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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Open Thread: Black Farmers Are Owed A Break

Open Thread: Black Farmers Are Owed A Break

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Elections have long-overdue consequences, sometimes, and this snippet of the American Rescue Act is a good start. Tom Vilsack, like his new boss, seems to have learned from his previous mistakes:

… In an interview with The Washington Post, Vilsack for the first time noted the extent to which the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated existing disparities across the American economy.

The distribution of coronavirus relief increased those gaps, he said.

Of those who identified their race or ethnicity, Black farmers received only $20.8 million of nearly $26 billion in two rounds of payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program announced by the Trump administration last April, he said.

“We saw 99 percent of the money going to White farmers and 1 percent going to socially disadvantaged farmers and if you break that down to how much went to Black farmers, it’s 0.1 percent,” he said. “Look at it another way: The top 10 percent of farmers in the country received 60 percent of the value of the covid payments. And the bottom 10 percent received 0.26 percent.”

Of the 3.4 million farmers in the United States today, only 45,000 — 1.3 percent — are Black, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s down from 1 million a century ago, because of widespread land loss.

Vilsack said the Biden administration would be focused on closing those inequalities. The USDA will battle three systemic problems concurrently, he said: a broken farm system, food insecurity and a health-care crisis…

After months of national debate about systemic racism and reparations for slavery and segregation, Vilsack says he will make rooting out racism at the agency, and in agriculture, a priority. The American Rescue Plan will pay $5 billion to farmers of color, who have lost 90 percent of their land over the past century because of systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt…

Of course, one reason for Sec. Vilsack’s interview is that the Disloyal Opposition has already been busy trying to gin up resentment:


(Yes, Vilsack is the one who fired Shirley Sherrod when the Wingnut Wurlitzer lied about her. Like I said — he’s gotten smarter since then.)

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Look at it another way: The top 10 percent of farmers in the country received 60 percent of the value of the covid payments. And the bottom 10 percent received 0.26 percent.”

    It’s like GOP tax cuts.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    @debbie: There was a percentage I saw earlier but it was something like 90% went to the top 10% gross earners or something like that. Maybe someone will dig it up. I thought it was earlier on here but now I can’t find it.

    EDIT: BaudXXXX beat me to it. It was a Vilsack interview in the Post.

  5. 5.

    Mike in NC

    Trump thought only white men qualified as farmers. Same with generals and astronauts.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    @Baud: It’s like GOP tax cuts.

    Naw. If it were, the bottom 10% wouldn’t have received anything, and would have had existing benefits cut.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    @Yutsano:

    I remember being appalled by the numbers, as well as Perdue’s attitude that the biggest deserved the most.

    ETA Thanks.

  8. 8.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    We tried watch Q: Into The Storm last night on HBO and I swear I haven’t seen that many stupid people outside of a fundamentalist Baptist Church. Mercifully, we both quickly fell asleep.

    But SNL needs to spoof that shit. Cecily Strong would be perfect as a redneck Q freak.

  13. 13.

    guachi

    Gov. Kemp signed Georgia’s racist voter law while surrounded by six fellow white male racists.

     

    Democracy in Georgia was nice while it lasted.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    @Anne Laurie:

    So that accounts for 60.26 percent. It would be nice if Vilsack pointed out that 39+ percent went to small and midsize white farms/farmers. That would negate what that non-racist farmer is saying in the Fox interview.

  21. 21.

    PJ

    @Geminid:  That’s like expecting Cole to read his blog, or expecting someone’s take on Twitter to be informed by reading the book or article or watching the movie or TV show they are criticizing.

  27. 27.

    raven

    A year ago if someone told you we’d elect two democratic senators in Georgia they would have looked at you like you had three eyes. Now it all fucking over, just ask Rachel. Well goddammit anger is a hell of a motivator and we’ve got time and anger.

  31. 31.

    david

    Just seeing this posted on the LA Dept of Health website:

    Beginning Monday, March 29, everyone in Louisiana ages 18 and older is eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Pfizer vaccine is available to those 16 and older.

    Looks like Monday will be “make an appointment” day.

  32. 32.

    Mary G

    @raven: Exactly. They gave Mark Elias, the ACLU, and Stacey Abrams a fuck of a lot of lead time for both lawsuits and GOTV.

