USDA Gives Aid to Black Texas Farmers; Sid Miller Sues to Block it.
In one of the best reports I’ve read in a long time, Texas Tribune reporter James Pollard writes that Sid Miller filed the lawsuit as a private citizen in order to prevent Black Texas farmers from receiving debt relief from the USDA. The debt relief is part of the reckoning the USDA is attempting to resolve after a century of excluding Black farmers from aid offered to white farmers nationally.
Miller’s complaint against the U.S. Department of Agriculture says the definition in the program fails to include “white ethnic groups that have unquestionably suffered” because of their ethnicity, such as those of Irish, Italian, German, Jewish and eastern European heritage.
Sid Miller, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner is suing in his capacity as a private citizen to block aid for Texas farmers. I try to say it and write it in different ways and there is just not any way that isn’t racist AF.
Really, the report is worth reading. I’ve included a small excerpt pertinent to the main point but the background information included in the article is top notch. The whole piece is well researched and well written. Pollard can’t call Miller a nasty sumbitch, but he provides all the facts anyone will ever need to prove it to be the truth.
For Black Texas farmers, Sid Miller’s lawsuit increases mistrust | The Texas Tribune
Nationally, Black farmers have lost more than 12 million acres of farmland over the past century, according to the Washington Post, due to biased government policies and discriminatory business practices. In 1920, there were over 925,000 Black farmers in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But by 1997, their numbers had fallen to just under 18,500.
Recent data suggest the USDA continues to disproportionately reject Black farmers for loans. According to a CNN analysis, 42% of Black farmers were rejected for direct USDA loans in 2021, more than any other demographic group.
As agriculture commissioner, Miller leads an agency tasked with “advocat[ing] for policies at the federal, state, and local level” beneficial to Texas’s agriculture sector and “provid[ing] financial assistance to farmers and ranchers,” among other duties. In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Miller called the debt relief program “facially illegal and constitutionally impermissible.”
This sumbitch thinks if you challenge a law with big words and invoke the constitution you can just be as racist and discriminatory as ever. The fact that he filed the suit as a private citizen tells you all you really need to know. He’s campaigning 100% on being a good ole’ boy racist and shame on Texas for electing this scum.
Question – as a private citizen how does Sid “I’m a racist” Miller have standing? As the Texas Agriculture Commissioner there might be a case for him to have standing but as a private citizen?
1Jett, Sid Miller is as racist AF. How else would you describe Sid? Or describe so many Qcumber conservatives who would deny aid to the citizens of their states? They are so worried a person of color might catch a small break they leap over the trees and into the forest that just maybe when a farmer catches a break so do ALL citizens as the cost of groceries continues to climb.
And no, the cost of groceries is not “Brandon’s” fault. Once again a Democratic administration has inherited chaos from their predecessor. The challenges being faced by President and Vice President Harris are orders of magnitude as to what President Obama received from Dubya and Cheney with the added joy of Moscow Mitch riding his back all the way.
2Mother Jones had an excellent article about how black farmers have been screwed out of their land for years.
3Sid Miller, private citizen.
I like the sound of that.
4Jett, thank you SO much for bringing this really important story to the beauty salon. Sid Miller has to go.
5Sid can give Louie serious competition in the STOOPID Olympics.
6Putrid Fascist White Nationalist Fake Cowboy Filth
7Looks like those “Jesus shots” that Sid got didn’t have much Jesus in them.
I know that there’s a slew of German and Czech farmers in central Texas, but was unaware that there were a significant number of Jewish farmers. Maybe they all went to work on space lasers or something. But has “private citizen” Sid provided any actual numbers, or is it the usual “anything beneficial to blacks must be opposed, for reasons” thing?
Fun fact: Texas had the last regularly published newspaer in the Czech language in the US, at least through the 1960s. And there were towns in the Hill Country where everyone spoke German and the signs were in that language.
8What’s nuts is that the (wacko) federal judge let Miller bring the case as a “private citizen” when he dismissed a black farmers organization’s motion to intervene for lack of standing. Thanks for posting! And please vote for me, Susan Hays, in the Democratic primary so I can kick Miller’s ass in November!
9Well, the GQP must not give money out to Black people – that is against their *religion*.
10No doubt Sid Miller is one of the most racist sonuvabitches in the whole effing Rethuglikkkan Party, but I need to point out a couple of things.
When discussing the ethnicity of Texas farmers and ranchers, one group, that is probably second or third after the Anglos, is never mentioned: the very large group of Japanese agriculturalists in Texas and other states/places [including Mexico and Central America].
Most people don’t realize this. During WWII, when virtually all people of Japanese ethnicity were relocated and interned in the interior of the US, many were sent to Texas camps. After the war many stayed and settled here. Large numbers of them went into agriculture and became quite successful, acquiring more and more land. In the Valley their numbers are probably equal to the Anglos, I doubt there are more than a couple of black ags in the Valley.
Wonder how good ole Sid missed them?
I guarantee that they, Japanese ags, get as many ag subsidies as the others.
EWG’s Farm Subsidy Database :
https://www.ewg.org/areas-focus/farming-agriculture/subsidies
https://www.ewg.org/areas-focus/farming-agriculture
https://www.ewg.org/
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Also, it’s kind of misleading to use statistics like “In 1920, there were over 925,000 Black farmers in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But by 1997, their numbers had fallen to just under 18,500.”.
Because in those eighty or the last hundred years, the numbers of ALL farmers has declined immensely. Better to show the actual percentage declines, of which those of black farmers probably is greater.
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The Surly Professor @8, Last time I was in the local HEB [couple years ago] there was a local/regional Czech newpaper stand, it may still be around. And one of my hometowns was one of those Germanic places, my grandparents often spoke German, particularly among their peers, but my parents and we kids didn’t pick up much of it. There’s still some HS football rivalries based on GvsC.
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11And again, the Texas Hispanic voter bloc is far far larger than the black bloc [3-4 times, 40%vs12%], and more important to Democratic politics, but doesn’t seem to get much attention…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Texas#Race_and_ethnicity
Sid gives “stupid” a bad name.
There are of course a number of programs available to farmers but black farmers have a harder time of it, and thats for sure. For one thing, government paperwork. Its a monster. Some farmers can hire “paperwork” experts to do their loan applications but most simply can’t spare the money. Example: the paperwork involved in getting imported temporary ag labor. Farmers of all categories find this a kind of a living hell.
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