According to John Boyd Jr., the National Black Farmers Association’s chairman,” We’re then back to before the civil rights bill passed.”
Black producers are prepared for the worst as the Trump administration reduces needed funding, including millions of dollars in grants, which it has determined are “woke La propaganda.”
According to John Boyd Jr., the National Black Farmers Association’s founder,” They’re truly rolling up the watches.” The government’s strong stance against DEI has led to Black producers having trouble obtaining banks loans and commercial endorsements, in addition to cutting needed financial aid.
” We’re hearing from businesses that are afraid to form any kind of partnership with our organization because it has the term” Black farmer,” Boyd told theGrio.
After years of racial bias at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Black producers have been fighting for their rights for years. Despite there being victories, most notably a 1999 class action lawsuit brought against the USDA that resulted in nearly$ 1 billion in compensation for Black farmers, a series of legal setbacks and regime change have left Black farmers struggling for adequate funding, which has resulted in foreclosures and land losses.
In his 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, former president Joe Biden cited past years of widespread bias and received a historic$ 5 billion in debt reduction and support for Black producers and other producers of colour. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the plan has been hailed as having the greatest impact on Black producers.
The system was put on hold after America First Legal, a traditional law firm founded by Stephen Miller, who is now Trump’s chief of staff and is a staunch supporter of Trump’s anti-diversity, capital, and incorporation laws, filed a string of racial discrimination claims on behalf of light producers. It marked the start of a number of de facto reverse discrimination or “anti-white” lawsuits filed by Miller and other conservative attorneys, most of which resulted in the Supreme Court’s decision to stop racial admissions.
Boyd, who told theGrio he saw the writing on the wall and was concerned about the effect it would have on Black farmers, claimed that “he was the architect behind that drafting of reverse discrimination, type language.”
He urged the Biden White House to file a lawsuit in court. Without making mention of race in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the administration ended the program and established a second, leaner$ 2.2 billion discrimination relief program for “disadvantaged” farmers.
The Biden administration gave the IRA funds to all farmers who were eligible. Boyd, whose group represents over 116, 000 Black farmers, claimed that about 60, 000 had requested relief. He makes it clear, however, that the relief did not nearly cover Black farmers who were burdened by high property taxes and difficult to get credit.
Miller, Trump’s anti-DE I architect, is currently assisting in the formulation of policy in the White House, which includes addressing the systemic discrimination against Black farmers. More than 145 DEI-related awards for farmers were terminated last week by Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who called them “waste.”
Boyd believes that Congress and civil rights leaders should have made more outrageous against Black farmers ‘ targeted use. He claims that when he urged them to rebel, he was stifled and told Miller that their legal victory against Black farmers was an “isolated win.”
Boyd recalled that” I said they’re going to be going after affirmative action, student loan debt relief, and all this stuff.” When I took on Stephen Miller and expressed how big of a problem it was, I didn’t have enough Black support behind it.
Boyd is frustrated and disheartened as the Trump administration continues to pursue its anti-DE I agenda, which President Trump has mandated.
According to Boyd,” We’re now back to before the civil rights bill passed.”
The Black farmers ‘ advocate took particular offense at Trump’s admission of white South African farmers and grant them a pathway to citizenship under the false pretense that a genocide had occurred against them.
According to Boyd,” Indians and Black people are the only people who have actually experienced genocide in this country,” according to Boyd, who understood that the Trump administration is also attempting to grant the white Afrikaners U.S. land. He continued,” I’ve been to South Africa, and the farms there are in better shape than some of the farms out there in Virginia that I’m looking at; they’re owned by white farmers and now belong to Blacks.
Boyd claimed that the Trump administration’s policy of providing white farmers with cover is glaringly hypocritical because it is basing it on race, something it has consistently refuted in its anti-DE I campaign.
” I’ve been looking for a law firm to file an injunction and send their asses back. They shouldn’t be able to enter this nation solely based on race, he told theGrio.
Boyd said that Black farmers who are navigating the Trump regime have already experienced the effects of Trump’s global tariffs, which have “plummeted” the agriculture industry. He claimed that the USDA has also made it abundantly clear that they won’t “honor” the Biden administration’s policies regarding racial equity and have already begun foreclosing on land.
Boyd is criticized frequently by President Biden for not “going the extra mile” to assist Black farmers, such as by honoring Boyd’s suggestion to the White House to grant additional executive order debt relief. He is now, however, upset that Trump is the one who “hates Black people.”
The activist wants Congress to use its legislative authority to stop Trump from” circumambulating in a zoo circus, unregulated with no oversight, as though he’s a dictator.” He continued,” You might as well stay at home or resign and let someone who has some galls and balls and some fire stand up to this president.”
Boyd tells theGrio in the interim that he is confident in his fight for Black farmers and has faith in their future despite the despair of the moment.
In response to a Southern Black idiom, he said,” There’s a stick setting up yonder” with Donald Trump’s name on it, as grandma Rufus used to say. ” If he keeps doing wrong, he’s going to step on it because he’s so haughty that he won’t stop.”
He continued,” So we have to be prepared to move forward and move quickly when that happens.” This president has put in place all this nonsense, and unity will do it.
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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://thegrio.com/2025/06/23/trumps-dei-rollbacks-are-starving-black-farmers-like-never-before/
