Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)Ā said a lot of wild thingsĀ during his Sunday morning media blitz. But one of his comments has received far less attention than the others: Vance described a federal program that hasĀ distributedĀ nearly $2 billion to mostly Black farmers who experienced discrimination as ā€œdisgraceful,ā€ suggesting that it is racist against white people.

And now, the head of the largest group of Black farmers across the country is condemning Vanceā€™s assertions.

ā€œHe owes us an apology,ā€Ā John Boyd, Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, told me. The remarks, Boyd added, were ā€œdisgraceful, deplorable, dumb, degrading, and disrespectful to the nationā€™s Black farmers, the oldest occupation in history for Black people.ā€

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I frankly think that unfortunately, a lot of people on the left have leaned into this by trying to categorize people by skin color and then give special benefits or special amounts of discrimination. The Harris Administration, for example, handed out farm benefits to people based on skin color. I think thatā€™s disgraceful. I donā€™t think we should say, you get farm benefits if youā€™re a Black farmer, you donā€™t get farm benefits if youā€™re a white farmer. All farmers, we want to thrive, and thatā€™s certainly the President Trump and JD Vance view of the situation.

    But Vanceā€™s assertions here are an inaccurate portrayal of the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, the federal program established through the Inflation Reduction Act. Contrary to Vanceā€™s claim, applicants were not limited to Black farmers; Any farmer who had experienced discrimination by the US Department of Agricultureā€”including based on sexual orientation or gender identity, religion, age, or disabilityā€”was eligible to apply.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The best part comes before this, when the author asked the Vance campaign for a comment. They didnā€™t give one, but specifically Asked Mother Jones to quote his entire statement.

      Which they did, and then the author explained exactly why the statement was bullshit.