The Daily Show: Ears Edition - If You Don't Know, Now You Know - America's Black Farmers

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

From June 2021, right-wing pundits denounce a relief bill for farmers of color, and Trevor unpacks the history of land inequity and racial discrimination faced by Black farmers in the U.S. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Finding great candidates to hire can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. You might get a lot of resumes, but not enough candidates with the right skills or experience. But not with Zip Recruiter. Zip Recruiter finds amazing candidates for you fast. And right now you can try it for free at Zip Recruiter. Zip Recruiter's smart technology identifies top talent for your roles quickly. Immediately after you post your job, zip recruiter's powerful matching technology

starts showing you qualified people for it, and you can use zip recruiter's pre-written invite to apply message to personally reach out to your favorite candidates and encourage them to apply sooner. Ditch the other hiring sites, and let zip recruiter find what you're looking for, the needle in the haystack. Four out of five employers who post on Zip Recruiter Get a Quality Candidate within the first day. Try it for free at this exclusive web address. Zip Recruiter.com slash zip. Zip Recruiter. The smartest way to hire. The 1.9 trillion relief bill that Joe Biden signed into law earlier this year. that. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. to to thi. thi. the, the, the, thp- thp- thp- thp- thp- thp- thp- thp- thp- thp-upe, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi-up. thi-up thi-up to to thi-upe. to-up to-up to-up to-up to-up thi-up thi-upe. thi. thi. thi. thi. to hire. The $1.9 trillion relief bill that Joe Biden signed into law earlier this year had money for everything, from COVID vaccines to stimulus checks, to a year's subscription to Biden's only fans.

And it also gave $4 billion in loan forgiveness to black farmers, which it turns out not everyone is happy about. Joe Biden sent billions of dollars to African-American farmers in this country purely because of how they look. Now that's illegal, it's immoral, it's completely divisive. It's not a bill for black farmers. It's a bill against white farmers. I don't think they understand her business one bit.

Nobody asks you what race you are when you price fertilizer. White farmers need not apply by virtue of to to to to their to their their to their their to their their their to their their to their to their their their their. their their their. their their their their their to their. their. their their their their. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I'm. tole.e.e.e.efficient.e.ea.ea.ea.ea.ea.ea.ea. tol. tol. t. to. their. business one bit. Nobody asks you what race you are when you price fertilizer. White farmers need not apply by virtue of the color of their skin. The Democratic Party is becoming the party of reverse racism. Farmers are being denied aid solely because of their skin color. In this country, you do not punish people because they look a certain way, because their ancestors come from a certain place. Because of the government has the power to destroy a business because of how someone looks? What's next?

Put someone in jail because of how they look? I mean, what if they make it illegal to look like a testicle that just escaped the scrotum? Just as an example. But it isn't just Fox News gargoyls who are upset about this aid to black farmers. Last week, a federal judge blocked the aid from going into effect, while a lawsuit from white farmers proceeds through the court system. And you might be hearing this story for the first time and wondering,

wait, why should black farmers get special treatment? Are their cows the ones that make chocolate milk? th black th, th, th, th, th, th, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, thiiiiiiiol, thiol, thiol, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. th. th. that's, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th......... And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. th. th. that, that, that, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's the theauu thea. thea, that. treatment? Are there cows the ones that make chocolate milk? Well, yes, but that's not why. The real reason is something we're going to explore in another edition of, If you don't know, now you know. You know. When you picture a farmer in your head, what do you see? Close your eyes and think about it. Oh yeah. Probably a guy in overrall standing next to a tractor, chewing on a piece of hay or vaping it if he's trying to quit.

And let's be honest, oh, you can open your eyes now. Let's be honest, that farmer in your head is also probably a white guy. But you may be surprised to learn that there was a time in America when farming was as popular among black people as Telfer bags. By force and by choice. Black people have long, deep connections to American farmland. After the fall of slavery, owning a piece of land that could be worked and farmed, symbolized freedom. During reconstruction, black folks saved their money, they worked together as a family, as

a cooperative, and they bought land that allowed black families to build communities up to 16 million acres. At the peak of black farm ownership around 1920, maybe about 15% of farmers were African-American. In a place where you could not vote, one way that black folks were able to exert power was having some control over the land under their feet. That's right. Back in the day, 15% of all American farmers were black. And that's the kind of representation the Golden Globes can only dream of. And yes, it is true that there weren't a lot of other professions in the 1920s. You know, back then it was basically just farming, telegraph operator and crash landing airplanes.

