Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promising $5 billion in aid to Black farmers
That promise was made in a podcast interview with John Boyd Jr., the founder of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA), per Fox News.
Part of the discussion involved the lack of funding for Black farmers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This was part of President Joe Biden’s America Rescue Plan in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I can tell you that when I’m in the White House, you’re going to be out there the first week, I’m going to get rid of those people in USDA and get that money,” Kennedy said.
Boyd said Biden has been focused on student debt relief but not the “debt relief” needed by Black farmers.
Boyd said he would not support Biden because he hasn’t helped “struggling Black farmers who are losing their land.”
The USDA foreclosed on farmer wanting assistance $5 billion debt relief that was available in the American Rescue Plan Act, he said.
“That $5 billion is not money, that is an entitlement,” Kennedy, an independent candidate for president, said. “It’s money that was a loan that Black farmers were entitled to way back then and was stolen from them through discrimination. You can testify it was personally stolen from you and that’s what the court found.”
Kennedy also said the USDA is “broken from the top down.”
“If you were Black, you wouldn’t get it and that’s wrong … and I don’t think anybody who views the values of this country think that that’s a good idea so I’m going to fix that,” Kennedy said.
