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.