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☆ USDA farmer discrimination relief payments begin as some Black farmers ask courts to include heirs in program
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-01 | by ( Chandelis Duster | Janie Boschma | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, which says it has over 20,000 members, lost at a federal district court. Much needed payments for farmers of colorMore than 23,000 people will receive payments between $10,000 and $500,000, according to the USDA. “It’s good that the payments are going out to needy Black farmers and families. Exclusive USDA data obtained by CNN through a follow-up Freedom of Information Act request shows that rejection rates for Black farmers continued to climb, peaking in 2022. Loan rejection rates fell to 43% for Black farmers in 2023, but remained much higher than those for other racial groups.

Persons: CNN —, Biden, Joe Biden, ” Biden, It’s, …, ”, Thomas Burrell, we’ve, –, John Boyd , Jr, “, ” Boyd, Trump, CNN’s Devan Cole, Betsy Klein, Tierney Sneed Organizations: CNN, of, Black Farmers, Agriculturalists Association, Appeals, Department of Agriculture, American, Chevron, USDA, National Black Farmers Association Locations: Farmers, Chevron

☆ Biden Administration Begins Paying Farmers Who Faced Discrimination
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it had started disbursing $2 billion to thousands of farmers who have faced discrimination, after years of delays and legal battles thwarted the federal government’s efforts to compensate them. The payouts come nearly two years after the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a fund to help farmers of any ethnicity who experienced discrimination from the federal government when applying for loans or trying to repay their debts. The slow rollout of the program became a political problem for President Biden this year, with Black farmers accusing him of failing to live up to his promises to help them. “For too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Wednesday. Today that promise has become a reality.”The Agriculture Department is making payments to 43,000 farmers across all 50 states, with Mississippi and Alabama having the most recipients.

Persons: Biden, ” Mr, “ Organizations: Agriculture Department Locations: Mississippi, Alabama

☆ John Deere backs away from diversity and inclusion efforts after a conservative backlash
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( Associated Press | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

NEW YORK AP —John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major US company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash. The move from the company known on Wall Street as Deere & Co. arrives just weeks after rural retailer Tractor Supply ended an array of its corporate diversity and climate efforts. Both announcements came after backlash piled up online from conservative activists opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, sponsorship of LGBTQ+ Pride events and climate advocacy. “If it’s so polarizing that people just abandon it, then we all lost.”Legal attacks against companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have also drawn more attention following the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling to end affirmative action in college admissions. That doesn’t mean companies will stop their DEI efforts entirely, she added, but they may have to change language or find new workarounds.

Persons: John Deere, Robby Starbuck, Starbuck, John Deere’s, it’s, ”, Eric Bloem, John Boyd , Jr, John C, Deere, Bud Light, aren’t, SHRM, Johnny C, Taylor, Jr, Jen Stark, Donald Trump, Stark Organizations: Deere, Co, Tractor Supply, Conservative, Human Rights, Associated Press, Supply, Human, ”, Black Farmers Association, Deere &, Labor Department, Target, Society for Human Resource Management, LinkedIn, AP, Center for Business, Social, Heritage, Republican Locations: The Moline , Illinois, Brentwood , Tennessee, BSR, U.S

☆ Tractor Supply warned climate change and a lack of diversity would hurt business. Now it’s ignoring those risks
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Hal Lawton, the chief executive of the Brentwood, Tennessee-based company, had said these initiatives “make great business sense for Tractor Supply.”But Tractor Supply has decided that all of those risks are now worth ignoring. By walking away from diversity and climate goals, Tractor Supply has become the latest corporate giant to retreat from progressive initiatives it once promoted, joining Bud Light, Target and others. Tractor Supply declined to comment on these statements. Tractor Supply’s customer base has historically been primarily older men, who lean Republican, but Tractor Supply has increasingly tried to draw Millennials and women, who tend to favor Democrats. Tractor Supply’s reversal could hurt it with these customers, who could be crucial as the company’s historic base ages out of the market.

