A Revealing Roundtable Discussion

Last night on blogtalk radio, a significant conversation was held. You can listen to that hour and a half conversation here. There were five significant persons on the radio. To follow the conversation, I imagined that there was a large, round table in the middle of the room. Sitting on one side of the table was Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group. Marti Oakley is the host of the show which is sponsored by Marcel Reid and the National Whistleblowers Association. 

Sitting around the table were Kathryn Joyce, Bryce Stucki, and Nate Rosenberg, author of "The 'Machine That Eats Up Black Farmland'" that was recently published. And, Emma Scott and Nate Rosenberg who along with others recently published the Harvard Brief, "Supporting Civil Rights at USDA: Opportunities to Reform the USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights." Other authors of the Harvard Brief are  Emily Broad Leib, Ava Cilia, and Merve Ciplak, all from the Food Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School. 

You'll notice that Nate Rosenberg is author of both the popular level article and the academic article. 

These professionals were led in a roundtable type of discussion by Lawrence Lucas. I could imagine sitting there. Topics included the history of the Office of Civil Rights at USDA, how it is supposed to operate and how it in fact operates. Stories were told of named and un-named insiders who told tragic stories of how civil rights complaints are handled. One former employee provided a detailed description of how employees within a department that is supposed to protect the rights of those who work at USDA and those who are recipients of services are supposed to be treated. 

Gross mistreatment is an understatement. Not only did this panel review the literature and policies of USDA's Office of Civil Rights, they also interviewed Black farmers. 

Stories merge into a cohesive whole of 1) nobody cares, 2) all pretend to care, 3) people are shuffled here and there, 4) OCR is a dumping ground for disgruntled employees, and 5) Black farmers are treated with malfeasance. 

Lawsuits are coming as white farmers are screaming "discrimination" against Senator Warnock's bills, famously known as 1005 and 1006 within the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 which President Biden signed into law recently. 

White farmers have been treated very, very well. See my "Dear White People" post from recent days here on the blog. 

This is one of the best interviews I've ever heard on this program. It's an hour and a half long, but would be well worth the investment of time and energy. 

Dear Grandson

Dear Grandson:

You have been a part of something huge. You are only five years of age, and you likely do not get it now. You do what five year-old kids do, you read, run, pretend, build forts, play with your sisters, eat Poppie Snacks with me, sit next to your Mema and watch Paw Patrol, and make pretend things out of your food. 

So, I do not expect you to understand what a big thing you have been a part of. Some day, though, when you're older, I suspect that we'll have a conversation about you, the movement, and your place in it. I look forward to that day. Your one act of speaking up, walking in the crowd, holding up a sign, and yelling to the top of your lungs, those were huge. 

It all started back on Monday, May 25, 2020, when a police officer held down a Black man, George Floyd, by the neck with his knee on him for 9:29 until he died. A courageous young man, an MMA fighter stood there, yelled at the police, bearing witness to the brutality of it all, and a young woman stood there, seventeen years of age, and recorded it all with her phone, bearing witness to the brutality, the murder, that she was watching. Her nine year old niece stood beside her. 

Some people try to make that story complicated. Some try to make George Floyd out to be a villain. I say that's ridiculous. It all started with what ostensibly was a fake $20 bill. Perhaps it was fake, but whether it was or wasn't is beside the point. It did not merit George Floyd dying. He did not have to die.

Since that time, since the courageous young woman posted the video to her Facebook feed, the world has seen the struggle to breathe, crying out that he couldn't breathe, crying out for his mother, all multiple times, with the police officer's knee on his neck, long after there was any threat. He was handcuffed and lying on his stomach on the street. The cop had his knee on his neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds. And then he died. He actually died while the knee was still on his neck. 

The world cried out. The world cried out loudly. 

Protests were held across the country in big cities and little towns. In cities where there was a large population of Black people and in parts of the country where there are no Black people. The protests were largely civil. People wore their masks, protested loudly with words and with signs. Yes, there were some ugly things that happened after dark, but I think those were opportunists, and not true marchers for justice. 

No Justice No Peace; Black Lives Matter; Am I Next; George Floyd's Life Mattered; I Can't Breathe; and all manner of other signs were seen around the country. 

One of those protests took place here in our city. Your mother, father, sisters, and you participated. You held up that "Black Lives Matter" sign and from the look on your face in a photo that I do not have permission to post, you were obviously yelling something. I suspect it was "Black Lives Matter!" I saw that picture of you in the newspaper and I wept. 

Since George Floyd's death there have been multiple protests; a sort of reckoning is going on in America. People are beginning to realize that Black Lives Do Matter because they have never mattered from enslavement, Middle Passage, the plantation days, freedom, Jim Crow, and all the way up to now, Black lives have only mattered when their bodies mattered to us economically. 

One of the people that we have worked closely with is a staffer in Senator Booker's office. He said a while back that there has been nothing like this in the history of the US, that there is a racial reckoning happening. As a result of that reckoning, people that I care about deeply, Black Farmers, have a potential new lease on life with debt relief that is now signed into law and with the hope that The Justice For Black Farmers Act of 2021 brings if and when it is passed. 

