Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has come out in support of a provision in the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan that sought to dole out $5 billion in reparations to farmers of color across the United States. The program was administered by the Department of Agriculture, boosted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and overturned by a federal court. The court stated that it is not legally permissible to attempt to remedy past discrimination by discriminating against others in the present.
But for Kennedy, the plan is alright because, he argued, the recipients of the race-based aid were entitled to the money because it had been “stolen” from their ancestors. That was not the perspective of the white farmers that brought suit against the Biden administration nor the court that prevented the plan from being implemented.
During a recent episode of the RFK Jr. Podcast, National Black Farmers Association founder John Boyd explained that after the multi-billion dollar measure was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, the United States Department of Agriculture “dragged its feet” when it came to distributing the funds to the 16,000 eligible recipients.
Boyd recalled how over the following months, white farmers took issue with the policy, and challenged