Opinion | Why a Debt Relief Program for Farmers Matters for Racial Equity in America

"It is worth noting, however, that Kennedy's former law clerks -- Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who reportedly engages in affirmative action in hiring his own law clerks -- would disavow Kennedy's legacy were they to side with advocates of absolute colorblindness."

"Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), chair of the Senate agriculture committee, has cited studies estimating lost opportunities to minority farmers due to USDA discrimination at more than $120 billion."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The Trump administration was openly hostile to minority civil rights claims, and hostile or lax at civil rights enforcement at USDA and other agencies.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"While the lawsuits have been filed in multiple states, a class action has been certified in a case in Texas, where five farmers sued with backing from Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's former adviser."

This is a negative sentiment.

"While the lawsuits have been filed in multiple states, a class action has been certified in a case in Texas, where five farmers sued with backing from Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's former adviser."

This is a negative sentiment.

"USDA's history of discrimination has been copiously documented, including by the Biden administration in its brief opposing the temporary injunctions that blocked the debt relief program."

This is a negative sentiment.

"If the federal bureaucracy is ever going to make amends for its history of discrimination -- at USDA and beyond -- it is going to have to adopt race-conscious policies like the one the Biden administration is trying to implement for farmers."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Now, the Biden administration must decide whether to soldier on in court to defend the program or seek legislative fixes to inoculate it from legal challenges."

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"As Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) emphasized in supporting the program, USDA's "brutal legacy of discrimination" was what caused "Black farmers and other farmers of color [to be] in a far more precarious financial situation before the COVID-19 pandemic hit."

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"Almost all of the $9.2 billion provided through USDA's 2020 Coronavirus Food Assistance Program went to white farmers, as did the virtual entirety of a $21.2 billion Trump administration program created to offset a trade war with China that closed lucrative Chinese markets to American farmers.nn"

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"The $4 billion debt relief program in the 2021 Covid relief package, signed by President Biden in March, was designed to ensure that the few remaining farmers of color in rural America would survive the pandemic; Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Indigenous farmers were disproportionately at risk of foreclosures and another tsunami of land loss."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Two years later, the department offered a settlement, and in 2010, the Obama administration offered a second settlement, for a total of about $2.2 billion."

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"Much is also at stake for President Joe Biden and Democrats, as conservatives could weaponize the USDA program for political gain with aggrieved whites in the 2022 midterms -- or try to use one of these lawsuits to entice the Roberts Court to jettison or curtail all race-conscious policies."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Whatever the Biden administration or Congress decides to do about legal challenges to the debt-relief program, relentlessly telling the truth about USDA's past and present racism -- and that of other government actors -- is necessary to living up to our professed ideal of American equality."

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"The question of whether the USDA program is upheld ultimately has profound implications for the Biden administration's efforts to promote racial equity in federal programs, and for the design of any program of reparations in the future.nn"

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