 Photo from John Francis Ficara's photography book Black Farmers in America. Photos and a great article at https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5230129 We cannot be silent. The brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and other African Americans in the past weeks have brought this country’s ongoing legacy of systemic inequality and white supremacy to the fore. In the wake of these killings and amidst the outcry of grief and rage around the country (indeed, around the world), we are keenly aware of our immense white privilege and the ways we benefit from unequal systems. Systemic racism has long infiltrated all aspects of society, beyond racial profiling, overpolicing and mass incarceration, unequal healthcare access, and housing discrimination all the way to land dispossession and fresh food inequality. Black farmers have faced debilitating discrimination from banks when applying for loans, from the USDA at all levels, and from corporate farms and white farming communities that have driven them from their lands. Heirs property laws have further tied the hands of those farmers who were able to hold on to their land. The very people who toiled the fields while enslaved, amassing wealth for their white masters, were robbed of the ability to grow nourishment for their families. In fact, George Floyd’s family experienced this land theft first hand. One of his ancestors, Hillary Thomas Stewart, was born a slave, but once free, he managed to acquire 500 acres of farmland in North Carolina. His white neighbors took advantage of Stewart’s race and illiteracy and took over his land, leaving him powerless to defend his property. That was in the 1800s, and since then the Floyd family has been subject to unequal treatment in both rural and metropolitan settings alike. We have to wonder, when will they, and other Black American families, find a place to call home? We know that we have an enormous amount to learn and to do to make our society one in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive and grow. We stand in solidarity with protesters and others doing the vital work of antiracism. In addition to supporting organizations fighting for justice and equality in all arenas, and giving your business to Black Farmers in your community, we encourage you to explore and support these organizations working on behalf of Farmers of Color and for food access and sovereignty in marginalized communities:
I’d like to end with a poem by Ross Gay that the Xerces Society shared. It was inspired by the 2014 police killing of Eric Garner, another Black American like George Floyd, whose dying words were “I can’t breathe.” A Small Needful Fact Is that Eric Garner worked for some time for the Parks and Rec. Horticultural Department, which means, perhaps, that with his very large hands, perhaps, in all likelihood, he put gently into the earth some plants which, most likely, some of them, in all likelihood, continue to grow, continue to do what such plants do, like house and feed small and necessary creatures, like being pleasant to touch and smell, like converting sunlight into food, like making it easier for us to breathe. [Copyright © 2015 by Ross Gay. Reprinted by the Xerces Society from Split This Rock’s The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database.] 
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