After amassing more than $100,000 in debt over more than two decades of farming, a Georgia-based farmer named Denver got welcome news last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers like him would be eligible for a new debt relief program. USDA would pay off certain loans and give him a little extra for tax liabilities.
That decision was followed up by the American Rescue Plan Act. The new law included a $4 billion program to cancel certain farm loan debts farmers of color owe the Farm Service Agency, a USDA subagency that provides loans to agricultural producers. The law energized Black and other farmers of color whoby the department, which has approved access to credit at lower rates and provided inequitable program payments than white farmers received.
But legal challenges from white farmers claiming reverse discrimination were filed in several states. Eventually a federal judge stopped USDA from implementing the program and allowed a class action lawsuit to proceed.
Ain't nothing confusing about it. When you push through policy that tries to discriminate against people based on race (you know, actual systemic racism), people who are truly anti-racist in principle are going to fight it.