I can not make this stuff up. Although a study shows the federal government gave nearly 100% of former President Donald Trump's trade war bailout to white farmers, Trump allies are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture claiming reverse discrimination under President Joe Biden’s administration. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is listed as a plaintiff in the suit filed on Wednesday in federal court. The complaint is sponsored by America First Legal, a legal group Trump’s former senior advisor Stephen Miller created with other Trump enablers.
It is taking aim at about $5 billion in coronavirus debt relief for Black, Indigenous, and Latino farmers signed into law earlier this year by the president. That relief has yet to reach the farmers it was intended for due to mounting lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. White farmers sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, crying reverse discrimination in April, and the Texas lawsuit builds on the claim, asking a federal judge to stop all aid defining socially disadvantaged as having faced racial or ethnic discrimination. "The Court should declare unconstitutional any statute limiting the benefits of federal programs to 'socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers,'" plaintiffs wrote in the suit.
The organization also included with the suit a preliminary injunction promised not to force the USDA to “withhold loan forgiveness from minority farmers and ranchers” but to require defendants to “award loan forgiveness to farmers and ranchers without any regard to race." Problem is, the federal government tried the all-farmers-matter approach to subsidies, and Black farmers were repeatedly left out. Trump's Market Facilitation Program (MFP), the largest subsidy source for farmers initiated to help farmers suffering as a result of the country's trade war with China, has “almost exclusively benefitted white men and their families, who appear to be disproportionately upper middle-class or wealthy,” the journalism nonprofit The Counter wrote on July 29, 2019.
“As of today, USDA has distributed more than $8.5 billion to farm operations through the MFP. Of the approximately $8 billion distributed to operations whose owners’ race could be identified, 99.5 percent went to white business owners,” the nonprofit wrote.
Yet somehow, Stephen Miller is arguing it’s his organization launching the “landmark civil rights case.” He added in his statement:
A federal court ruled last month that ethnic and racial backgrounds can not be considered when determining who would receive aid intended to be prioritized for restauranteurs of color. Cornelius Blanding, executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, told NBC News he's worried chopping federal programs for farmers of color would lead to cutting other federal programs intended for people of color. "We're concerned. ... You never know how it's going to go," Blanding said.
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said in a statement NBC News obtained that the federal government’s effort to help Black farmers comes after “decades of systemic discrimination and exclusion." "Throughout the 20th century, Black farmers were denied the loans and subsidies available to white farmers, and untold generational wealth has been lost as a result," Morial said.
In a historic class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Black farmers successfully laid out years of racial discrimination and settled with the government for more than $1 billion, which was followed by a related settlement earning claimants $1.2 billion in added funding. John Boyd, president of the Black Farmers Association and a fourth-generation farmer, helped lead the charge, he told Al Jazeera. “I called the USDA the last plantation,” Boyd said. “The way that they’ve treated Black farmers, we’ve been degraded and humiliated.”
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It is taking aim at about $5 billion in coronavirus debt relief for Black, Indigenous, and Latino farmers signed into law earlier this year by the president. That relief has yet to reach the farmers it was intended for due to mounting lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. White farmers sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, crying reverse discrimination in April, and the Texas lawsuit builds on the claim, asking a federal judge to stop all aid defining socially disadvantaged as having faced racial or ethnic discrimination. "The Court should declare unconstitutional any statute limiting the benefits of federal programs to 'socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers,'" plaintiffs wrote in the suit.
The organization also included with the suit a preliminary injunction promised not to force the USDA to “withhold loan forgiveness from minority farmers and ranchers” but to require defendants to “award loan forgiveness to farmers and ranchers without any regard to race." Problem is, the federal government tried the all-farmers-matter approach to subsidies, and Black farmers were repeatedly left out. Trump's Market Facilitation Program (MFP), the largest subsidy source for farmers initiated to help farmers suffering as a result of the country's trade war with China, has “almost exclusively benefitted white men and their families, who appear to be disproportionately upper middle-class or wealthy,” the journalism nonprofit The Counter wrote on July 29, 2019.
“As of today, USDA has distributed more than $8.5 billion to farm operations through the MFP. Of the approximately $8 billion distributed to operations whose owners’ race could be identified, 99.5 percent went to white business owners,” the nonprofit wrote.
Yet somehow, Stephen Miller is arguing it’s his organization launching the “landmark civil rights case.” He added in his statement:
A federal court ruled last month that ethnic and racial backgrounds can not be considered when determining who would receive aid intended to be prioritized for restauranteurs of color. Cornelius Blanding, executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, told NBC News he's worried chopping federal programs for farmers of color would lead to cutting other federal programs intended for people of color. "We're concerned. ... You never know how it's going to go," Blanding said.
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said in a statement NBC News obtained that the federal government’s effort to help Black farmers comes after “decades of systemic discrimination and exclusion." "Throughout the 20th century, Black farmers were denied the loans and subsidies available to white farmers, and untold generational wealth has been lost as a result," Morial said.
In a historic class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Black farmers successfully laid out years of racial discrimination and settled with the government for more than $1 billion, which was followed by a related settlement earning claimants $1.2 billion in added funding. John Boyd, president of the Black Farmers Association and a fourth-generation farmer, helped lead the charge, he told Al Jazeera. “I called the USDA the last plantation,” Boyd said. “The way that they’ve treated Black farmers, we’ve been degraded and humiliated.”
RELATED: File this under: Big banks are not here to help Black farmers
RELATED: Tracking Biden's promises to Black America: Those we wish he never made and ones we pray he'll keep
RELATED: 'Colored farmers': YouTube host uses unbelievably racist video to critique Biden policy