But it makes sense that farming would be especially appealing to black people. Because owning anything was incredible for black people back then. Because don't forget, just a generation before that, black people were considered property. Property. I mean, imagine if your granddad was a TV, and now you own a whole TV company. That's success.

So if there were so many black farmers back in the day, what happened to them all? Did somebody finally tell them about sports? No, it turns out it was America's age-old friend, systemic racism. White folks recognized pretty early on that one way to stop the civil rights move. One way to undercut it was to get rid of land ownership. Over the last century, America's black farmers have lost more than 90% of their land because of systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a long history of discrimination. A study commissioned by the USDA found that loans to black male farmers were 25% lower than those given to white male farmers on average.

For decades, the US Department of Agriculture systematically favored white farmers by denying loans to black farmers. And discrimination was widespread at its local branches, which were largely run by all white county committees. Many black farmers, when we were coming to the office and the local official would say, we don't have any money available. And when white farmers came in, they would, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they they they they they they they they they they they their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their th. th. their their their their their their their th. th. thi. thi. the, the, thea. thea. thea. theau theauan. theauan. theauan. theauaua. tha. tha. tha, tha, the office and the local official would say, we don't have any money available. And when white farmers came in, they would process their loans less than 30 days,

and for black farmers it took 387 days on average. We fill out the papers and then they would just take the paperwork and just know it in the trash. Without the same access to funds, black farmers struggle to keep up with their white competitors and are often forced out of business. We're talking 177 to $230 billion that black farmers have lost because of active discrimination. That's right, for decades the USDA actively discriminated against black farmers, giving them smaller loans than white farmers, or outright refusing to give them loans altogether.

And that's according to the USDA. So I mean, that's like digging up your own tweets and cancelling yourself. Yeah, go away me. But that's how bad this discrimination was. And farming is hard enough on its own. I mean, think about you got tests, you've got droughts, you've got ghosts trying to get you to build a baseball field. The last thing you need is for the federal government to be up against you. And after decades of discrimination, black farmers had had enough.

And so they took their complaints right to the top. Black farmers first picketed the Department of Agriculture in 1996. About 50 showed up with a pair of mules and a wagon. To protest racial discrimination, thousands had sent in complaints, but they found the Civil Rights Office at the USDA had been closed for years, and boxes of their letters remained unopened. In 1999, thousands of black farmers settled a historic class action discrimination lawsuit against the USDA in a landmark case called Pigford versus Glickman. The government agreed to pay out more than one

billion dollars with thousands of black farmers receiving up to 50,000 dollars each. The vast majority never received a dime from the federal government. An overwhelming number of farmers were dubbed late filers by USDA, when their applications trickled into office inboxes after a 180-day deadline. Tens of thousands of thousands, th farmers th farmers th farmers tho tho tho thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thoo-a to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the their their their their their their thiiii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the. their thea. the the thea. thea. the thea. thea. thea. toea. toe. toe. toe. their applications trickled into office inboxes after a 180-day deadline. Tens of thousands of black farmers claim they did not receive proper notification of the settlement. For so many of them, it's been red tape and setbacks ever since. Eleven years of splitting time between the fields and Capitol Hill, staging protests, even

writing tractors through downtown DC to get attention from Congress. Okay, now this? This is how you protest. Riding tractors and mules into downtown D.C. Not only are you bringing attention to your cause, but writing a mule is the one time a cop can't pull you over for a busted taillight. And they had to take some extreme measures.

Because if anyone knows bullshit, it's farmers. And this was definitely some bullshit. I mean, the government basically admitted that it owed the farmer's money, but then bogged them down in red tape. Let me tell you something, man, if you lose a lawsuit, the hearing should end with the bailiff marching you to the ATM to watch you withdraw that money. Oh, whoopsy! Looks like I forgot my pin. Oh well, it's your birthday backwards, man. Just do it. Now, the government tried to fix things in 2011

by providing some more funding to black farmers. But unfortunately, it came too late for many of them, and it still fell far short of the economic losses that they had suffered at the hands of the USDA. So the next time you hear people talking about how black farmers are getting extra special treatment from the government, think about the treatment that they've been getting for the last 100 years. And you know, some of the people who are upset about about this loan forgiveness, they might not even know that all this discrimination even happened, which I understand. And that's why we've decided to update the most famous song about farmers to better express

the black farming experience. Old Black Donald had a farm, couldn't get a loan. Now the only farm he's got is on his mobile phone. Because a racism here and a racism there, here a racist, there a racist, everywhere a racist, racist, racist. Old Black Donald had a farm. Now he works at colds. I'm on my break! Watch the Daily Show, Weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

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