Ralph Paige, director of a Southern family farmer nonprofit, says the settlement is about much more than money.
Posted on 04/22/2010 3:31:15 AM PDT by SkyPilot
(CNN) -- African-American farmers hoping for government settlement money in a racial bias case met with lawmakers Wednesday and called on Congress to come up with a way to fund the $1 billion deal.
Ralph Paige, director of a Southern family farmer nonprofit, says the settlement is about much more than money.
A March 31 deadline to appropriate the funds has passed, and farmers now may withdraw from the settlement and pursue independent litigation against the government. Congress now has a target date of the end of May to come up with a plan.
"We spend a billion dollars on a jet to go bomb somebody. We're talking about a billion dollars to help feed our country, and I just don't see why Congress and the president can't go ahead and find [the funds]. It is an emergency," said Gary Grant, with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
Litigation known as the Pigford Case established a longstanding pattern of discrimination at the U.S. Agriculture Department against African-American farmers who had applied for farm loans and support from federal programs.
Under the terms of an involved process overseen by a federal judge and dating to 1999, qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias. In addition, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said those farmers may pursue a claim for actual damages from the bias and potentially receive up to $250,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Let's be clear about one thing: the race card needs to be revoked for over use and for exceeding its credit limit (a LOOOONG time ago).
In today's America, blacks get:
- preferential hiring treatment based on race
- preferential acceptance to colleges and universities based on race
- "minority" business and other loans for a lower interest rate and without the same conditions imposed on other loans, based on race
- the authority to win Government business contracts, even if they are not qualified, based on race
Beyond these blatant discrimination and racist practices, blacks are allowed to seek "hate crime' charges from prosecutors, while the same standards are never (or seldom) applied when the crime is black on white (which is statistically much higher to begin with)
Oh, and let's not even begin to bring up our current fiscal depression, which in large part was contributed to by banks being forced by Congress to give loans to unqualified individuals in so-called "Red Lined" districts under the Community Reivestment Act.
Bingo.
To the African American Community:
If you can provide the proper genealogical records, proving that one of my Ancestors OWNED one of your Ancestors, I will personally buy you a One way boat Ticket back to Africa.
Failing that ... STFU
Yeah, they want a permanent bailout, just like GS.
That mindset is killing our nation.
Honestly, I have tried to warn people this was coming. Since 2006, lawyers have been meeting with blacks to make sure they descended from slaves, checking their birth records, bibles, etc.
Let’s say this ....the blacks have their reparation letters in their hands waiting to claim their money. In a certain southern state, I saw at least five of the letters stating that the blacks holding the letters are owed over 200,000 dollars. Please understand when the lawyers were going across the country looking for these people and found them, when the meetings were held the people were told at that time to support Obama when he ran for president so they would get their money after he “WAS” elected. Now the time has come for them to get their money, so get ready, this is the first of articles the American people will begin to see on many ways Obama will pay the blacks reparations. This is why the STIMULUS money hasn’t been put into the public sector to create jobs.
Bullshit....the GOVERNMENT has no money; it's the taxpayers that are going to be extorted, again, to pay off black voters that vote 95% for Democrats who keep them in chains and dependent on handouts. I am sick and tired of this scheme of "blame Whitey" and "those rich white bastards can afford it" crap, along with the Trial Lawyers who ALWAYS go chasing after somebody's money to get their majority-cut of the settlements.
Actually, blacks are third in line. Aleuts get first crack at the trough, and then "other" Native Americans. Who's at the back of the line? White males, of course.
How about forty acres and a mule?
So now we’ve established another alleged “right”? The right to borrow money with no intention of or ability to pay it back?
CNN does not begin to tell the whole story. There was a pattern of race discrimination by the USDA. The Pigford class action lawsuit was settled by the government years ago. Several thousand black farmers who could show evidence of racial discrimination were awarded $50,000 each.
What is happening now is that many more without any evidence are piling on the bandwagon.
Just damn.
Goons with their heads up their butts, one hand in your pocket and the other hand tearing down the American flag as they trample it underfoot.
Obama voters, all of them.
Right you are! Excuse me if I seem a little hostile (?) but I’ve lived through Jim Crow, I’ve seen the dogs and hoses, I’ve seen the lynchings, I’ve seen that dispicable KKK in action......but now I don’t see that anymore. I see blacks in Congress, state houses, govenor’s mansions, mayors of cities and now at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ve long since paid our debt in bloodshed and money. WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH????
Please help me. I’m a black farmer. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. I’m also a lazy good-for-nothing welfare cheat looking for whatever ‘whitey’ has in his wallet.
I want everything free because I’m black, and I’m stupid, and I don’t pay taxes and I want free healthcare and food stamps and college tuition and I want it all FREE! So, please help me...............!
Yes, thats true, but even those original settlements were widely proven to be mostly fraudulent. I wrote and posted my blog piece on this subject 2 months ago at:
This case is so brazenly corrupt that it is maddening. There have already been more “settlements” made than the total number of black farmers in the country - and they want 80,000 more “settlements”. also they want to re-open the window to apply.
For CNN to do this story and not mention fraud is like reporting that one day the twin towers collapsed, and leaving out the part about the airplanes.
But...I say BUT!...they want a BILLION more?
It works out to about 80 thousand per, but I suspect the lawyers got the biggest portion of that.
I just cannot see that much of an input from black farmers affecting the national economy to the tune of that much money.
Now, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the suit revolves around the premise that these farmers (one and all, by God) have/had been denied subsidies, loans, payouts, whatever, over a 15-18 year period.
And that as a result of the denial of these loans, etc, (one and all, by God), the entire agricultural economy was bashed to hell and the "farmers" were reduced to eating the dirt that they farmed.
Is that close?
Or have I misstated the situation?
Now, having had some slight association with agricultural pursuits (short-lived and non-productive, I assure you), I have a hard time seeing 5-8 thousand black farmers that are in a 80 thousand category, as it pertains to subsidies, loan guarantees, etc.
It is my understanding that the initial pool of these wronged farmers numbered somewhere around 100 thousand?
Something smells here, and I don't think it's the chicken doodoo that they are using to fertilize their crops with.
Can you say "reparations"?
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