By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Apr 30th 2010 8:28AM
Filed under: Dr. Boyce Money, News
The federal government recently approved a $1 billion dollar settlement for over 80,000
African American farmers who were victims of consistent discrimination by the U.S. Agriculture Department. "The Pigford Case" dates back to 1999 and qualified farmers were set to receive up to $50,000 each to settle claims. Additionally, farmers can pursue claims for actual damages, going up to $250,000.
The problem is that the federal government refuses to pay. Well, at the very least, they have been dragging their feet on the settlement, much to the dismay of the black farmers affected by this discrimination.
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Blacks in the News
FOR USE WITH AFP STORY by Virginia MONTET, USA-music-theatre-history A recreated marquee welcomes guest to the Smithsonian's African American History and Culture exhibit "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment " on April 21, 2010 at the Smithsonian Museum of American History of Washington, DC. The exhibit opens to the pubic through August 29. The exhibit is also scheduled to go to Detroit and New York. AFP PHOTO/TIM SLOAN (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
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Blacks in the News
FOR USE WITH AFP STORY by Virginia MONTET, USA-music-theatre-history (FILES) Jazz singer and piano player Nat King Cole plays with his jazz orchestra on the stage of the Apollo Theatre, in Harlem, in New York in the fifties. The Smithsonian's African American History and Culture exhibit "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment" opens to the pubic through August 29. The exhibit is also scheduled to go to Detroit and New York. AFP PHOTO/FILES/ERIC SCHWAB (Photo credit should read ERIC SCHWAB/AFP/Getty Images)
Blacks in the News
FOR USE WITH AFP STORY by Virginia MONTET, USA-music-theatre-history The entrance to the Smithsonian's African American History and Culture exhibit "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment " on April 21, 2010 at the Smithsonian Museum of American History of Washington, DC. The exhibit opens to the pubic through August 29. The exhibit is also scheduled to go to Detroit and New York. AFP PHOTO/TIM SLOAN (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Blacks in the News
FOR USE WITH AFP STORY by Virginia MONTET, USA-music-theatre-history Three dresses (R) worn by the 1960s singing group Supremes are on display at the Smithsonian's African American History and Culture exhibit "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment " on April 21, 2010 at the Smithsonian Museum of American History of Washington, DC. The exhibit opens to the pubic through August 29. The exhibit is also scheduled to go to Detroit and New York. AFP PHOTO/TIM SLOAN (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Blacks in the News
FOR USE WITH AFP STORY by Virginia MONTET, USA-music-theatre-history A recreated marquee welcomes guest to the Smithsonian's African American History and Culture exhibit "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment " on April 21, 2010 at the Smithsonian Museum of American History of Washington, DC. The exhibit opens to the pubic through August 29. The exhibit is also scheduled to go to Detroit and New York. AFP PHOTO/TIM SLOAN (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Blacks in the News
Roberta Randolph, of Oakland, California, sits in the living room of her daughter's home, April 15, 2010. Randolph was diagnosed about eight years ago with Alzheimer's disease. African Americans are twice as likely as whites to get the disease, but are much less likely to be diagnosed. (D. Ross Cameron/Contra Costa Times/MCT)
Blacks in the News
Roberta Randolph, of Oakland, California, left, laughs with her son-in-law Nathaniel Mason in the living room of his home, April 15, 2010. Randolph was diagnosed about eight years ago with Alzheimer's disease. African Americans are twice as likely as whites to get the disease, but are much less likely to be diagnosed. (D. Ross Cameron/Contra Costa Times/MCT)
Blacks in the News
Singer Leslie Uggams, left, speaks with National Museum of African American History and Culture founding director Lonnie G. Bunch, III, in a new exhibit about how the Apollo Theater shaped American entertainment, at the National Museum of American History in Washington, on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Blacks in the News
Lizzie Pryor, 53, mows the lawn outside her home in Baptist Town, a poor, African-American enclave of Greenwood, Mississippi. (Shashank Bengali/MCT)
Blacks in the News
Vecepia Towery, center, the East Bay woman who became the first African-American winner of the TV show "Survivor" almost 10 years ago, gives instructions to Araceli Hernandez, left, and Shanese Ellis at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, California, March 4, 2010. (Doug Duran/Contra Costa Times/MCT)
Blacks in the News
Vecepia Towery, the East Bay woman who became the first African-American winner of the TV show "Survivor" almost 10 years ago, poses for portrait in Hayward, California, March 4, 2010. (Doug Duran/Contra Costa Times/MCT)
Blacks in the News
The farmers have the right to pull out of the settlement and pursue individual claims against the government. That hasn't happened yet, but remains a possibility.
"Nobody's pulled out yet," said
John Boyd, the head of the
National Black Farmers Association, "but if we don't get things moving, it may come to that."
The US Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack says there is no question that the farmers are due their settlement. In a statement Wednesday he said, "I have met with and talked to key stakeholders and members of Congress reiterating the administration's ongoing efforts to close this chapter in the history of the department."
When it comes to the state of black farmers in America, I can't help but wonder why the US government, with an African American president and Attorney General, would allow the process to drag on for this long without being remedied. I presume that the
Congressional Black Caucus is advocating for these farmers as well (or so I hope), so the question remains as to why there is a bottleneck in the process. Many farmers struggle economically, and the farmers and their families are in dire need of this money.
