Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made a campaign promise to Black farmers that he will give them $5 billion in reparations if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
Kennedy, a former Democrat turned third-party insurgent, was speaking at a recent episode of your podcast with John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association.
Boyd Jr. is behind an attempt to sue the Biden administration for watering down a proposed debt relief program aimed at helping people of color and “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers” in the agriculture industry.
Farmers did not receive the relief package because the money was stuck in the courts as white farmers complained that the debt relief infringed on their constitutional rights.
Kennedy promised to “get rid” of the people who watered down the USDA provision and “get that money” to black farmers “when I’m in the White House.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made a campaign promise to Black farmers that he will give them $5 billion in reparations if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
“That $5 billion isn’t money, it’s a right,” he told Boyd Jr. “It’s money that was a loan that black farmers were entitled to a long time ago and that was stolen from them through discrimination.”
Kennedy has several programs that try to outdo Biden from the left on reparations.
Son of the former attorney general and nephew of the former president campaign website says it will “end USDA discrimination against Black farmers and protect current landowners from further land loss”
The program, part of the American Rescue Plan, would be used to pay off up to 120 percent of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers.
But after white farmers raised a fuss over the proposal, it was revised in August as part of the Inflation Reduction Act and split into two funds.
Boyd, a plaintiff in the class action, said they “broke their promise to Black farmers and other farmers of color.”
A group of 12 farmers from nine states filed a lawsuit against the USDA alleging that the program exempts white farmers and constitutes a violation of their constitutional rights.
Wisconsin Judge William Griesbach issued a temporary restraining order blocking the loan forgiveness program Biden launched after saying he wanted to address longstanding inequalities for farmers of color.
Kennedy promised to “get rid” of the people who watered down the USDA provision and “get that money” to black farmers “when I’m in the White House.”
Kennedy, a former Democrat turned third-party insurgent, spoke on a recent episode of his podcast with John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association.
Judge Griesbach said the plan did not provide adequate examples of the recent hardships imposed on farmers from minority backgrounds. He also claimed that by trying to end one type of discrimination, the program ended up creating another.
Now, one fund is $2 billion and will have the same goals as the first proposal: helping farmers who faced discrimination.
The second fund is now $3 billion that will go to the Department of Agriculture to repay or modify loans for farmers who have faced financial hardship, regardless of race.
The lawsuit filed by black farmers alleges that the plan amendment violates contracts, and the plaintiffs are now demanding damages.
“This fight is for the land, because we have lost so much of it,” Boyd said.
Marissa Perry, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, said the agency agreed with the original plan but could not pay black farmers because of three court orders from frustrated white farmers.
Despite the agency’s support, they feared that “this litigation likely would not have been resolved for years,” leading them to support the new plan.
“The Inflation Reduction Act, thanks to the leadership of Senators Booker, Warnock, Stabenow, Manchin and Schumer, decided to repeal those provisions and crafted something new,” Perry told NBC News.
Biden reneged on his original plan to help Black farmers with debt relief after white farmers filed injunctions and claimed they were being discriminated against.
Boyd, Jr., center, president of the National Black Farmers Association, said Black farmers are suing the Biden administration because they “broke their promise.”
He also assured that the agency was “moving aggressively to implement these provisions.”
The original program was implemented in an effort to address long-standing inequalities that have plagued agriculture.
It was hailed by civil rights groups as the most important legislation for black farmers since the Civil Rights Act.
About 17,000 farmers of color would be eligible to access assistance.
Minority farmers have argued for decades that they have been unfairly denied farm loans and other government aid.
Federal agriculture officials in 1999 and 2010 settled lawsuits from Black farmers who accused the agency of discriminating against them.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the disparity had worsened during the pandemic.
“For generations, socially disadvantaged farmers have struggled to succeed due to systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt,” he said. Washington Post.
“In addition to the economic pain caused by the pandemic, farmers in socially disadvantaged communities are facing a disproportionate share of COVID-19 infection rates, hospitalizations, deaths and economic damage.”
USDA data shows that the number of black farmers has dropped from one million about a century ago to 45,000 today.