Rural Democrats insist the party can’t afford to bypass their communities, which account for 15-to-20% of the U.S. electorate, or some 25 to 30 million voters. Donald Trump won a whopping 59% of the vote in rural areas in 2016, and even more in 2020.
Farming is a stressful occupation. Black farmers face the additional burdens of racism, debt and fear of displacement.
In Pembroke, the well-intended efforts of mostly white nature conservationists overlook one thing: The township’s Black farming community has never fully supported them. Now, a generations-old way of life is threatened by the push for conservation.
Out of 3.4 million farmers working in the United States, fewer than 50,000 are Black...due to historic racial discrimination in federal farm programs — and now efforts to address that history are themselves being attacked as discriminatory.
Data Shows Black farmers are far behind in obtaining USDA grants and loans.
Recent Black Lives Matter protests have sparked conversations about how to act in better solidarity with the Black struggle. How to move beyond rhetorical statements? How to address anti-Blackness among non-Black Arab communities?
Edward Snowden in Exile: ‘You Have to Be Ready to Stand for Something.’ Musicians Love Making Fun of Bob Dylan. Beto O'Rourke: 'We're going to take away your AR-15.' John Oliver: Filibuster. How Black Americans Were Robbed of Their Land.
Over the course of the 20th century, black Americans have lost approximately 12 million acres of land. This mass land dispossession—a war waged by deed of title, which has affected 98 percent of black farmers—can only be called theft, says Atlantic writer Vann R. Newkirk II in a new documentary.
Today there are just 45,000 African American farmers. This man is fighting to save them.
These Black farmers don’t stop at healthy food. They’re healing trauma, instilling collective values, and changing the way their communities think about the land.
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