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February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
February
8, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ashcroft
the Bigot
Molly
Secours
Racism
and Real Estate
Wole Akande
World
Economic Forum:
The Aftermath
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Dita
Sari Tells Reebok
to "Shove It"
February
7, 2002
Patrick
Cockburn
Taliban's
War on Chess
John Chuckman
Howdee,
Dick!
Tariq
Ali
Mullahs
and Heretics
February
6, 2002
Amira
Hass
On
the Edge of the
Non-Violent Demonstrations
Vivian
Berger
Sentenced
to Rape
Vladimir Georgiyev
Russian Intelligence:
War on Iraq Begins in Sept.
Tom Turnipseed
"Axis
of Evil" a Cover for Corporate Corruption?
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
February
5, 2002
Norman
Madarasz
Dispatch
from Pôrto Alegre
Tom Malinowski
What
to do with
Our "Detainees"?
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
February
4, 2002
Eric Miller/Beth
Daley
Five
Weapons Systems
That Bilk the Taxpayers
Kenneth
Roth
Dear
Condoleezza,
You've Misstated the
Geneva Convention
Robert
Jensen
The
Occupation Must End
Shahid
Alam
How
Different Are
Islamic Societies?
David
Vest
Everybody
Says I Loathe You
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
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EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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February 12,
2002
Black Land Loss
(A Hidden Tragedy)
By Tommy Ates
Saying goodbye to the old family farm is always
sad; but losing it through coercion or threat of violence is
simply criminal. This situation, as well as various others,
is what has happened to many black and poor farmers over the
past 30 years. According to an Associated Press study, the amount
of black-owned land in rural areas has dropped sharply over
the past 30 years, in parallel with the rise of African-Americans
in urban areas, causing white flight. Much worse, many of the
land takings have gone unreported with blacks simply not telling
the authorities (especially rural areas) in fear for their safety
or thinking that law enforcement probably did not care (especially
the South).
So it should not be to anyone's surprise
that mostly only black lawmakers (Rep. John Conyers, et al.)
have addressed in the problem in public forums or panels; however,
there are no clear answers, simply sobering statistics. Here
are three simple facts that explain the situation clearly.
According to the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association:
1) between 1920 and 1992, the number of black farmers declined
98 percent, 2) in the 1980s, there were less than 200 black
farmers in the United States under 25, and 3) today's African-American
farmer accounts for less than one percent of American agribusiness.
Now, if there is any irony of the plight
of black farmers, their struggle to survive is not unlike the
difficulty the black underclass has escaping poverty, too little
financial assistance from the government and not enough time
to prove themselves financially solvent in the marketplace (aka
corporate America).
And sadly the scourge of racism has
stroked the flames of destruction. Many farmers had their land
taken by more wealthy landowners forcibly or by trickery, often
with the assistance of the landed gentry, as well as by the
Ku Klux Klan, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. And if you
think that in the modern era that land grabbing doesn't occur,
look at the Myrtle Beach area in South Carolina, where black
landowners have been decimated by ignorance and misinformation
about the value of their lands. While the wealthy snowbirds
enjoy the Myrtle Riviera, black and poor families moved from
their farmhouse by the sea to their apartment or home for the
elderly. The class differential between the blacks in the region
is nominal before and after the land appraisal boom of the 1980s
and 90s.
Even with the April 1999 Consent Decree
with United States Department of Agriculture and black farmers,
claimants are still having a hard time getting the settlements
funds owed to them. The vast USDA bureaucracy, including the
long dreaded Farm Service Agency (FSA), has long been labeled
a "good ol' boys" network even by the mainstream media,
with employees still working there whom some black plaintiffs
claimed discriminated against them, this in addition to relatively
low minority employment levels within the agency, particularly
in management positions. For many minority farmers, as long
as corporate farmers can still peddle influence in Washington
and on the local level, farming subsidies will continue to go
to multinational corporations and farmers, instead of the average
black farmer who farms on less than 50 acres--often not enough
to make a significant profit.
To play Devil's Advocate, yes, it is
true that corporate farming and wealthy landowners have more
resources in hand to ensure better crop yields and more reliable
farm employment. But, does that mean "in the name of corporate
progress" that the African-American farmer should be rendered
extinct? No, America was built by and for the people and any
American farmer (regardless of race or class) deserves to have
a future without having the urban lifestyle, be the only option
for employment. Listen, people: We have enough wage slaves;
it's time for self-sufficiency. Already, we are seeing the results
of the big farms run amok in a huge increase of drug trafficking
to the blighted rural regions, as farming simply cannot pay
the bills. In some areas of the rural South, in terms of murders
and robberies, we are seeing the ghetto visiting Grandma's
house out in the country, and even the shotgun is obsolete.
For the surviving farmers (and there are few), we can help look
after our rural relations by asking and lobbying our congressional
representatives on the state and national level to ask that
the USDA accurately process and help needy black farmers be
aware of some of the farm benefits that are available to them.
For those of you who may have forgotten
all about rural life, there are many cultural traits that give
us our common legacies. The land of our forefathers is an invaluable
treasure, especially since it was earned even before it was
bought.
In light of Black History month, the
problem of black land loss brings new meaning to the question
of what constitutes the "blood, sweat, and tears,"
instead of water, add theft. Needless to say, this issue makes
me eager to celebrate my black history.
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