a scandal, because after four years that’s all they know how to report on, that they keep trying to turn everything into one. It’s honestly pathetic. It’s okay to cover them as competent when they’re competent. https://twitter.com/SJGrunewald/status/1379553655645335553?s=20
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) Tweeted:
PETER DOOCY: Is the WH concerned MLB is moving their All Star Game to Colorado, where voting rules are very similar to Georgia?
PSAKI: Let me refute that. CO has same-day registration, universal mail voting… it’s important to remember the context. The GA bill is built on a lie https://t.co/TaDLU0mYNP https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1379487125083717636?s=20
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