What did you mean about the commercial fishermen not being the right color - was the Clinton admin trying to say that black or brown folks were being denied the ability to gain licenses?
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I said “wrong race”, not “wrong color”. There was this Black guy I remember, who thought the same that it was color which was the problem.
He went out and bought a nice new bowpicker for maybe 20K nets for 10K and a permit for 20K; he figured he’s make it back in a year.
So when an area near Seattle was open for people of the “right race”, he sallied forth and was merrily drifting and dreaming when the fish cops boarded and ticketed him for illegal fishing, and took the fish he had onboard.
(They were sold to a buyer, and as was the “custom”, only a few fish were recorded on the fish ticket and reflected on the resulting check made out to the state - the rest of the money from the sale was in cash pocketed by the fish cop. Fish cops in those days were buying all manner of new homes and fancy cars and trucks).
The Black guy arranged a meeting with the Director of Fisheries to clear the problem up, since he was a person of color and so entitled under the law (he thought) to fish at times and places when the people of the “right race” were fishing.
The Director set him straight saying, “Yes you are a minority, but SCOTUS (Washington v. Fishing Vessel Assn July 1979) and the Boldt Decision (USA v State of Washington No. 9535202 Oct 1996) clearly spell out that the Right Race pertains to Treaty Tribes, a member of which you are not.”
The Black guy put his boat, gear, and permit up for sale shortly after ...
Moral: never confuse race with color.
As for Clinton, like every thing else he did in office, his programs of aid were for show only. There was never any actual intent to help the devastated commercial fishing community. There was even 10 million set aside for loans with another 10 if needed. However, the loans were predicated on documented loss (how do you document a loss from a fishing opening that never happened?) and that needed to be reflected in income tax records for the proceeding 5 years.
Unless a guy had a second job like bus driver or teacher, there was little or no money - out of $70K of my loss they were willing to loan for 4 years $2.5K at 10%, with payments of $250 a month or so. I could do better at a bank. After a while, the only real loans went to school teachers who moonlighted as fishermen for $10-20K, and the really big loans went to the gear houses by the millions; of the $10 million only $3 or $4 million were actually loaned out, the rest was turned back, since full time commercial fishermen did not qualify.
And so others signed up for the retraining programs, but by that time many of us saw through these fake offers and found more work in Alaska fisheries to make ends meet.
What a tale of waste and anti-American hatred by Clintoon. UK’s generations-deep fishing families have had the same troubles since the EU took over, and the abuse of its fisheries for politically correct reasons was a big incentive for Brexit. Fishers were having to yield the majority of their catch to the EU for redistribution elsewhere but their own country. I had no idea fishing had been politicized here, too. My sympathies, FRiend.