Right Wing Opposes Settlement to Black Farmers Discriminated Against by a Real Racist

Virginia farmer John Boyd describes a scene from a painful past: a white U.S. Department of Agriculture loan officer only allows black farmers to apply for loans one day a week. "Black Wednesday," the farmers call it, and they line up outside the USDA office in Richmond, Va. The loan officer, James Garnett, leaves the door to his office open so that all the farmers in the hallway can hear the loan requests of their colleagues be summarily, and vehemently, denied.
But Black Wednesday was not an artifact of the '50s. This was the America of the '80s and '90s, and in 1994, the USDA itself commissioned a review of the treatment of minorities in its Farm Service Agency programs. The commission's study found that "minorities received less than their fair share of USDA money for crop payments, disaster payments, and loans."
The result was a massive class-action lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman, which the USDA settled out of court in 1999, admitting to widespread racial discrimination against black farmers in its loan programs between 1981 and 1996. About 15,000 farmers were paid a total of more than $900 million in the settlement. But tens of thousands of farmers filed claims after the deadline, and many charged that the government's outreach had been insufficient, causing them to miss their opportunity.
In February 2010, President Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack promised an additional $1.15 billion to cover the remaining claims, but the story doesn't end there. The settlement agreement mandated that Congress appropriate the funds by March 31 of this year. The deadline came and went with no action by Congress, and so the future of the settlement remains in limbo.
After years of Black Wednesdays, John Boyd founded the National Black Farmers Association, spearheading both the original lawsuit and the effort to reopen the Pigford case in order to allow the claims of the farmers who missed the deadline. Salon spoke with Boyd about the history of the lawsuit and what the missed deadline means for farmers.
What happened between you and the USDA loan officer in Richmond?
Mr. Garnett had made 147 farm loans in Mecklenburg County, Va. Only one of those loans was to a black farmer, and he was the minority advisor to the USDA county committee. When they investigated Mr. Garnett, they asked him, "Do you have a problem making black farm loans?" Guess what he said? He said yes. He said yes, I think that they're lazy, and they're just looking for a paycheck every Friday.
Mr. Garnett took my loan application and tore it up and threw it in the trash can while I was sitting there in front of him. And he said he wasn't going to lend me any of his money. When I asked him why he wasn't going to make the loan, he said, "Well, I don't have any money now. If you want to come back again next year, that's up to you, but I think you need to go ahead and just sell your farm. I've got a farmer, Mr. Blaylock, and you can milk cows on his farm. I think that would be the best opportunity for you and your family."
I was mad. I was looking for a $10,000 operating loan to plant my crop. After nine years in a row I'd only gotten one loan from the USDA farm services, and I would apply every year.
I said, "Mr. Garnett, I don't think I can go back and tell my wife that I'm not going to get an operating loan again." And he said he didn't care. And when he said he didn't care, I told him to go to hell in a handbasket, and he began to use profanity, and he spit tobacco on my shirt.
When the investigator asked him, "Did you spit chewing tobacco on John Boyd's shirt?" He said, "Well, yeah." He claimed he accidentally missed his spit can.
Note many GOP law makers are denying the settlement to these Black Farmers that were discriminated for 15 years... by real white racist name James Garnett.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Right
• Wing
• Opposes
• Settlement
• to
• Black
• Farmers
• Discriminated
• Against
• by
• Real
• Racist

[quaffer22]

This is being "stalled", because of so many fraudulent claims.

There were 27,000 black farmers when this started. NOW, there are 70,000 claimants.

FRAUD !!

[yakyakyak69]

Why is the Gov't giving ANY loans to ANYONE???

When some can be forced to give charity to others, the first group are in-fact being made slaves of the second.

Progressives are SLAVERS, SLAVE OWNERS AND SLAVES to a political class and THEIR corporate and banking masters.

We are ALL serfs on "Federal Reserve Land" because you cannot discharge debt with counterfeit debt currency. THIS is how they can regulate, tax and even take "your" property.

See: "Money as Debt" here on YouTube

[TheYesWinston]

lol racists... they should jew off and stop being so black about it.

[Nathanielc2]

@MrBlubberbee Oh...Sorry... The Bush administration's Justice Department NEVER EVEN FILED CHARGES... So I guess the Bush administration is guilty of racism too...? YES?

[Nathanielc2]

@MrBlubberbee #1 Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch (Fox News) which means extremely partisan...end! #2 J. Christian Adams IS A WELL KNOWN RIGHT WING HACK & GOP operative. #3 LOL, someone resigning is your defense? Laughable! #4 You are lying, NOT ONE VOTER came forward with voter intimidation. #5 You only countered ONE of my points... the others are lonely! If this is your idea of education then the vehicle you rode to acquire this "eduaction" was quite shorter than the rest.

[MrBlubberbee]

@Nathanielc2 You are misinformed, Bush didn't "drop" charges, do your homework. One reference... the Wall Street Journal 8/20/09. Moreover Obama instructed the Civil Rights Division of the Department Of Justice to ignore cases involving black defendants and white victims... this per former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams who resigned over this. I don't have the time to educate you, if you have been paying attention you would know all other examples of Obama administration racism.

[Nathanielc2]

#2 @MrBlubberbee the BUSH administration DROPPED ALL CHARGES in the Black Panther Voter Intimidation case in Philadelphia... Why? Here are the facts... 1. There was not ONE PERSON in that district that complained of VOTER INTIMIDATION! 2. The people who complained about the Black Panthers being at the poll (the same who shot the video) were GOP OPERATIVES AND POLL WATCHERS ONLY. 3. Less that 12% of the people in that district are WHITE... so who the hell are Black Panthers intimidating????

[Nathanielc2]

#1 @MrBlubberbee you said "Obama is the most racist president we have ever had." Your own statements reflect an intellect based on either cynicism or ignorance... With the president I am about to quote, I bet that reflection is derived from the later. I shall now quote a WHITE president who said this on tape "abortion is GOOD when it's a BLACK and a WHITE..."

[MrBlubberbee]

@blueiguy1 Obama and racist democrats showered black farmers with bail-out money in 2008. 92,000 black farmers received bail-out money, the problem is that there are less than 25,000 commercial black farmers in the entire country. Of course there are racist whites, however Obama is the most racist president we have ever had. Too many examples to list here. Voter intimidation in Philadelphia (new black panther party 2008) is just one example of Obamas department of justice refusing to prosecute.

[blueiguy1]

@MrBlubberbee All farmers need loans thats for business in general. If white people worked so hard then why did they need loans also? Which they got. Is it really that surprising that white people actually are capable of discrimination....

[MrBlubberbee]

If the government didn't hand out subsidies to black farmers there would be no black farmers. Does anyone really believe blacks want to work that hard?

[idiotfinder911]

Looking like Dr John Boyd isnt a real Dr. LOLOLOL. Go Figure! America just fooled and this Pigford case turned out to be a possible good thing into a SCAM!!!