    I’m writing letters for VoteForward to first time Georgia voters to thank them and tell them to keep it up.

  33. 33.

    MP

    @raven: I’ve got a little walking around money, too. Donated $100 to Warnock today, and trying to figure out what other orgs might be good for donations.

  34. 34.

    scav

    Georgia, like the GQP, favors favors traditional Southern means of altering governments one isn’t best pleased with.  “Haul out the guns boys, we’re heading for the Capital!”

    Voting is for socialists.

  35. 35.

    raven

    @MP: They had a piece on the local news last night about how people are spending their stimulus money on guns.

  36. 36.

    Gvg

    @guachi: good that they are doing this so far in advance so we stand a chance of getting it overturned before the actual elections in 2 years….I guess…trying to look on the bright side.

  38. 38.

    prostratedragon

    @raven:  I’m spending some of mine on a life membership in the NAACP. It’s occurred to me that these folks would be happy to provoke a violent response from us.

  39. 39.

    raven

    The Elections Clause is the primary source of constitutional authority to regulate elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. The Clause directs and empowers states to determine the “Times, Places, and Manner” of congressional elections, subject to Congress’s authority to “make or alter” state regulations. It grants each level of government the authority to enact a complete code for such elections, including rules concerning public notices, voter registration, voter protection, fraud prevention, vote counting, and determination of election results. Whenever a state enacts a law relating to a congressional election, it is exercising power under the Elections Clause; states do not have any inherent authority to enact such measures. 

  41. 41.

    Major Major Major Major

    Open thread? Took the new binoculars out for a spin, down to a park by the UN. Looked at some birds. Saw a nice cardinal. Found the cardinal because it was making quite a racket… Lots of little brown birds, and not all house sparrows. I dunno! Was a great exercise in presence and such.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    @raven: Great! That will last until six black robes in DC decide it means voter suppression is just fine because they say it is and no take backsies!

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    Why is that idiot Crowder wearing a shoulder holster in his studio? Which I’m pretty sure is in his house. He’s Canadian. He does not have any sort of right to be or work in the US. He should have whatever work visa he’s on yanked and his useless dupa shipped back to wherever he came from in Canada.

  45. 45.

    Martin

    Sarah Taber is a must follow, btw.

    Oh, and I assembled the engineering brain trust to work out a solution for the Suez Canal ship, and the best option is to Operation Plowshare it. Surprised Musk hasn’t offered to dig a tunnel under it.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I am no mathematician, the Lord she knoweth — so my feelings won’t be hurt if somebody points and laughs in my general direction — but in the WaPo tweet, I don’t think the text (Tom Vilsack: “We saw 99 percent of the money going to White farmers and 1 percent going to socially disadvantaged black farmers.”) matches the photo caption (“Vilsack says only 0.1 percent of Trump…”)

    Isn’t 0.1 percent = 1/10 of 1 percent? Or should I go back to fourth grade for a refresher?

    (And now I’ll read the thread and see if anyone else has addressed this.)

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: He’s from New Jersey, that put on accent is terrible. I think he’s trying to do Randy Savage. Also, I’m pretty sure this guy was a crim major at USF and was one of my dad’s students, but don’t quote me as I’m not 100% sure.

    I know that one of my dad’s masters students married either Vader or Kane, I just can’t remember which one.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: Which is interesting because every firearms site is full of posts and comments about how there are no guns to be had and no ammo even if you can find a gun to buy.

  51. 51.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne: Your math is correct. She forgot a decimal point. I did notice it but then I got distracted by debbie and before I knew it a front pager was yelling at me…

  52. 52.

    Yutsano

    @Adam L Silverman: ​
      They’re all being sold in Athens, GA?

    Side note: the visual typing bug seems close to fixed…except it just happened in this post. Dastardly little bugger, it is.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @guachi:

    Yeah, and a black female legislator knocked on the Governor’s office door so she could witness the signing, and was promptly hauled off to Fulton County Jail.

