“So far, Mr. Obama has deferred to Congress. Some farmers have speculated that the president is shying away from the issue because it involves race. The White House said that was untrue.” – New York Times
No we can’t! That seems to be the president’s motto whenever black people need help. In the pre-Obama days, black people would at least go through the motions of making demands. “Democrats take our votes for granted,” was the common refrain.
Now we have a president who ignores us with absolute impunity. Black farmers in southern states were discriminated against by the United States Department of Agriculture for decades. They were denied loans on a regular basis and many lost their properties as a result.
They won a landmark lawsuit in 1999, Pigford v. Glickman, which compensated the farmers with $1 billion. An additional $1.25 billion is still owed but neither congress nor the administration has acted on the claim, missing a March 31st deadline.
The president could release money through a Treasure department Pigford fund, but has so far has declined to do so. I’ll say it for the 101st time, black Americans would be better off with a white democrat in the white house than with Obama. Obama idol worshippers want to have it both ways. On the one hand they endlessly talk about how brilliant he is and in the same breath proclaim that he can’t possibly figure out a way to do anything that benefits black people without making white people mad.
Racist white people don’t like him anyway and don’t really care what he does. So like a bunch of chumps, Obama’s black supporters give him carte blanche to stab us in the back time after time.
It is insulting to say that expeditiously helping black farmers would somehow destroy the Obama presidency. He hasn’t acted on this issue because he just doesn’t care. There is nothing complicated going on here. The president has the power to get this money without asking congress but he refuses to do it because inaction and betrayal have worked so well for him in the past.
