Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle . . .
I have spoken to many white people about our country’s history of slavery, racism and the current state of race relations in my attempt to understand the loathing that many whites feel towards blacks. While the opinions and responses vary, the net result is very similar.
Some white people are ambivalent and say “Slavery was wrong and a national disgrace, but it was a long time ago, so black folks should just get over it.” Translation: STFU.
Others say “Me or my family never owned any slaves and no blacks alive today were ever slaves, so why can’t we just move past it and worry about other problems.” Translation: STFU.
Many are bellicose, and respond with: “Too damn bad; it’s the way it was, and n****s don’t do anything to help themselves” or “They’re all lazy or criminals anyway, so they should STFU. “
White people are terrific at compartmentalizing this subject and saying that it’s in the past, so we don’t need to talk about it. “I’m tired of blacks bringing up racism over, and over, and over. Why can’t they just STFU?”
One small part of the systemic racism that has plagued our country since the end of the civil war is the plight of black farmers. Over the last century in America, Black-owned farm ownership has dropped from about a million to less than 40,000 due to blatant systemic government discrimination. “So what? That’s the way capitalism works.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a long, storied history of refusing to grant black farmers the same access to capital that helped white farmers during lean years. Black farmers have lacked access to legal services, which complicated farm inheritances, and a myriad of other devices designed to drive them out of business and eliminate black farm ownership.
From 2018 to 2020 alone, the Agriculture Department gave out some $23 billion to farmers hurt by Trump’s trade war, but this money went almost exclusively to larger and wealthier farmers. Guess what? There’s not a lot of large, wealthy black farmers. Actually, well, maybe exactly . . . none.
Mr. Biden wants to reverse this trend and has acted quickly by instituting the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act to try to lift the fortunes of black farmers. In March of this year, the Agriculture Department, under the White House’s racial equity agenda, began the process to reverse decades of discriminatory agricultural lending, which led to decades of economic disadvantage for black farmers, by setting aside $4 billion for aid to minority farmers.
White people have not responded kindly. Some Republican lawmakers call these reparations; and we all know what a dirty word that is. Expiation in any form is not tolerated by the right white. These same people didn’t say a peep when the Trump administration handed out that $23 billion to white farmers and large agri-corporations, but let a small fraction of that be earmarked to help black farmers, and heads must roll!.
Recently, a group of white farmers joined together to file a lawsuit against the Federal government, claiming that the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act was inherently biased against whites. They alleged that racial bias was taking place since they can’t participate in the loan forgiveness program because they’re White. About $4 billion in federal stimulus money designated to forgive loans for Black and minority farmers remains in limbo because white farmers claim that this loan forgiveness program is unconstitutional and discriminatory against them.
On Thursday, a Wisconsin federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “The Court recognized that the federal government’s plan to condition and allocate benefits on the basis of race raises grave constitutional concerns and threatens our clients with irreparable harm... The Biden administration is radically undermining bedrock principles of equality under the law.”
These white people are so incredibly stupid that they refuse to understand this is not about helping black farmers to the detriment of white farmers; it’s about trying to make up for the fact that whites have been receiving benefits denied blacks for generations. It’s about trying to level the playing field just a little bit. The bottom line is that white people are so afraid of blacks that they don’t want a level playing field. Apparently, “irreparable harm” is what happens to whites when black folks are given a fair shake.
I can’t help but be amazed that most white people stood by for hundreds of years as blacks were enslaved, then denied the vote, denied mortgages and farm loans, the right to a proper education and lynched wholesale in Southern States without saying anything. Now that a program has started to try and make a small dent in the systemic racism against blacks, white revanchists whine about “reverse” racism.
It seems to me that these white people are a bunch of crying, whining, douchebag bigots who want to see all black folks subjugated and kept “in their place”. Not much has changed since the 13th Amendment was signed 150 years ago. Preferential treatment and laws are perfectly acceptable when whites reap the benefits, but if anyone does anything to help black people, it’s just plain wrong because it causes “irreparable harm” to whites. It’s Illegal. Unconscionable. Racist, and it MUST be stopped.
I have only one thing to say to those white people and their whining and complaining.
