Bill could help bl@ack farmers reclaim millions of acres

[Diamondback]

I see an Equal Protection Clause violation there...

[Buncheong]

Wealth transfer scheme.

Please see “Zimbabwe” for further details ...

[yoni]

In Israel those of us from Arab countries were considered black.

Does that count?

I want free land.

Funny the name of my small farm in Israel is called 40 acres and a mule.

[TomMcC]

The plan is for government to buy farms from (presumably white people) and give away the farms to black people.

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SEC. 203. PROVISION OF LAND GRANTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall—
RYA20816 V50

(1) purchase from willing sellers, at a price not
greater than fair market value, available agricultural land in the United States; and

(2) subject to section 205, convey grants of the
land to eligible Black individuals at no cost to the
eligible Black individuals.

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Farming is tough work, requiring 24/7/365 care. People generally don't take great care of that which they did not pay for nor have any skin in the game. I guess that's why there's protections in the bill that don't allow black farms to fail.... just keep throwing more taxpayer money at it.

https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/me...020%20Bill.pdf

Reminds me of the joke about farming in general: What's a farmer do with a million dollars? Farms until it's all gone.

I wonder where they are going to get all these black farmers?

And if they are kept from failing, why not just skip the farming and give them $60K a year or whatever.....hey, that sounds like guaranteed incomes.

[AndyLate]

Artificially change the demographics of sparsely populated states that are conservative/Republican holdouts. It's no different than dumping thousands of refugees in Idaho during the Obama presidency, it's just much faster.

Andy

[ABNAK]

If black farmers had bought land and that land was taken away from them by force or force of law.

Then they need to be given that land back. If the family that stole it no longer owns it then the current owners or the black family need to be compensated. If the current owner wants to stay on the land, then give the blacks current market value plus 50%.

This I would support.

I would not support giving government land to people based on the color of their skin.

No, anywhere from 100 to 150 years clouds this equation considerably. Even if you were able to prove direct descendance from a black farmer (good luck.....maybe I shouldn't have added that, but it is what it is) that direct descendant is technically only "entitled " to a fraction of the land or it's value, assuming many other kin over the generations.

Conversely, the white guy owning it had NOTHING to do with it's acquisition; hell, assuming even if it was directly handed down in his family how many generations removed is it? Four or five? Nah, we need to live in the here-and-now, not "avenging" injustices in which the "perpetrators" didn't actually perpetrate, and the "victims" weren't actually victims of.

[ABNAK]

Artificially change the demographics of sparsely populated states that are conservative/Republican holdouts. It's no different than dumping thousands of refugees in Idaho during the Obama presidency, it's just much faster.

Well there's that too. Good point, hadn't thought about that angle.

[titsonritz]

If he wants to be useful, Booker can go suck start a shotgun.

[MountainRaven]

Well there's that too. Good point, hadn't thought about that angle.

I don't think the sorts of people wanting to acquire a farm - even at little or no cost - are the sorts of people who are inclined to vote for urban Democrats.

[jsbhike]

I would guess if any land was taken from blacks by force of law it would have occurred between roughly 1870 (give or take a few years) to about 1950.

Prior to the civil war, I would assume any free black person engaged in farming land they owned in the south was also extremely likely to be engaged in owning other blacks as slaves.