Still waiting.................

From what I've read on various blog and news pages of late, Black farmers are dying. At least two funerals have been held over the last two or three weeks. John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association has spoken about these matters on his web page. Gary Grant, President of Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, has spoken personally about being at these funerals. Spencer Woods, activist and advocate for Black farmers posted recently on a Facebook page that it looks like there is an intent to wait Black farmers out until they die. It's hard to receive a payment for years of injustice if the one mistreated is dead.

In the latest issue of Readers Digest, an article discusses the injustices and inequities of the manner in which federal subsidies are handed out. In South Florida, the deceased receive payments. No longer are the last names of farmers in the majority of recipients. Instead, mega-farm operations are receiving supplements. According to this article 75% of the funding goes to 10% of recipients. What is right about that?

If you are interested in what is happening in your area, the Environmental Working Group has a farm subsidy database. My students and I on the social justice team at ACU worked our way through a similar page a couple of years ago. It was more than interesting.

Recently Senator Reid of Nevada asked for a unanimous consent request in the Senate to settle the $1.15 billion commitment that President Obama made to Black farmers. It looks like partisan politics continues to enter the fray. It's time to settle this score, insofar as a modest sum of money can settle any act(s) of racial discrimination from policies and procedures of the USDA.

Here is a string of sources and quotes that summarize this serious matter.

If these do not move you, read this Tampa Bay area story about Mr. Bonner. It should move you. It did me.

Calls to officials at the White House and your senators would be appreciated.

Time is of the essence.

Just Wanted to Say Thanks

Sometimes it's a good idea to pause and to say thanks to folks who've blessed your life. This post has been on my heart for some time, so now, here it is. These folks and their pages are over just to the right of this post. I'd encourage you to check them out as you have time.

Thanks to those amazing and gifted students from ACU who formed Social Justice Teams:

Team I: Sara, Laura, Jacob, Josh, Ashley, and Liz because you laid the foundation for all that has followed. That work with stories of women who are both African American and of Indian ancestry and African Americans reared in a white cultural context was excellent.

Team II: Kelsie, Josh, Bryanna, Tim, and David Todd because you walked in places and spaces that no one had walked before. Yes, I know we're still waiting for action from DOJ. Hopefully we'll not have to wait forever. And, your contribution at the conference in King of Prussia, PA was important and timely.

Team III: Michelle, Kimberly, Rebecca, Scott, Sarah, Brian, and Heather, your conceptual work and presentations in larger academic contexts was among the first for this work. Heather, I'd still like to see some of your amazing art work.

Team IV: Daniel, Ruqayyah, and Ty, your work in the area of white privilege which is coming up here in a few days at TAMFT will make a difference.

Abilene Christian University, the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, and its founders, Paul Faulkner and Tom Milholland, along with amazing faculty, staff, and students, gave me the context to grow as a person, professional, and advocate for justice. It's the best MFT program in the country.

Big Country Family Therapy Associates, now owned by a loyal and faithful friend and co-worker, provided a context for serving struggling people. Dave in particular, his wife, and our Sunday morning Bible class provided another context in which to engage justice and the Word of God. They heard my stories, and they told their own. There's not a better therapist in Abilene than the man who's on the fifth floor of the Compass Bank Building, downtown Abilene.

Gary Grant, President, and the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association along with the Concerned Citizens of Tillery, provided the legitimacy that was foundational for engaging black farmers, hearing their stories, and telling them on these pages and in other contexts. Gary is a visionary, a man of principle and passion, and a man who has become a friend in this righteous struggle. Gary's engagement of Justice Team III and IV last year was an amazing thing to watch. His influence extends far beyond North Carolina.

Dionne, senior administrator of the Department of MFT at ACU, and entrepreneur, is a woman of immense talents who gave of her means to support traveling students on their way to a black land loss summit last year. Check her and her efforts out.

Greg Kendall-Ball, staff member in the Graduate School of Theology, ACU, and I have dreamed big dreams. He's a gifted photographer. Only funding is holding us back from making what we think will be an enormous contribution to the telling of the stories of black farmers of our land.

Larry James of Central Dallas Ministries and I crossed paths back in Memphis at the Harding Graduate School of Religion in the early '70s. His heart and his bright mind were evident then and now. His words on his blog are daily reads. He points people to the Kingdom and to justice in this world, two things that cannot be disconnected.

Micah P. Hinson is a young singer/songwriter who has caught the vision of the plight of the black farmer. One who has always had a heart oriented toward the disenfranchised, he and I have collaborated on a song about black farmers. Only funding is keeping this effort from becoming a "proper release," a video, and the making of the video, a venture that will also engage the choir from Tillery, NC. This and the photojournalism effort would be firsts and would tell the story in contexts not utilized before. There's another effort that deserves to be heard, one co-authored musically and lyrically by Ben Clinard, student at ACU/MFT.

John Boyd president of the National Black Farmers Association and I crossed paths in Memphis in January, 2006. His proximity to DC allows him to operate on large political stage. His efforts in spotlighting the plight of the black farmer are important contributions to this righteous cause.

Dr. Spencer Wood, sociology professor at Kansas State University, and I first met via email around some pivotal things he'd written about black land loss. Then, last year at the 10th Annual Black Land Loss Summit, Tillery and Whitakers, NC, we met face to face. He is a good man who is making significant contributions to this cause. He's a leader and I am simply a follower.

Vern Switzer, or "The Watermelon Man," has an amazing story. He, too, was a farmer who was involved in the Pigford Class Action Suit, and while still farming, he has now begun to reach out via books and stories to engage children and farming. He is a great story teller who can keep elementary students' attention for an hour at a time.

There are more. We need more. Racism and discrimination are not going to go away any time soon. Listen to our daily conversations. Tune in to what others are saying, and how folks are treating others, and it's there.

There's much to be done. Who are the activists that you know? What are their links, their contexts, their efforts?

Small efforts, huge cause

People ask fairly often, "What are you doing for the Black farmer?" or "What is going on these days with the Team?" or "Is the work doing any good?" or "What is the current state of things with legislation for the Black farmer?" or "Will the congress add anything meaninful to the 2007 Farm Bill that will address economic and social inequities?" Those are complicated questions because the cause is huge and the efforts seem so minimal.

The Social Justice Movement is like a mighty raging river, the movement to address the plight of the Black farmer is itself larger than we can imagine, and all of our collective efforts seem so small. The analogy I offered recently was that we simply get into our small canoes, and begin to paddle with the current. Small efforts, huge cause.

Efforts of various sorts have been going on for years. Zippert and Watson (2001) chronicle the cause of the Black farmer and efforts to keep the land. I'd recommend giving that chapter in a book entitled "Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide" a serious read. One of the members of Team III will be writing a more in depth piece about that later. The Southern Federation of Cooperatives, BFAA, NBFA, BFAA-Inc., and a host of others, including the Rural Coalition, National Family Farm Coalition, NAACP, labor unions, and farmers and friends, just to name a few, have been active in the advocacy effort.

Zippert and Watson evaluate things this way: "So, in a democratic system, advocacy for legislative, administrative, and regulatory change is an incremental, not a revolutionary, process. The changes the Federation has achieved for Black farmers and rural communities are modest and require a continuing vigilance and fight to retain. The opposition is at work to reverse and contain these changes at every chance it can get (p. 157)."

Change is slow. The process is grindingly slow. People are ground down by the slow grind of it all.