Black Farmers Still Waiting to be Compensated for Racism

Black farmers across the United States have been the victims of systematic discrimination for several decades. This has been proven in court, and the United States Department of Agriculture has agreed to pay a $1.25 billion dollar settlement to the black farmers who brought the suit. What is saddest about the settlement, however, is that Congress has not yet approved the funds. This is another form of racism that the farmers must face, because their justice is being consistently denied by government officials who are insistent upon remaining stubborn.

The USDA came under increased scrutiny recently because of the unjust firing of Shirley Sherrod. I am hopeful that the sloppy handling of the Sherrod incident is not indicative of the way the USDA does business. In fact, groups have been calling for the firing of the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack over the Sherrod incident. He may deserve it. The way Ms. Sherrod has been treated should be an illuminating moment exposing the USDA's pattern of racism, which also caused the plight of these black farmers.

The black farmers' settlement issues began in a 1997 court case, Pigford v. Glickman. As a senator, Barack Obama sponsored "Pigford II," which re-opened the case leading to the $1.25 billion settlement in February of this year. In the settlement of the case, farmers were to be awarded $50,000 each to settle their claims of racial discrimination. As president, many thought Obama would push the payment of the settlement through, but he has not made it a priority. The House has already approved the settlement funds, but now the Senate is holding it up, primarily the Republicans. While Republicans say they would like to see the claims money approved, we all know that the Republican Party could care less about black farmers.

Hopefully the Sherrod firing will make the continuing injustices against these black farmers at the hands of the USDA and now the federal government so clear that both parties will be embarrassed into ending this delay.

Cases like this one are part of the reason I can't stand politics. Elected officials sit comfortably in their offices playing games with one another, while there are real people engaged in real suffering as a result of their decisions. Black farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy waiting for these economic injustices to be corrected, and there is no sense of urgency in Washington. I argue that for every day the approval is delayed, substantial penalties should be applied to the amount of the settlement.

Saddest in all of this is that the discrimination took place over decades, meaning that there are many farmers who may have died broke waiting for us to do the right thing. It's time for black farmers to be compensated, and for the political games to come to an end.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.