Black History Month and Me

I have to admit that I have little patience for people who ignore or dismiss with benign neglect the significance of Black History Month. Yes, nail me for being judgmental, or nail me for my attitude toward people who are dismissive of Black people and the history and depth and breadth of the contributions of Black America upon America. 

Several years ago, an official in the USDA approached me at a land loss summit, pulled me aside, and encouraged me to tell the farmers to "get over it," to move on with their lives and to let this thing drop. I actually ran across his page over on Facebook, the "people you may know" app, and low and behold, yes, I did "know" him, if a weekend makes for knowing.  I wonder what he thinks of things now.  Does he even remember that inflammatory conversation. 

That same weekend, another USDA employee was distant and "in his head" about these matters of injustices, but another USDA employee was not. Through her tears she had us turn off our recording devices and she spoke the truth to us, the truth that we knew to be THE TRUTH. I am still deeply grateful for her and have sought her advice on several occasions. 

The truth is that this country was built on the backs of Black people. Their bodies were the commodity that was worth so much that we'd choose to fight a civil war over it, but then, once that was over, and reconstruction was gone, and the Black Codes, and then separate but equal, and Jim Crow were in place, we promptly forgot, or we never knew because teachers were forbidden or afraid to teach the truth in our history classes. 

I consider myself to be more than an ally these days.  Early on I was an outside observer. Over the course of time, I was invited in to participate. Now, though I have not put it up for vote, I consider myself a fully engaged member of the movement. Stories of Black America, from Africa through the Middle Passage, to the auction block, to plantation life, Freedom, Reconstruction, Jim Crow South, and up to now, I have heard stories. Numerous farmers have chronicled their genealogies all the way back to slave days. Their ancestor's name, on a specific plantation, and how things rolled from them to now. 

So, don't tell me that enslavement was then and there but this is here and now. I do not ask for forgiveness when I get angry at people who stick their heads in the sand and ignore or disregard the stories of the ancestors and their survival against insurmountable odds. 

In theological terms, "Black farmers" is a particular. Racism is the universal. Racism that has undergirded our country invaded the halls of the USDA from DC down to the county committee level. So, you talk about Black farmers, you'll be talking about them, and you'll be making inferences for racism in America.

Thirty years ago, I had not heard of "Black farmers," and now, the term is in my every day vernacular. I read, research, write, advocate, and tell stories of Black farmers. I sit in on teleconference or Zoom meetings with senators' offices in DC, crafting The Justice for Black  Farmers Act of 2021, introduced in the Senate by Booker, Warren, Warnock, and Gillibrand, or finding out the current status of things, or asking why a particular phrase was there in the text rather than another phrase. 

I am encouraged by Senator Reverend Warnock's bill, "Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act," which has been written into President Biden's COVID-19 Relief Act," a bill that will relieve the indebtedness of Black farmers, and other minority farmers, where interest is piled on top of interest on top of interest, initially created by USDA officials who discriminated against them. Otherwise, the debt would not be there.

We have it on good record that 20,000 Black farmers are on the verge of foreclosure. In 1920, there were 950,000 Black farmers who farmed on 22,000 farms, who in 1910 farmed 47,000,000 acres. In 1910, Black farmers owned 19,100,000 acres, which was down to 16,700,000 acres in 1920.

In 2017, there were 35,470 Black-owned farms with total acreage of 4,673,140 acres and an average farm size of 132 acres. In this same year, the percentage of Black-owned farms was 1.7%. 

According to Stucki and Rosenberg (2019) and Lloyd Wright (2021), the numbers of loans to Black farmers is incredibly low by comparison to white farmers. They estimate that in terms of the loss of generational wealth to Black families given the horrendous loss of farms and acres is close to $1 trillion dollars. Here is what that looks like: $1,000,000,000,000. 

Now, on the one hand, we have a redo Secretary at the USDA. He failed the first time, but we are watching him now. On the other hand, we have hope in The Act of 2021, authored primarily by Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, and we have the bill for emergency relief that will offer $5 billion in debt relief and services. 

No sum of money will make Black farmers whole. After all, what is a pair of eyes, a pair of kidneys, a brain, or a marriage and family worth? There is no price.

So, don't tell me that there is no need any longer for Black History Month.