- Dec 8, 2013
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Florida judge blocks USDA debt relief payments to farmers of color
Debt relief payments to farmers of color from the US Department of Agriculture were blocked nationwide Wednesday by a federal judge in Florida, the second halt on the payments as push back mounts against the assistance that some White farmers say is racially discriminatory.
CNN reached out to the USDA for comment on Thursday.
Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed the lawsuit in May on behalf of the Florida farmer, said the injunction enforces that “government can’t treat people unequally based on immutable characteristics like race.”
“The government can’t allow some people to take part in federal programs while denying others based solely on the color of their skin. The courts have rightfully rejected such discrimination in the past and should do so now,” Wen Fa, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement Wednesday.
John Boyd Jr., a fourth-generation farmer and founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association who is has filed amicus briefs in the lawsuits against the debt relief program, told CNN he is “very disappointed” by the decision and called it a “travesty.”
“It is a shame this federal judge clearly doesn’t understand what discrimination is. It’s black and other farmers of color who have been discriminated against by USDA in all its program(s). Addressing decades long discrimination in the debt relief provision is not unconstitutional,” Boyd, Jr. said in a text message Thursday, adding that he would continue advocate for relief. “This decision records in present time just how bad race relations are between Black and White farmers in America.”
Over the years, Black farmers have been driven off their land and have faced discrimination from the USDA. In 1920, the USDA counted 925,708 Black farmers, amounting to about 14% of all farmers at the time. There were only 45,508 Black farmers — roughly 1.3% of all 3.4 million US farmers — in the United States in 2017, according to a recent USDA Census of Agriculture.
Republicans, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, criticized the relief program included in the stimulus package. And three of the US’ largest banking groups are also pushing back against the debt relief payments who say banks would suffer “a loss of income” if the loans are paid off early.
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Of course the China News Network is all over the FARMERS OF COLOR.....
Divide and conquer.
Only good thing is how most of those CNN losers will be among the first to be lined up on a wall and shot when the country fully falls to the absolute Marxists.
