And still, as we attempt to litigate or deconstruct or defend whatever our position is in terms of the Civil War, some say it was all about states rights. Others declare it was about slavery. However you cast it, it was about slavery and the right to own people because it was the best economics of the time. Here is one pivotal quote: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth." The entire document is found here: lon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp
Black Farmers then and Now
And then switch to more modern times. Black farmers, just a generation or so removed from slavery owned something like 16-19M acres, and there were approximately 925,000 of them. Now, there are approximately 37,000 Black farmers who are farming somewhere around 4M acres. White farmers are far more numerous and farm substantially more acreage. Their farms are larger, something like 436 acres to 120 acres.
And then move this way a little further. In 1990 the Farm Bill designated a group of farmers as Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers. Not a lot of noise about that until 2020 when hidden within the America Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was a sum of money for debt relief for Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian farmers and then a sum of money for programmatic sorts of things. And then the white farmers come out en masse and file lawsuits in federal courts in Texas, Wisconsin, and Florida, led ostensibly by one of trump's henchmen in charge of the immigration policy. Their complaints have several layers to them, all nuanced around white privilege and white supremacy, alleging that the designation of SDFRs was unconstitutional and that debt relief for that group was unconstitutional and that white farmers should have their fair share of it.
Mistreated, Discriminated Against, Now, How is That?
So, I decided to see how unfavorably the first six litigants were treated. Those six pulled in $523,000 in subsidies, MFP, and CFAP, the latter two of which are for Trump's failed war with China and the other is coronavirus relief funds. That's a lot of money for being mistreated between 1995 and 2020. Farmers and ranchers in the counties within which those farms and ranches are located pulled in over $1.2B during those same years. If indeed there is an appreciably small percentage of SDFRs in those counties who received little if any support in terms of subsidies, MFP, and CFAP, then I would not say that the white farmers have been treated poorly. In fact, in keeping with how the USDA has worked since the beginning, the system continues to work the way it is supposed to work, toward those who have white skin.
What About Those Threads?
So, do you see the threads of this post?
What do you see?
If you and I were talking, and if I were saying the words printed above, what would you hear me saying?
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