Persons: Hal Lawton, Bud, ”, Nooshin Warren, “ They’re, ” John Boyd, Steve Helber, Robby Starbuck, “, It’s, ” Boyd, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, ” Lawton, ” Eric Bloem, George Floyd, Bill Ackman, Elon Musk, They’ve, Chick, Bud Light, Jeff Chiu, Bud Light’s, influencer Dylan Mulvaney, CNN’s Eva Rothenberg Organizations: New, New York CNN, Tractor Supply, Supply, Human Rights, Bud Light, University of Arizona, National Black Farmers Association, AP Tractor Supply, Human, Tennessee’s, Congressional District, ”, Black Farmers Association, CNN, “, Tractor, Republican, Pew, Democratic, Disney, Nike, Anheuser, Busch InBev, Target Locations: New York, Brentwood , Tennessee, United States, America, Minneapolis

☆ Black Farmers in Georgia Cool to Biden, Reflecting a Bigger Challenge
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Alan Rappeport | Marilyne Moja Mwangi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a hot day in May, Andrew L. Smith Sr., a vegetable farmer from Ludowici, Ga., listened with skepticism as Tom Vilsack, the U.S. agriculture secretary, touted President Biden’s efforts to help Black farmers overcome decades of discrimination. Seated alongside hundreds of farmers in front of a former plantation once owned by a Georgia slaveholder, Mr. Smith, 62, wondered why he had not benefited from any of those programs, including one aimed at helping Black farmers clear their debts. Mr. Smith, a third-generation farmer, said he was especially frustrated that he is not eligible for another effort that will compensate farmers who have faced discrimination. “We march on using what we got and then they tell us that you can’t even use that,” he said. Mr. Smith voted for Mr. Biden in 2020.

Persons: Andrew L, Smith, Tom Vilsack, Biden’s, ”, Biden, Donald J, Trump Organizations: Mr Locations: Ludowici, U.S, Georgia

Has South Africa Truly Defeated Apartheid? U.S.A., 2020 – 63% U.K., 2019 – 62% 60% 49% 40% 20% 1994 2004 2014 2019 Sources: Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, "The South African non-voter: An analysis"; Konrad Adenaur Stiftung, 2020 (South Africa); Pew Research (United States and U.K.)On a continent where coups, autocrats and flawed elections have become common, South Africa is a widely admired exception. −4% −6% Sources: Harvard Growth Lab analysis of World Economic Outlook (South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa) and World Development Indicators (upper-middle-income countries). 50% unemployment rate 40% Black unemployment rate 30% The unemployment gap between Black and white South Africans remains wide. In 2022, about 6 percent of South Africans aged 18 to 29 were enrolled in higher education, according to Statistics South Africa.

Persons: Nelson Mandela, they’ve, Collette Schulz, Konrad Adenaur Stiftung, —, Walter Sisulu, Joao Silva, New York Times Jack Martins, ”, Mandela’s, Wandile Sihlobo, Johann Kirsten, Sihlobo, Kirsten, haven’t, Zinhle Nene, Peter Mokoena, “, Mokoena, Nokuthula Mabe, Mabe, Jacob Zuma, Chrispin Phiri, Cyril Ramaphosa, Israel, Sibusiso Zikode, Zikode, Mr Organizations: African National Congress, Pew Research, Human Sciences Research, World Bank, Black South, Charter, New York Times, University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Economic Empowerment, South, Harvard, Economic, Government, Black, Mr, Stellenbosch University . White, Statistics, Security, JOHANNESBURG Jobs, JOHANNESBURG Sandton Downtown, West University, Education, Statistics South, General Household Survey, of, Stellenbosch University, Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, Institute for Security Studies, International Court of Justice Locations: Africa, South Africa, Black, States, Soweto, Kliptown, Johannesburg, South, Saharan Africa, Carletonville, JOHANNESBURG, Downtown Soweto, JOHANNESBURG Sandton, JOHANNESBURG Sandton Downtown Soweto, North, Mahikeng, Botswana, Statistics South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, African, Germany, Russia, India, China, Ethiopia, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, New York Times South Africa, Gaza, Durban, South Africa’s

☆ Biden kicks off rural America tour in Minnesota
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden holds an event about American retirement economics in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 31, 2023. Thirteen top administration officials will visit rural places in 15 states, including election battlegrounds like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, to highlight investments in rural communities, where one in five Americans live. A campaign official told Reuters that Biden would also participate in a fundraiser in Minneapolis after the farm visit. Biden beat former president Donald Trump in Minnesota by 52.4% to 45.3%, winning the state's 10 electoral college votes out of a total of 538 total. "President Biden believes that investing in America means investing in all of America and leaving no one behind," Neera Tanden, who heads the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters.

