A major American newspaper headlined, “A Windfall for Minority Farmers Divides Rural America” and many of us look at the history of the exploitation and oppression of black and minority farmers over the past century and wonder: “When was rural America united?”

A New York Times story this week opened with a view of black farmer Shade Lewis of LaGrange, Missouri, who recently was told that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would pay off his $200,000 farm loan, as part of a debt relief program for farmers who “have endured generations of racial discrimination.”

Predictably, those farmers who have been left out, the 97 percent of farmers who are white, are incensed and suing the USDA for “racial discrimination.” Lewis was quoted by the paper as saying, “You can feel the tension. We've caught a lot of heat from the conservative Caucasian farmers.”

Of course, they're incensed. All farmers have been under the gun, at least since the end of World War II, when American agriculture started to become more and more mechanized and in thrall to the giant chemical companies that were busily convincing them that they needed pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers to make their crops grow. And, by the way, “get big or get out.” So, they busied themselves to find ways to get bigger, so they didn't have to get out. As they were busy getting bigger and bigger, they needed machinery that was commensurate with their big farms. They needed giant machinery. It took, and takes, a lot of money to survive in farming in 21^st Century America.

One of the ways that white farmers across the Black Belt South could grow and make their farms bigger was to take the land owned by black and a few other minority farmers in the states where there were about 920,000 black farmers in 1920. The story of black land loss is an old one, but that land white farmers were seeking came from the black farmers who owned millions of acres, much of it prime farmland.

It was easy to do. The racism that pervaded the states where black farmers were in great number was the rule and whatever was done by the county committees of the USDA was accepted as routine. The committees throughout the 20^th Century were run overwhelmingly by local white farmers. Without much fanfare, black land ownership dwindled, until about 30 years ago, when a number of black farmers joined together in several organizations to seek justice. Those who were left at that time, about 17,000 or 18,000 of them, began to demand justice.

There have been a few stages of success with USDA over the past three decades, ending in some cases in “settlements” that supposedly provided programs and funds to make up for the theft of black land, but none of it came close to making up for the massive theft. Many black farmers were left out of the settlements, because they didn't hear of the litigation and political action and, as well, many did not hear of the deadlines and the procedures that were required to be included in the class.

Under the Biden Administration, the rescue plan is an attempt to make up for the outright theft of land and farms that occurred over generations. Because the rescue plan was designated for “socially disadvantaged” farmers and included mostly black farmers, brown farmers, indigenous farmers, white farmers have complained that they are being discriminated against.

The question then is, where were these white farmers when black farmers' land and farms were being stolen out from under them? Where was the unity? Where was the solidarity among farmers? The answer is that they were busy making sure that their farms were being enlarged at the expense of other farmers, especially black farmers in most southern states.

This kind of thing happens in various places in the world on a regular basis. Someone wants to grow bigger, whether it's a family, a clan, a tribe, or a nation, it wants to grow and the people who occupy the space where they want to be are just in the way. The answer there is: find some way to remove them. Sometimes it is legal and sometimes it is semi-legal and, often, it is a crime. In the case of black land theft, it was not a statutory crime, but it was immoral and unethical. In a larger sense, in a culture of ethics and morality and in a nation supposedly of laws and not men, it was a crime. But it was done under the auspices of the USDA, which became the responsible party.

It took generations for that fact to be brought front and center and, when it was, it took years for the government and the politicians to admit that a wholesale theft had taken place and they were responsible. That's how the USDA and the nation have come to provide some relief for disadvantaged farmers, mostly black farmers and because of this "rescue package," the white farmers are feeling left out and even, nonsensically, believing that they are victims of racial discrimination.

They are victims, but it is not because of Biden's rescue package for black farmers. With the concentration of wealth and power in fewer and fewer corporations and cartels, they are running their operations for the benefit of the hedge funds and the 1 percent who have lately invested in land and farms and the "commodities" that they produce. They have become just another cog in the agricultural marketplace machinery and they live and function at the behest of the market forces that are controlled by the few.

If they were honest about their situation, they would not be suing the government over "reverse discrimination," but would be looking for ways to make common cause with black farmers to make the changes in the system in which they function, rather than pass the misery along to black farmers. That, however, would force them to admit that they just stood by while some of their number blatantly used the structural racism of the nation to steal black lands and farms. If there had been some unity or solidarity with minority farmers during the past century, they might not be in the condition in which they find themselves. Suing the government is not going to change their situation.

The Biden rescue plan for black and minority farmers is not the solution to the massive loss of land and farms over most of a century, but it is a start because it is an admission that extreme harm was done to an entire class of people, just because the pervasive background racism of the country allowed it.

What white farmers have not realized over time is that getting bigger is not getting better. Their desire and willingness to get bigger have struck a fatal blow to so many of them. What they did not realize or were not willing to admit that they were doing a similar thing to black farmers, who lost millions of acres and tens of thousands of farms. They stood by and let it happen

Unfortunately, the white farmers who are suing the USDA over the rescue plan are not willing to look honestly at what the nation, and they, have done. It was one of the gravest acts against the civil rights of black farmers to own and operate their farms. Instead of whining about their plight, they should be actively supporting black and other minority farmers who are struggling to get back what has been taken from them.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Contact Mr. Funiciello and BC.