Video Courtesy: AlJazeeraEnglish Pay the Black Farmers
By Mel Reeves
TheUrbanFly
August, 5, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS: In the wake of the Shirley Sherrod controversy and the recent effort by Rahm
Emmanuel to secure 1.2 billion for Arkansas farmers for damages suffered in 2008
the Congressional Black Caucus, established black media and the black
blogosphere are demanding that president Obama find a way to find a way to pay
the black farmers.
The government settled a civil lawsuit with the Black farmers in 1999. In the suit Pigford v Glickman, the government agreed to pay 1.2 billion dollars to an estimated 16,000 farmers-- and in some cases descendants-- who had suffered discrimination at the hands of the United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA), which in years past had consistently denied black farmers loans given routinely to white farmers. And according to the farmers, the lack of loans and other help directly resulted in foreclosures and financial ruin. It was later discovered that thousands more black farmers had not been aware of the filing deadline that was attached to the compensation and the Black Farmers Association successfully petitioned the government to extend the deadline.
Earlier this week Congressional Black Caucus(CBC) members and House Democrats; Barbara Lee (Calif.), G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Artur Davis (Ala.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.), David Scott (Ga.) and Sanford Bishop (Ga.) wrote a letter calling on President Obama to find a way to deliver the monies promised in the suit. Members had pressed USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack on the issue of compensation to Black and Native American farmers last week in a meeting following the clearing up of the Shirley Sherrod fiasco. Sherrod, who was fired as a result of having remarks she made at a local NAACP meeting taken out of context, has used her brief notoriety to press for compensation for the black farmers as well, asking the President to be vigilant on their behalf in their present dealings with the USDA.
The CBC members as well as members of the black blogosphere like Jack and Jill politics and Field Negro seized on the apparent inconsistency of the administrations claims not to have money to compensate the black and native farmers, while Rahm Emmanuel was able to secure 1.5 billion for disaster assistance for Arkansas farmers.
Emmanuel, the White House Chief of Staff, promised Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) that the Obama administration would find a way to pay out 1.5 billion in disaster assistance to farmers, while they wait for provisions in the 2008 farm bill to be implemented.
Video courtesy: jwboyd
The Hill.com provided excerpts of the letter from the CBC members: “The current hardships experienced by other farmers should not trump hardships placed on African Americans and Native Americans by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the past,” they wrote. “At every turn, the response provided for not funding these claims has been a lack of money available to fund the settlements.” “As the CBC is well aware, ‘justice deferred is justice denied,’ ” the letter continued. “The black and Native American claimants across our nation have long waited for a fair settlement of their cases. The continued failure to fund these settlements has exacerbated an economic catastrophe for many of these individuals.”
While trying to avoid the obvious pitfall of pitting white farmers against black farmers black bloggers and columnist let their displeasure with the presidents’ apparent apathy toward black issues be known.
“The consistent theme for black farmers is that like Sherrod, they are also being thrown under the bus of equity. The idea that our government would settle a case, agree upon an amount to be paid, and then deny funding is incredibly disturbing in light of hundreds of billions of dollars being granted and spent in other areas of our economy,” protested Dr. Boyce Watkins, writing for theloop21.com
“Obama himself is not the one directly responsible for making the deal. Instead, it was Rahm Emanuel, his Chief of Staff. But given that Emanuel takes his orders from Obama, the president is ultimately the one to be held accountable for this glaring double standard.”
