Volume 4, Number
14
July 16, 2001
The Farmer
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"Snake" in the Reparations’ Grass
by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad
"History rewards all research". We may chose to ignore it, but ignorance has it’s
price. Over 40 percent of the class members in the Black farmers’ lawsuit against the USDA have
been denied. Only $8 million in debt relief has been forgiven of the over $500 million that was
forecasted. Only $500 million of the promised $2.5 billion has been dispensed to the claimants. No
stolen land has been returned to the Black farmers. Most of the farmers that went in Track
"B" have been offered pennies on the dollars of damages caused by the USDA and Alexander
Pires is proclaimed as some type of hero.
The Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association (BFAA) asked Sam Taylor, a Black lawyer, to
develop a lawsuit against the USDA. He could not practice law in DC, so he presented a
"good" white lawyer to the Black farmers to work on their behalf. November 5, 1998 the
Black farmers read the consent decree and realized immediately that they had been had. Al Pires then
goes and gets other Black lawyers, such as J.L. Chestnutt, to go around the country and pump up this
out of court settlement and throw dispersions on the very farmers who started the process but were
now discontent with this document that they did not approve of. Al Pires even called the president
of one our Historically Black Colleges to have them stop giving the Black farmers a place to meet on
campus to organize against the Consent Decree that he wrote.
Many Black farmers have lost their farms, not received any money and some have even died under
the stress of fighting a losing battle against the USDA "dogs" on the outside and the
lawyer "snakes" on the inside. And now Al Pires, "top snake", has been invited
into the inner circle of the Reparations think tank. As a farmer, when a rattlesnake comes out of
the bushes and tries to cross the road, you use your pickup truck tires to make sure that it does
not get across. Al Pires is crossing that road.
According to the "American Lawyer", July 2001 edition, the litigation side of the
dispute includes:
"Alexander Pires Jr., of Conlon, Frantz, Phelan & Pires in Washington, D.C., who worked
with Chestnutt in winning a billion-dollar settlement for black farmers discriminated against by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture"
As a further indication of what type of settlement may be reached by this reparations "Dream
Team", the article states:
"Every black American may be affected by the legacy of slavery, but the plaintiffs may be a
more select class. Chestnutt and Gary say that proving a causal link will be easier
for some individuals than others. They favor limiting the size of the plaintiff class to those who
most directly felt the impact of slavery, such as those who suffered under
Jim Crow laws, or whose grandparents were slaves."
In the Black farmers’ lawsuit each Black farmer had to prove discrimination as if a
"class" was never established and he had to find a "similarly situated" white
farmer to compare himself to. Now Black Americans will have to prove individually how they were
affected by slavery and/or prove direct lineage to a slave. I see DNA testing of all possible
claimants on the horizon. What can the US government and its many private bioweapons manufacturing
allies do with the DNA profiles of each Black person in America? Hmmmmmm?
One might find a clue in former Defense Secretary Cohen’s statement, "that the science
community is ‘very close’ to being able to manufacture ‘genetically engineered pathogens that
could be ethnically specific’". (Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity, 1999, p.55)
Seems like a "snake" has been groomed, presented and strategically placed in a coiled
position to do to the total Black population what it did to the Black farmers, but better. If our
Brother Randall Robinson doesn’t know, he needs to ask somebody whose been bit.
The Black farmers asked for their land back. Instead they were offered $50,000 which most, who
were actual farmers, never got. They had to prove individually that they were discriminated against
as though they were not a "class" and now each Black person will have to prove how
"Black" they are. The lawyers and the government now have the names and addresses of over
30,000 potential or actual Black farmers and would not turn that list over to BFAA, the very
organization that started the lawsuit. The government and the lawyers evidently do not want the
Black farmers to know each other, organize and pool their resources to put the Black farm industry
back in place. "Reparations" should mean "repair".
When Al Pires is finished the government will have the DNA profiles of each Black person in
America. These Black people will be offered crumbs for their ancestors’ blood. The white
establishment will get those disorganized, non-wealth producing crumbs back within a few hours, but
keep the DNA. And in the end Al Pires will have produced a snare and not repair.
A real "Repair-ations" alternative will be discussed in the next article.
Peace, Doc
(For archived articles click The Farmer Newsletter)
(For history of the lawsuit click Perfect Crime)