On Tuesday of this week we listened with much anxiety to the judge's words. Actually, we had watched much of the trial of the murderer of George Floyd. We were hoping for a conviction, but we have seen many times before when a person guilty of  murdering someone walked free. Your Mema and I were afraid to hope. But then we heard the judge's words, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, and we were excited. We pumped the air, your Mema honked her horn as we drove down the highway. We were ecstatic. When we got home, we watched again as the cop who had kept his knee on George Floyd's neck for 9:29 was handcuffed and carried away to prison. We watched as the family and lawyers joyfully spoke. We watched as the protest there in Minneapolis was held peacefully. 

From Mr. Floyd's murder to the guilty verdict of Mr. Floyd's killer, people have lived in anguish. We have protested, written letters, marched, wrote blogs, spoke openly about police brutality, and pointed out the lack of value placed on Black bodies in America. We have lived hopefully for the passage of bills for Black farmers. 

You, my young grandson, were a part of something huge. You walked. You protested. You carried a "Black Lives Matter" sign. You yelled at the top of your lungs.  Yes, you were a part of something huge. 

Someday we will talk. We will make sense of it all. 

Until then, I'll just be your Poppie who loves you. We will build forts, watch Breath of the Wild or Mario videos, eat Poppie snacks, dig in the dirt and build imaginary things, and all manner of other things. 

Someday we will talk. 

Yes, someday we we will talk. You'll know that you were a part of something huge. 

And you can continue to be a part of something huge. 

Yes, we will talk. 

Let Justice Ring: Jesus, Lord, Come This Way

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Harvard, A Call for USDA to Reform Office Focused on Civil Rights

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Kyra Sanborn, ksanborn@law.harvard.edu, (617) 496-1507

Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic Calls on USDA to Reform Office Focused on Civil Rights

Cambridge, MA (April 19, 2021) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) history of discrimination and inefficacy in addressing civil rights complaints is well-documented, yet little has been done to significantly reform agency operations that enable harmful practices to persist. With the Biden Administration’s renewed attention toward equity, the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic published an Issue Brief calling for a change.

Supporting Civil Rights at USDA: Opportunities to Reform the USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR) documents the agency’s past struggles with establishing an effective civil rights accountability system and offers specific recommendations on ways OASCR–the office responsible for leading and overseeing USDA’s civil rights programs–could manage the complaint process moving forward. The Issue Brief offers feasible actions USDA could take without any additional action by Congress, including ensuring division between OASCR and USDA’s Office of General Counsel, establishing a civil rights ombudsperson and new oversight mechanisms, and devoting resources to improve the investigation and effective processing of civil rights complaints. It also provides an overview of OASCR’s civil rights complaint process and summarizes several decades of the office’s shortcomings.

“OASCR’s capacity to redress instances of discrimination and civil rights complaints has proven to be ineffective time and time again,” said Emily Broad Leib, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Faculty Director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic. “This lack of oversight and accountability has real, devastating consequences that contribute toward the growing disparities in our agricultural and food systems, disparities that have a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown producers, as well as on racial and gender equity in the treatment of USDA’s own employees. We hope that USDA seizes the current opportunity to reform OASCR and better support populations that have been historically and routinely marginalized.”

Despite studies, reports, and recommendations made by federal oversight bodies and outside organizations, OASCR has continuously fallen short in protecting USDA employees and constituents against gender, racial, and ethnic discrimination. The shortcomings are accompanied by a history of lawsuits that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars over the years, and lending and programmatic discrimination that have resulted in millions of acres of Black land loss. 

“There is a clear link between USDA’s history of discrimination and the current state of Black farmers and land ownership in the U.S.,” said Nathan Rosenberg, a Visiting Scholar with the Food Law and Policy Clinic. “USDA has systematically denied loans and foreclosed on Black farmers and landowners, covered up the data that illustrates disparities, and failed to respond when complaints are raised.”

“This Issue Brief is a breath of fresh air and confirms the problems that Black farmers and USDA employees have spoken up about for decades,” said Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and Representative for the Justice for Black Farmers Group. “The Brief sets a benchmark for those who hope to say that civil rights at USDA is on the mend.”

“The change in Presidential Administration and renewed focus on equity in federal programs provides an opportunity for USDA to affirm its commitment to civil rights,” said Emma Scott, a Clinical Instructor at the Food Law and Policy Clinic. “With new leadership and advisors in place, a stated commitment to addressing equity at USDA, and a new influx of funding from the American Rescue Plan to support farmers of color, USDA is at a pivotal point for ensuring that OASCR provides effective civil rights enforcement and accountability for the agency.”

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About the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC)
The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic serves partner organizations and communities in the U.S. and around the world by providing guidance on cutting-edge food system issues, while engaging law students in the practice of food law and policy. FLPC is committed to advancing a cross-sector, multi-disciplinary and inclusive approach to its work, building partnerships with academic institutions, government agencies, non-profit organizations, private sector actors, and civil society with expertise in public health, the environment, and the economy. FLPC’s work focuses on increasing access to healthy foods, supporting sustainable and equitable food production, reducing waste of healthy, wholesome food, and promoting community-led food system change. Learn more at: https://www.chlpi.org/food-law-and-policy/. 

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