This is a case of media reporting some of the story but not all.  The left-leaning Mother Jones magazine (and that’s not an exaggeration) has a story about the lack of black farm ownership in America.  People of color were one in seven of the nation’s farmers 100 years ago but now the number is much smaller.  The writer, and you can read the details by clicking here, suggests black farmers were driven off the land by rampaging mobs of hooded Klansmen.

A story that has some historical accuracy but, once more, isn’t the full tale.  It leaves out what happened during World War Two.  Farming had been rough on everyone involved in agriculture during the 20’s and 30’s.  It’s often said the Great Depression had a ten year head start in vast swathes of rural America. 

You had a choice, scratch out a living on a small farm, and most farms were small at the time, 18 hours a day.

When the United States ramped up war production, there were jobs that paid well in northern cities and along the Great Lakes.  And in some places in the Deep South such as Birmingham and Mobile.

You had a choice, scratch out a living on a small farm, and most farms were small at the time, 18 hours a day.  Or, get a job in a factory where you could also get some benefits and possibly overtime pay.  This wasn’t a difficult choice for most people of any ethnicity.

The writer at Mother Jones interviewed some black activists who believe you should give up at least a portion of your farm or ranch to a black person as a means of making amends.  This at the same time when virtually nobody wants a life on the farm, as you can see by this link.  My guess is the writer and the activists have no clue as to how farming really works.  They probably follow the thinking of Mike Bloomberg.  Paraphrasing Mini-Mike, anybody can throw seeds on dirt and watch plants grow.

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