Persons: Joe Biden, Leah Millis, Biden, Dean Phillips, Donald Trump, Karine Jean, Pierre, Phillips, Jaylani Hussein, Tanden, Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason, Andrew Hay, Stephen Coates Organizations: White, REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Democratic, of American Islamic Relations, Muslim American, St Paul International Airport, Domestic Policy Council, Black, Republicans, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minneapolis, Gaza, Israel, America, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Raleigh , North Carolina, Northfield, Puerto Rico

☆ On a former cotton plantation in Louisiana, a Black farmers' cooperative is reclaiming the land and money their ancestors lost
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-07 | by ( Trisha Gopal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Between 1910 and 1997, Black farmers lost around 90% of their property in the US. In 1920, there were nearly 1 million Black farmers in the United States, accounting for 14% of all farmers. But between 1910 and 1997, Black farmers lost around 90% of their property, while white farmers only lost 2% during the same time period. She hopes to create a platform that addresses economic and racial equity for Black farmers, while also encouraging sustainable agriculture. In the 19th century, after the Southern Farmers' Alliance refused to admit Black farmers except in certain chapters, Black farmers started the Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Co-operative Union.

Persons: Konda Mason, Mason, I've, Mason's, collard, she's, Robert Bimba, Erica Styger, Elisabeth Keller, Keller's, Donna Isaacs, Caryl Levine, Levine, Justice Rice, Rice, Jim Crow, Linda Jones Organizations: Service, Jubilee Justice, Lotus Foods, Justice, US Department of Agriculture, USDA, Agriculture, Southern Farmers ' Alliance, Colored Farmers ' National Alliance and, Union Locations: Alabama, California, Louisiana, Inglewood, Alexandria, New York, Asia, Africa, United States, Mason, Ecuadorian

☆ Timeline of Racial Wealth Gap
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Policies and practices that have disadvantaged Black Americans generation after generation help explain the racial wealth gap. Black veterans find it much harder to obtain benefits; one study finds Black claimants were twice as likely to have their applications queried. 1877Southern states begin enacting “Jim Crow” laws, which formalize racial segregation. The laws restrict civil liberties and limit job opportunities for Black people as employers relegate Black workers to lower-skilled roles. 1896The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v Ferguson that racial segregation is permissible.

Persons: Black, vagrancy, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, Andrew Johnson, Jim Crow, Ferguson, Henry Ford, Woodrow Wilson, Smith, Bankhead Organizations: Civil, Union, Bureau, American Medical Association, Prudential, Companies, Black, American Federation of Labor, U.S, Supreme, Plessy, U.S . Department of Agriculture, U.S . Constitution, National Association of Real, Owners Loan Corporation, U.S . Commission, Housing Administration, Federal Housing Administration Locations: U.S, Southern, Black, Louisville , Kentucky, U.S ., Tulsa , Oklahoma, Los Angeles, Chicago, Levittown, New York’s

☆ It's not just 'Barbie' — as Hollywood goes through upheaval, brands from Nike to John Deere are becoming the new financiers of film and TV
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As studios cut spending and strikes shut down production, Hollywood can take some solace — brands are coming to the rescue. Brand Storytelling is an organization that's held a festival for brand content alongside the Sundance Film Festival for the past seven years. Brand film submissions have almost tripled to 160 in the past three years, according to Rick Parkhill, director and co-founder of Brand Storytelling. "Film directors need the work," said Marcus Peterzell, who left ad giant Omnicom to found Passion Point Collective, a brand film studio, in 2019. He's since made some 36 film projects for brands.

