Posted on 12/06/2022 8:32:57 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The federal government has illegally broken a promise to pay off the debts of a group of Black farmers, according to a class-action lawsuit. The group hopes to put pressure on officials to keep their word and to restore funding that was dropped after a group of white farmers filed legal challenges arguing their exclusion was a violation of their constitutional rights.
The lawsuit filed in October remains active even as the U.S. Department of Agriculture moves forward with another effort to help farmers in financial distress in addition to paying farmers who the agency discriminated against.
John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association and one of four plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said that the new programs don’t match the USDA’s earlier offer to pay off 120% of the debt of farmers who are socially disadvantaged.
According to the lawsuit, this definition applies to more than 6,500 farmers who have “traditionally suffered racial or ethnic prejudice,” and are saddled with federal loan obligations. The lawsuit says this includes Native Americans or Alaska Natives; Asian Americans; Black Americans or African Americans; Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders; and Hispanic Americans or Latino Americans.
The proposed payments and lawsuits follow a long history of the USDA refusing to process loans from farmers of color, and in some cases foreclosing more quickly than usual when such farmers who obtained loans ran into problems.
The federal government settled a lawsuit in 1999 filed by Black farmers and paid more than $2.4 billion, but court filings later acknowledged there were persistent problems in the USDA farm loan programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I guess WHITE farmers are screwed. They never have problems.
GIBS-ME-DAT forgiveness of all my debt. We clearly are living in a GIBS-ME-DAT world. The takers are beginning to outnumber the makers.
Didn’t Obama give them a few billion
Farmers of color????
What colors do they grow?????
I be a farmer...GIBS ME DAT aid.....
You’re an idiot.
I don’t know any farmers who are white. All the farmers I know have skin that ranges from beige to tan to light brown to reddish to dark brown to black. No white person among them. I’ve got an albino friend, and her skin isn’t even white; it’s pinkish. Honestly, I know nobody whose skin is naturally white.
I have a little “color”. Can I join in?
Grifter sons of bitches
he USDA’s earlier offer to pay off 120% of the debt of farmers
who are socially disadvantaged.
That's racist! They're clearly a bunch of black supremacists, and a threat to "our democracy".
Throw 'em in jail.
Thank you
Another vote buying scheme.
Sounds like a story from South Africa.
Come to think of it, the Democratic Party is slowly morphing into an ANC-style political party.
What happened to Pigford? They already paid $75000 to any black that claimed they attempted to farm and were denied a loan. No proof, just say so. You will never appease them.
Anyway—white is a color.
I want my gimmes from the gubmint!
Just like the student loan forgiveness. The $$ was promised, then the rules caught up with the scheme. Naturally, those who were promised something are torqued. Just couldn’t wait to get the word out to curry favor.
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