  56. 56.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Martin: He’s an idiot. Two weeks ago, as the Republicans were making a ridiculous amount of noise about trans girls playing in girls sports in high school, he decided to go to a gym and clandestinely live stream it dressed as a trans woman to prove that trans women in gyms would not be well received. Everyone largely ignored him until he made a scene and they threw him out for being an asshole not pretending to be a trans woman.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yutsano: The site hasn’t worked right since we moved to the new one. Half the time I’m not posting is because I just can’t get the site to work. And that’s logged in as a front pager. From the commenting problem to the dashboard locking up to the site crashing my devices, the damn thing is just a buggy mess. But, apparently, I just don’t know how to 1) use my computer and 2) know how to use the Internet, so 3) there’s no real problem it’s just all in my head.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The tweet misquotes Vilsack. His exact quote, which is in the article snippet at the top of this very post: “We saw 99 percent of the money going to White farmers and 1 percent going to socially disadvantaged farmers and if you break that down to how much went to Black farmers, it’s 0.1 percent.”

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    I find the Ever Given story fascinating. The ship is owned by a Japanese firm, Shoei Kisen Kaisha. It is “operated” by a Taiwanese firm, Evergreen, but is “managed” by a German firm, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (their spelling.) It is, of course, registered in Panama. The crew are all Indians. The salvor is Dutch, with bases in Rotterdam, Houston, Cape Town and Singapore.

  65. 65.

    Major Major Major Major

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: I did. And as you know, I know very little about web design and development. My emails explaining what the problems are don’t even get replied to any more.

    And, apparently, I’m the problem.

  67. 67.

    pat

    So the Suez Canal is half a mile wide and this ship is half a mile long.
    Who could have predicted a problem if it looses steering and goes sideways?
    Sheesh.​
     
    loses, not looses

  68. 68.

    Seanly

    Holy crap, those guys were a bunch of raging assholes. I just can’t stand racist dirtbags like that.

  70. 70.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Given how Alain was treated, and how you were treated behind the scenes by the person that was and is still ignoring us about this stuff, it is probably better that you are still being ignored by her.

  71. 71.

    scav

    @Major Major Major Major: Yes, people do sometimes rather get into their theories and grandly announce the death of geography, etc. etc. etc. And then geography (along with simple geometry) doesn’t cooperate.

    Go physical world.

  72. 72.

    prostratedragon

    @Gin & Tonic: Yes, it is fascinating somehow. I’m looking at Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate as something to read on the subject. Same author has an article in the Guardian.

    @debbie:  Some article I saw said the same ship ran afoul of wind off Hamburg a while back. Strange sort of technique to be polishing.

    @Major Major Major Major: @pat:
    Bingo. Gives a kind of promises-fulfilled hilarity to the general misfortune.

  74. 74.

    Kelly

    Vaccination appointment for Mrs Kelly and I Monday afternoon! Our local hospital called just before supper. Seems like they had openings they are determined to fill. The lady said she’d been on the phone all day. I think they got my number from a local nonprofit I worked with to pay for fire damage our neighborhood’s road and may have thought our home burned down, a new category. I told her our home was lightly singed but OK and  I didn’t think we qualified until May.  She said we’ll make this work, asked her boss and we’re in.

  76. 76.

    Bill Arnold

    Facebook’s New Board Has Incentives to Bring Back Donald Trump – The panel is structured in ways that help the former president’s chances of regaining his posting privileges. (Paul Barrett, March 23, 2021)
    [rant sitting in my notes for a couple of days]
    Everyone should consider deplatforming Facebook and its trackers as much as reasonable for them. (Also other trackers.)
    Things that can be helpful. To anyone with other suggestions or corrections: please share.
    (Safari? ewww. Amazon Silk? install google play on your kindle., then some other browser. :-)
    If using Chrome (Tracking by Google), switch to Brave
    (There are other privacy focused browsers as well.)
    Add some tracker/ad blockers. (Kiwi Browser on android allows Chrome extensions, seems to work.)
    – “uBlock Origin”, “Privacy Badger” are a popular basic loadout.
    – “Block Facebook” extension on Chrome/related browsers blocks a lot of facebook-related urls.
    – On Firefox install “Facebook Container” to isolate any facebook sessions.
    – (Chrome) “Disconnect”, “Ghostery”, “TrackMeNot”, “Privacy Possum” are interesting. Always the risk of a rogue plugin/extension though.
    – There are many other tracker blocker/privacy extensions/addons. (Do a google search first though for opinions on them.)
    – (Firefox) “Decentralize”, “Trackmenot”, “Privacy Possum” are interesting. Always the risk of a rogue plugin/extension though.
    – For the paranoid and geeky, NoScript (Firefox)/ScriptSafe(Chrome) selectively block javascript. Learning curve involved.
    – Turn up the privacy settings in your browser a bit, if possible; see what if anything breaks.

