(Untitled)

[gunslnger]

Pigford v. Glickman: 86,000 claims from 39,697 total farmers?

This means that the U.S. may be recompensing at least 86,000 African-American farmers for past racial discrimination. But how could that possibly be true if there are only 39,697 African-American farmers in existence nationwide? And if only some subset of them ever applied for loans in

Comments

[futurebird]

I'm shocked there are so few black farmers. That means only about 4% of farms are run by black people. It should be closer to 8-12%.

What is keeping black folks out of this industry?

[reality_hammer]

Why should it mirror the percentage of the population?

[meus_ovatio]

Huh?

[torpidai]

What is keeping black folks out of this industry?

NAACP + Education, + long memories of the older generation?

[mahnmut]

In South Africa it's similar and it's mostly a cultural thing.

[rasilio]

Um, it might have something to do with African Americans having overwhelmingly migrated to the inner cities in the first half of the century.

Black people make up 8 - 12% of the population but in most Urban centers they are 25 - 50% of the population leaving FAR fewer of them in rural farming areas for any kind of work.

Combine that with 1551's idea of who in their right mind would want to go into farming as a career choice (as opposed to it being a family business) and you have your answer.

[sgiffy]

Farms tend to be held in families and is more of something you are born into rather than elect as a career. Since most families got their start in farming back when black people were assets not owners or at the latest when owning land in the parts of the country where farming is prevalent was difficult for non-whites its not that surprising. Plus black people tended to leave rural areas for urban ones.

[futurebird]

"Plus black people tended to leave rural areas for urban ones."

"were driven out" might fit better than simply "leave" -- there used to be more black farmers in the past. It is a common family history to have abandon the farm due to the racism in rural areas. My grandfather left specifically becuase of the KKK. We are rare in that we did not sell our land. We still have it but it is not developed at this time.

[sgiffy]

Good point.

[il_mio_gufo]

"are still driven out" would even be fitting if we looked at parts of Northern California.

After Katrina it seems there were many families who were forced to relocate. I have a friend who firstly took work in North Carolina and later California. She bought a nice piece of property in a more country setting about 35 miles north of California.

That woman, and her family, were harassed as if they were back in the "South" pre 1950s....it was not-so-shocking and rather pathetic to see that these attitudes are still prevalent in rural society. E S P E C I A L L Y, when it's the white youth carrying out the no-good actions.