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Charles D. Thompson , Jr. , is the Professor of the Practice of Cultural Anthropology and Documentary Studies at Duke University . His legion books and documentaries have help bring underrepresented rural issues in the United States and Latin America to the cutting edge . When Chelsea Green sit down with him to discuss his latest account book , get going Over Home : A Search for Rural Justice in an Unsettled Land , one interview interrogation turn into a chronicle lesson about the economic and sociopolitical drivers of agricultural insecurity and rural injustice dilute back to the days of Thoreau . Charlie ’s book — and his response below — expose a deep story of racialism and wealth inequality still find in rural communities today .
The followers is an excerpt from an audience with Charles D Thompson , Jr. from theWinter 2019 Seasonal Journal . It has been adapted for the web .
We founded this country to be governed by “We the People.”
That looked good on newspaper publisher , but of line we eff that Jefferson did n’t really mean everybody . What we ’ve had since 1776 is a luxurious experimentation in making a representative commonwealth employment . Today , we hear a good deal about “ economic democracy . ” In the 1930s , that discussion was prominent because we ’d just experience a major Depression . Roosevelt get a line this as an opportunity to democratize the economic system . The Department of Agriculture come about during that meter , as did new efforts to give masses access to dry land — including African American , Native American , and Hispanic sharecroppers who had never had access to possess part of this country .
The ’ XXX also saw what we know now as the Agricultural Adjustment Act , which gave subsidy to the tumid Fannie Farmer . Enter agribusiness . By the ’ 60s , we had vast farms run by machinery and agrochemicals . That ’s when Rachel Carson start to say , “ Now , wait a moment ! ” A ten later , Earl Butz was saying,“Get big or get out . ”
That sparked a movement that lead in Farm Aid and a huge socio-economic class action lawsuit on behalf of black farmers in the 1980s . I was the guy who took the hotline call from Tim Pickford who allege he was having racism and loan problems . Tim goes on to be the main plaintiff against the Department of Ag , but even after winning the supreme court casing , tens of thousands of black Fannie Farmer who ’d drop off their land were n’t able to collect on their loans because of taxonomic racial discrimination .
This contradiction in terms of saying we trust in one matter but drill another is the middle of our problem . We have n’t deal with the original sin of American thralldom . We have n’t deal with the shift of autochthonous peoples . So the exploitation continues . We elect a president that talks about masses from across the border being raper and murderers when we ’re using them to reap our intellectual nourishment . We ’re living a lie . Thoreau said , “ If the injustice is part of the necessary rubbing of the machine of government , let it go , let it go … but ! if it … require you to be the agent of injustice to another , then I say , break the police . ” [ Charlie ’s emphasis ]
Who is “ We ” , and what is it we must do so as to build democracy ? We have to have it off when it ’s our time to listen . We the People of Privilege have to be quiet . How do you get out of the way and not give masses voice — they already have voices — but help people have an audience ? How do we , as activist , fend in solidarity with people who ’ve been suppressed without talk for them?That ’s the big challenge .
Recommended Reads
Rewilding Your Din Land
Why Is n’t Farming Enough ?
Going Over Home
A Search for Rural Justice in an Unsettled solid ground
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