  77. 77.

    dww44

    @raven: it’s not the new rules that are most worrisome. It’s the power grab that wrests control from the duly elected Secretary of State, gives all control to the legislature and gives them removal authority over local election officials and outcomes they don’t like. As Maddow said , the Ga GOP just legitimated  the Big Lie.  If this law stands our democracy dies.

  79. 79.

    Ohio Mom

    Adam L. Silverman and Majorx4

    Thank you. It is validating to hear from other people that the “new” blog is broken. For me, it often crashes repeatedly while it is loading. Also, the reply button has never worked for me.

    Now I will return to suffering in silence.

  82. 82.

    Martin

    @Bill Arnold: Curious why you ‘ewww’ the one browser/platform with enough market clout to cause Facebook to freak out.

    Nothing against your other suggestions, but Apple is a few weeks away from knocking roughly a billion users out of Facebooks tracking system.

  83. 83.

    Martin

    California is doing okay on the vaccine front. I’ve now turned down two offers for a vaccine appointment, which is encouraging. Shifting the burden from the individual to take the initiative is good for uptake.

  85. 85.

    dmsilev

    @Martin: 440,000 doses administered yesterday according to the state Public Health folks. Over a percent of the entire population getting a dose just yesterday, so yeah, definitely seems to be ramping up. Looking at the chart that the LA Times compiled, seems like someone hit the ‘Turboboost’ button a couple of weeks ago; the average rate has almost doubled since the beginning of the month.

  86. 86.

    Martin

    @dmsilev: Yeah, supply increased. Supposed to go up another 50% next week, which is why we’re opening to 50+. Would love to see a 750K day.

  87. 87.

    Kayla Rudbek

     

    @Kelly: if they’re willing to give you the vaccine, go ahead and take it.  My first dose is scheduled for March 31st as of today, so Northern Virginia is starting to move along as well.

  88. 88.

    dmsilev

    @Martin: The supply numbers are a bit weird. The state had been reporting about 2.5 million doses administered per week for the last two weeks, but supply is stated to be much lower than that, around 1.8 million this week and a bit less last week. Maybe the doses administered by the (federal) pharmacy program aren’t counted against the supply allotment?

    But yeah, getting up to six or seven hundred thousand a day and beyond would be wonderful.

  91. 91.

    karen marie

    @Adam L Silverman: I think it’s a Google issue. My gmail has been fucked up on my tablet for months, and the other day they rolled out an update on something to do with viewing that caused all kinds of apps to repeatedly crash on Android devices. I had to uninstall Chrome and reinstall to factory. I started having issues here about the same time my gmail (viewed in browser, not app) started having issues.

  93. 93.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kelly: We got jabbed yesterday because my husband is immuno compromised.  I figured it would be by the end of April.  Vaccine availability is increasing rapidly; as we were making our appointments for jab #2 the person saw more appointments added in real time.  Things are picking up.

  96. 96.

    Benw

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think his math checks out. He said “socially disadvantaged farmers,” not “socially disadvantaged black farmers.”

    In AL’s OP:

    Black farmers received only $20.8 million of nearly $26 billion

    So that’s 0.08% but he rounded up to 0.1%

    Either way it’s disgustingly racist.

  100. 100.

    Bill Arnold

    @Martin:

    but Apple is a few weeks away from knocking roughly a billion users out of Facebooks tracking system.

    Ah, good.
    I haven’t used a macbook for a year and a half, and never figured out how to install blockers in safari (iOS/macbook’s main virtue is a proper (though quirky) command line. :-)
    Just used these instructions to install a blocker (Firefox Focus) on my iPhone’s Safari.
    https://blog.standardnotes.org/how-to-block-ads-and-trackers-in-safari-for-ios/
    Seems to improve protection according to a test using coveryourtracks.eff.org

  101. 101.

    Booger

    @Omnes Omnibus:  DUH. He was born John Baldwin and was a successful session player and arranged on the London pop scene before tiring of the grind and joining Jimmy Page in the formation of the New Yardbirds, later renamed Led Zeppelin.

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