What's more interesting is that $50,000 is not a great deal of money when you've been turned down for critical financing to run your business. I argue that the impact of racial discrimination on the ability of black farmers to get the funds they need is far more devastating than the amount of money they are set to receive from this lawsuit. It is time for the federal government to cough up the cash, and everyone in the Beltway knows it.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
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Comments: (51)
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By: charles wallace on 4/30/2010 10:18AM
THE GOVERNMENT JUST WANTS THE BLACK FARMERS TO GO AWAY. IT'S 1910 ALL OVER AGAIN FOR BLACKS. WE MUST FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! WE WILL NOT GO AWAY!
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By: e on 4/30/2010 11:25AM
and this is news now, white presidents have been doing this for years, damnit give president Obama a break, he is trying to do the best he can with what he has to work with, he took over this f#@$ed up country from the racist Gop bush and company who F$%#@# it up and nothing was ever said now it is all Obamas fault.
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By: rbk84 on 4/30/2010 12:29PM
Obama found billions to give native americans why not give the chump change to our black farmers. Enough of he inherited this mess talk. The fact he earmarked money for indians than why not black farmers who have been getting screwed for over a century.
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By: crammasters on 4/30/2010 8:31PM
Please, please, stop making excuses for Obama. He has found the time to pursue those issues - NONE of them black issues -- he considers (or is told) are important. From Hispanic Prayer breakfasts, to Jewish seders, to coal miners' funerals, to sitting down for a meal with white farmers in Missouri, to visiting a health care clinic in Oregon, to attending a Hispanic music festival, for tap-dancing for Chicago's Mayor Daley in Copenhagen for the Olympics YET not one word or visit to Chicago, his hometown, to address black children dying in the streets. You keep making excuses, but I'm only interested in the FACTS, ma'am..
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By: crammasters on 4/30/2010 8:32PM
black folks need to face ONE more fact:
WE GOT PIMPED
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By: LA Woman on 5/07/2010 1:28AM
I was wondering when that 92-96% of Black folks who voted for Obama were going to admit that. Thank You!! Hate to say it, but Brown is the New Black. Democrats have gotten all the use out of Black folk they can and they have moved on to the illegals, persecuted Muslims,etc, and trusty favorites the Unions, and Trial Lawyers. They care not for Blacks except pimping for your vote which is a forgone conclusion. You will get lip service and nothing substanstive, just the usual promise which seems to be enough for your vote.
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By: Linda GuertinGuer87625@AOL.COM on 4/30/2010 11:30PM
rbk84, you hit the nail on the head! While E seems to have been hit in the head with a nail!
Our white and everything but Black washed President has vowed his Presidency on righting the wrongs of Native Americans by signing the Dec 19, 2009 agreement giving them billions, while at the same time making it known to the world he will not support or have a Black agenda. He is supporting illegal Mexicans in exchange for what he thinks will get him a second term (which shows he's misinformed) because he believed the hype that Mexicans got him in office when it was Blacks that turned out in record numbers to support his punk _ss! Again E, Obama adamantly refuses to help blacks! What part of that don't you understand? You can close your eyes to the obvious but you will soon feel the fallout from it. Obama is pitiful and unacceptable! What's more pitiful is that some uniformed Blks keep giving Obama a pass and making excuses for his continual steppin fetchin dance for whites at the expense of Blacks!
We all know Obama was handed a mess by inept whites, which makes his current lack of support for Blacks while supporting all others totally unacceptable and we must call him on.
My vote for Obama was wasted!! But I won't make that mistake again!!
TAVIS SMILEY YOU THE MAN FOR HOLDING OBAMA ACCOUNTABLE! Boyce you need to stop playin and call it like it is!
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By: Linda Owen on 5/01/2010 12:43AM
I am not surprised about this! I have decided that I can no longer support his agenda especially when my concerns fall on deaf ears, but I receive hundreds of emails about supporting his agenda and sending donations. I am an educator and I'm tired of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!
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By: McKinley on 5/01/2010 9:30AM
Yes Mr Obama why is it taking so long to turn over the settlement to the Black Farmers, is it because the government or the real powers that be want to finish crippling the farming industry that grows real and wholesome foods to exchange it for genetically modified foods or foods that contain nanotechnology? What is the purpose for this? to ruin our bodies by any means necessary. People please read your food labels and watch for names such as Archer Danials Midland, ConAgra, Monsanto. these companies are bad news. One of these companies slogan is and I quote "feeding the world" Beware!!!
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By: crammasters on 5/02/2010 1:38PM
You raise an interesting point, one I've never heard before. Perhaps, that's part of it, the attack on the independent farmers.
I believe it is also an attempt to CLOSE THE DOOR on black reparations. Isn't paying the black farmers their due a form of black reparations? Then who will come knocking at the door next?
Because blacks who descended from slavery are owed TRILLIONS of dollars, and our slave labor made America AND Europe the powerfully rich nations they are today - and they know it
For those with short memories, when the UN Conference on Racism was held in Durban in April 2009, not only did Obama and his administration BOYCOTT the conference on "racism!", they removed the language talking about black reparations!
I don't know HOW or WHY black people were willing to overlook something this major, but once again, it speaks to our desire to have more show than substance when it comes to our "leaders."
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