Black farmers are bracing for the worst as the Trump administration rolls back needed funding, including millions in grants that it has determined are “woke DEI propaganda.”
“They’re really rolling back the clocks,” said John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association. In addition to cutting needed financial assistance, the administration’s strong stance against DEI has resulted in Black farmers having challenges accessing bank loans and corporate sponsorships.
“We’re hearing from companies that are running scared of having any sort of partnership with our organization because it has the word ‘Black farmer,’” Boyd told theGrio.
For decades, Black farmers have been fighting for their due after decades of racial discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While there have been some wins, most notably a 1999 class action lawsuit filed against the USDA resulting in nearly $1 billion in rewards for Black farmers, a whiplash of legal setbacks and regime change has left Black farmers struggling for adequate funding, which has resulted in foreclosures and loss of land.
Following years of advocacy, former President Joe Biden achieved a historic $5 billion in debt relief and assistance for Black farmers and other farmers of color in his 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, citing historic systemic discrimination. The program was described as the greatest benefit for Black farmers since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
However, the program was halted after a flurry of racial discrimination lawsuits on behalf of white farmers was filed by America First Legal, a conservative law firm founded by Stephen Miller, who is now Trump’s White House chief of staff, and a chief proponent of Trump’s anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. It was the beginning of a series of de facto reverse discrimination or “anti-white” lawsuits from Miller and other conservative litigants, including the Supreme Court’s ruling that mostly ended race-based admissions.
“He was the architect behind that drafting of reverse discrimination, type language,” said Boyd, who told theGrio he saw the writing on the wall and worried about the impact it would have on Black farmers.
He urged the Biden White House to fight the lawsuit in court. However, the administration rescinded the program and established a second revised, leaner $2.2 billion discrimination relief program for “disadvantaged” farmers without mentioning race in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
The Biden administration fully distributed the IRA funds to eligible farmers. Boyd, whose organization represents over 116,000 Black farmers, said about 60,000 applied for relief. However, he makes clear that the relief was not nearly enough to support Black farmers who are faced with high property taxes and barriers to accessing credit.
Now, Miller, Trump’s anti-DEI architect, is helping to shape policy in the White House that is influencing the administration’s priorities–and those priorities do not include addressing the systemic discrimination of Black farmers. Last week, Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins terminated more than 145 DEI-related awards for farmers, describing them as “waste.”
Boyd believes members of Congress and civil rights leaders should have been more vocal against the targeting of Black farmers. He claims when he urged them to fight back, he was sidelined and told Miller’s legal victory against Black farmers was an “isolated win.”
“I said they’re going to be going after affirmative action, student loan debt relief, and all this stuff,” Boyd recalled. “I didn’t have enough Black support behind it when I was taking on Stephen Miller and told people how big of a problem it was.”
As the Trump administration barrels through its anti-DEI agenda, which President Trump has ordered, Boyd is left frustrated and disheartened.
“Now we’re back to before the civil rights bill passed, in my definition,” Boyd told theGrio.
The Black farmers’ advocate took particular offense to Trump welcoming white farmers from South Africa and offering them a path to citizenship under the false pretense that a genocide had taken place against them.
“The only people that really faced genocide in this country are Indians and Black people,” said Boyd, who shared it’s his understanding that the Trump administration is also working to offer the white Afrikaners U.S. land. He added, “I’ve been to South Africa, and the farms there are in better shape than some of the farms out here in Virginia that I’m looking at–and they’re owned by white farmers and now owned by Blacks.”
Boyd said the Trump administration’s providing cover for white farmers is glaringly hypocritical because they’re basing it on race–something it has condemned throughout its anti-DEI campaign.
“I’ve been trying to find a law firm to file an injunction and send their asses back. They should not be allowed to come to this country solely by race,” he told theGrio.
As for Black farmers navigating the Trump regime, Boyd said they have already felt the impact of Trump’s global tariffs, which have “plummeted” the agriculture industry. He said the USDA has also already made clear they won’t “honor” the racial equity commitments of the Biden administration, and have already begun foreclosing on land.
Boyd holds much criticism of President Biden for not “going the extra mile to help” Black farmers, such as honoring Boyd’s suggestion to the White House to issue additional debt relief by executive order. However, he is now left incensed “we have a president that hates Black people,” referring to Trump.
The activist is calling on Congress to use its legislative powers to stop Trump from “running around in a zoo circus, unregulated with no oversight, as though he’s a dictator.” He added, “You might as well stay at home or resign and let somebody with some galls and balls and some fire who wants to stand up to this president.”
In the meantime, Boyd tells theGrio he remains confident in his fight for Black farmers and has faith in their future despite the hopelessness of the moment.
“As grandma Rufus said, ‘There’s a stick setting up yonder’ with Donald Trump’s name on it,” he said, referencing a Southern Black idiom. “If he keeps doing wrong, he’s going to step on it because he’s so arrogant that he’s not going to stop.”
He added, “So when that happens, we have to be prepared to move forward and swiftly. Unity will be the way to fix all this nonsense that this president has put in place.”
