The president already signed federal coronavirus relief that includes $4 billion in debt relief for Black, Indigenous, and Latino farmers into law. But that isn’t stopping banks from fighting the move, because early repayment would hurt its profits and disappoint investors, according to The New York Times. 

A Twitter user reported just hours after the Times story ran that the American Bankers Association—one of the largest banking groups in the country—took down its diversity, equity, and inclusion page. It left instead an error message and an unrelated page about ADA compliance and “inclusive leadership.” The message from banks appears to be: We care about equity and inclusion right up until it means one single red cent lost in profit. 

The funding that Congress passed and President Joe Biden approved in March as part of a $1.9 trillion stimulus has failed to reach its intended beneficiaries because it has been “mired in controversy and lawsuits,” The New York Times reported. White farmers sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, crying reverse discrimination in April. Because the Biden administration prioritized addressing systemic racism in farming through its American Rescue Plan Act, white farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Ohio are claiming in the suit that the government’s goal is too broad to meet the strict guideline requiring “its discriminatory benefit” to be “narrowly tailored” and serving “a compelling government interest.”

“Defendants’ use of race discrimination as a tool to end ‘systemic racism,’ is therefore unconstitutional and should be enjoined by this Court,” attorneys for the farmers wrote.

The three largest banking groups in the country cried their share of white tears too, but in the form of pressure on the administration instead of a lawsuit. Lobbyists for the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and the National Rural Lenders Association explained in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on April 9 that the “sudden, abrupt payoff of any category of guaranteed loans could have adverse consequences if not implemented in a manner that minimizes disruptions to lenders.”

Then, lobbyists issued this thinly veiled threat in the letter: “If U.S.D.A. does not compensate lenders for such disruptions or avoid sudden loan payoffs, the likely result will be less access to credit for those seeking U.S.D.A. guaranteed loans in the future, including U.S.D.A. farmers/ranchers.”

The banking groups closed its letter with these recommendations for how the federal government can “ensure lenders continue using USDA guaranteed loans”:

”Recognize lenders’ costs of funding, maintaining, and servicing loans and ensure lenders are made whole by being compensated for lost income due to the loan payoffs.”
“Other than the additional twenty percent to pay SDA taxes, USDA could assume payment of loans that are not delinquent or were not part of previous legal challenges.”
”Purchasers of USDA loan guarantees in the secondary market should be paid for lost premium values and the loans’ multi-year payment streams being halted.”

Activists, legislators, and Black farmers alike think not. Pennsylvania Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta tweeted: “Black farmers’ livelihoods > a bank executive’s next super yacht.”

Nicole Reeves, a minority business advocate, tweeted: “Black Farmers are still being disenfranchised by push back to limit access to capital…If anyone should understand bailouts it should be big banks New moon with face I saw disparities first hand working Pigford v. Glickman (USDA) aka ‘Black Farmers Settlement’ yrs ago…Same ish, different day.”

In a historic class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Black farmers successfully laid out years of racial discrimination and settled with the government for more than $1 billion, which was followed by a related settlement earning claimants $1.2 billion in added funding,  John Boyd, president of the Black Farmers Association, told Al Jazeera.

Sen. Cory Booker said according to The New York Times: “U.S.D.A. should now take this first step toward addressing the agency’s history of discrimination by quickly implementing the law that Congress passed and moving forward without delay to pay off in full all direct and guaranteed loans of Black farmers and other socially disadvantaged farmers.”

Vilsack said at a White House press briefing earlier this month that pushback, specifically the lawsuit launched by white farmers, would not offset the administration’s plan to help farmers of color. “So we’re gonna continue to proceed forward,” he said. “Understand that litigation’s gonna be what it is, and we’ll obviously have the Department of Justice and others do what they do, but in the meantime U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to move forward with that effort.”

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