Persons: Greta Gerwig, Kyra Sedgwick, John Deere, Kimberly Doebereiner, Chris Paul, Mattel's Robbie Brenner, There's, Jill Lubochinski, Holly Fraser, WePresent, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer's, Reese Witherspoon's, Michael Sugar's Sugar23, we've, Marc Gilbar, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Gilbar, that's, Rick Parkhill, Riz Ahmed, WeTransfer, Vicky Grout, Parkill, Saint Laurent, Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, They're, Marcus Peterzell, Peterzell Organizations: Hollywood, Mattel, Nike, HBO, Procter & Gamble, Tide, Gillette, G Studios, Warner Bros, Discovery, PepsiCo, REI, Dallas Buyers, Sundance, Brand, Brands Locations: —, HBO's, Hollywood

☆ Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a DeSantis ally, wants to stop pot legalization from going before voters in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ron DeSantis, asked the state Supreme Court to nix a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize pot in the state. The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Drug Free America Foundation were outside entities opposing the ballot measure in briefs they filed. In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly authorized medical marijuana usage through a similar ballot measure, and they tend to be similarly successful in other states. Despite DeSantis' definitive statement against cannabis legalization last week, his record on the issue has been mixed. As a US Congressman, DeSantis voted in favor of spending bill amendments to protect state cannabis programs from federal interference.

Persons: DeSantis, —, Ashley Moody, Ron DeSantis, nix, Moody, Truelieve Organizations: Florida's, Service, Republican Gov, GOP, Department of Health, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Drug Free America Foundation, Navy Locations: Florida, telehealth

☆ Two Chefs on Keeping Alive, and Redefining, Soul Food
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Korsha Wilson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

FREEMAN Definitely more young Black chefs and more women chefs in leadership roles. WILLIAMS I think that it’s important that we get the opportunity to see all facets of Black ingenuity, Black culture, and Black food and hospitality. The best use of my time is learning, growing and sharing something that is very valuable and very important to me. We had food when we had nothing but food. What evolution do you hope to see in food and leadership in restaurant kitchens?

☆ Victor LaValle’s Latest Mixes Horror With a History of the West
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Chanelle Benz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

LONE WOMEN, by Victor LaValleVictor LaValle’s enthralling fifth novel, “Lone Women,” opens like a true western, with a scene of dark, bloody upheaval and a hint of vengeance. When we meet Adelaide Henry, the grown daughter of Black farmers, she is in a daze, dumping gasoline all over her family’s farmhouse. We don’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing, what happened to her family or, most important, what else she has or hasn’t done. Adelaide will soon escape to the harsh beauty of Montana as one of the “lone” women acquiring a homestead of 320 acres from the federal government. If she can survive three years there, cultivating the land and making it habitable, the land will become hers.

☆ Stephen Miller led-group emerges as top legal foe of Biden initiatives
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Chandelis Duster | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A conservative legal group led by former top Trump aide Stephen Miller has emerged as a frequent opponent to several Biden administration initiatives by mounting court challenges, succeeding in blocking policies they say are examples of reverse discrimination. Miller touts America First Legal as “the long-awaited answer to the (American Civil Liberties Union),” and his group has garnered several legal victories against the Biden administration in the past few weeks and months, most notably on issues of racial discrimination. The lawsuits led to an injunction that blocked the debt relief payments. Several Black farmers and social justice advocates have said Miller’s actions are harmful. “I want to set the record straight – no one is against White farmers in this country,” John Boyd Jr., 57, a fourth-generation farmer who is founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, told CNN.

“They broke their promise to Black farmers and other farmers of color,” John Boyd, a plaintiff and the president of the National Black Farmers Association, told NBC News on Wednesday just before he held a press conference on the matter. John Boyd, president of the Black Farmers Association, plants winter wheat in one of his fields in Baskerville, Va., on Jan. 8, 2019. The $4 billion was never delivered to Black farmers and other people of color, however. The new legislation aims to circumvent white farmers’ grievances and create two new funds while nixing the initial relief program. In 1920, there were more than 925,000 Black farmers in the U.S., making up about 14% of the farmer population, according to data analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey.

☆ Black Farmers Skeptical About Loan Aid After Discrimination
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Kristina Peterson | Photographs Timothy Ivy For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Last month, President Biden signed into law a spending bill intended to reckon with what courts and government investigations have repeatedly found to be a history of discrimination by the U.S. Agriculture Department against Black farmers. But for many Black farmers and their advocates, they will have to see the money to believe it.

☆ Black Farmers Skeptical About Aid After Biased Lending
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Kristina Peterson | Photographs Timothy Ivy For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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