The REAL Story Of RACISM At The USDA

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" Right now, if you do a web search of the words "racism" and "USDA," the majority of links will steer you to coverage of this week's Shirley Sherrod affair, in which the African-American U.S. Department of Agriculture staffer based in Georgia resigned after a conservative website reversed the meaning of a speech she gave last year to imply she would deny farm loans to whites.


It's an astonishing development given the history of race relations at the USDA, an agency whose own Commission on Small Farms admitted in 1998 that "the history of discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture ... is well-documented" -- not against white farmers, but African-American, Native American and other minorities who were pushed off their land by decades of racially-biased laws and practices.


It's also a black eye for President Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who signaled a desire to atone for the USDA's checkered past, including pushing for funding of a historic $1.15 billion settlement that would help thousands of African American farmers but now faces bitter resistance from Senate Republicans.




FORCED OFF THE LAND


Any discussion about race and the USDA has to start with the crisis of black land loss. Although the U.S. government never followed through on its promise to freed slaves of "40 acres and a mule," African-Americans were able to establish a foothold in Southern agriculture. Black land ownership peaked in 1910, when 218,000 African-American farmers had an ownership stake in 15 million acres of land.


By 1992, those numbers had dwindled to 2.3 million acres held by 18,000 black farmers. And that wasn't just because farming was declining as a way of life: Blacks were being pushed off the land in vastly disproportionate numbers. In 1920, one of out seven U.S. farms were black-run; by 1992, African-Americans operated one out of 100 farms.


The USDA isn't to blame for all of that decline, but the agency created by President Lincoln in 1862 as the "people's department" did little to stem the tide -- and in many cases, made the situation worse.


After decades of criticism and an upsurge in activism by African-American farmers, the USDA hosted a series of "listening sessions" in the 1990s, which added to a growing body of evidence of systematic discrimination:


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<http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/07/the-real-story-of-racism-at-usda.html>

:thumbsup:

was what we might call a "product of his time".

He was high up in the USDA, and a racist. He was with the agency from the late thirties until he retired.

I went through some of his papers recently, and even some of his speeches had racist jokes. I don't believe he ever had the opportunity to deny benefits to black farmers, but he would have if he could have, and he was part of a pervasive and enforced culture within the agency.

He was a brilliant scientist, a patient father to a disabled child, a source of awe and fascination to his grandkids, and a racist.

Anyone who does not believe that the USDA, at a certain time, was filled with men like him, is insane.

He was my grandfather, and I loved him. He did some good things, and he did some bad things.

I try to focus on the good, but the bad should not be forgiven.

She was from the south. Grew up on her grandfather's plantation in the late 1880s. Had a black nanny.

She's been dead 40 years.

I don't know if he'd be a teapartier these days, but whatever he would be, I'm sure we'd fight about it.

He did not fight fair, and knew how to use gamesmanship to shut down his opponents. Skills honed, I'm sure among his peers. He decried the fact that my mother, his daughter raised a passel of liberal kids. God bless her. And props to her for getting out from under.

Its a damn shame to still be exposed to such racist behavior being applied as a conditioning prod for the weak-minded simpletons. The republicans have NOTHING left in their grab bag except the tool of ' FEAR ' which continues to work for this minority party. Their internal polling more than likely reveals to them the hard truth - that they will NEVER win the presidency or either houses without scaring a percentage of ' white folk ' support into their camp. Rachel Maddow did an excellent piece the other night on the republican's history of using the ' scary black man ' fear tactic to prod non-republican white voters into their camp on election night.

Republican politicians who resort to these transparent racist scare tactics should be exposed and called out.

and raising us to understand what racism is, and how it diminishes humanity on every level.

And I agree, *anyone* who resorts to these transparent tactics should be called out.

I hope Sherrod takes this opportunity to lay bare the cynical and depraved heart of the teaparty.

and one that helps bring clarity to Vilsack's mention, multiple times, regarding the 10s of thousands of claims the USDA has been working to address over the last 18 months. He referred to it's history as 'difficult' and I understand why he did that, I feel free to use the word 'obscene' to describe it's history.

Thanks again for this valuable history of an agency with a vile history, one that is trying to address those wrongs both within the department itself and through add-on legislation that would allow funding to pay compensation to all those who suffered the, again, obscene discrimination as was practiced.

mongers the platform of continuing their tripe of framing this discussion once again with their distortions and lies. Hate is hate regardless how nicely wrapped and disguised they present it, its still retains the stench of ugly hate!

btw, your very welcome and I hope this discussion doesn't fall off the edge of importance once again because of another ' false flag ' distraction. It remains in OUR hands as always.

more clearly and the information provided in your OP is such that one hopes, knowing more clearly the past history and tying it to current events would lead to a substantive discussion on the broader issue of discrimination, legislative remedies and the rabid right wing's attempts to foster the first and stop the second.

I am still hoping, ever the optimist I guess, such discussions can and will occur.