‘Black to the Land’ Program Nurtures Growth and Connection
Cal Poly students Dakari Tate (foreground) and Gloria Thompson (right) with Umoja Center Coordinator Doug Smith at Bayside Farm Park in Arcata. [Photo provided]
Working as an intern at a local farm in Humboldt County gave Douglas Smith (‘13, International Studies) the sense of belonging he had struggled to find when he transferred to Cal Poly Humboldt from Los Angeles.
Now an Applied English Studies graduate student and coordinator of the Umoja Center for Pan African Student Excellence, Smith is helping students find similar kinship with the land and the community through the Black to the Land Farm Project, which trains and supports Black students to be the next generation of farmers.
“Community-supported agriculture is a large part of the culture here on the North Coast, and it offers a special platform to learn while doing,” Smith said. “Farming and community-supported agriculture also creates an opportunity to build bridges with the local community and to share culture.”
Smith launched the program to encourage Black students to engage with farming in 2019, soon after he became the Umoja Center coordinator. Every Wednesday and Friday, he brings six students to Bayside Park Farm in Arcata to grow kale and collard greens. They will soon be raising chickens, too.
The students’ expressions when they see the farm for the first time is all the validation Smith needs of the program’s value, he says.
“It’s so rewarding to see students take in their surroundings and get excited about the opportunities to settle into a space here in the local community while engaging in multiple forms of learning.” Smith says.
Wildlife major Dakari Tate says his experience at the farm offers an opportunity for self-reflection. “One of the reasons I’m out here is to find myself. Find out what I want to be. Find out where I came from and hopefully that will shape me into who I want to be in the future,” says Tate.
Gloria Thompson, a Child Development major, says working the land is fun and reminds her of family. “I enjoy going to the farm because I do well growing things, and it helps me feel connected to my grandpa, who was a farmer.”
Black to the Land continued to encourage student farmers even as the pandemic shut down campus, mailing them home planting kits and copies of Leah Penniman’s book, Leah Penniman’s book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land. Penniman’s virtual lecture during the Umoja Center’s Black Liberation Month lecture series in February was by far the most popular talk, attracting more than 300 students, faculty and community members.
As part of Campus Food Summit 2022 this month, Black to the Land invited campus and community members to get a taste of farming life during work days at the Bayside Park Farm. The group led participants in cleaning out the chicken coop and will be building raised beds and putting together a small hoop house.
For more information about Black to the Land, contact the Umoja Center at [email protected].
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And here I thought calling people black was racist?
It can be used however it suits the need. Just like it’s ok if they use the N word but god forbid anyone else does.
Oh come on. Some women call each other bitches and take offense if someone they don’t know calls them that. It is all about context. When a word has been used against a group of people in severe enough ways long enough then the group snatches the weapon, takes some control of it in self defense and to steel them selves from it, sometimes with endearment and humor amongst themselves.
Where did you get that idea from? Affluent white wokesters? Don’t listen to those fools as the majority are crypto racists who feel bad about their inner voices which tell them to vote for well known racists like Brandom while claiming ignorance of the fact that they elected a racist. Shame. On. Them.
I’ve never once in my life heard it suggested that calling a black person black is racist.
I wonder if anything would be said about a WHITE back to the land club? And what about the European center for student excellence ?
Imagine if they used Scandinavian words like they use African words here,
https://umoja.humboldt.edu/
People would lose their sh!t.
How about the directory of black owned businesses!
That would be Whack to the Land.
You’re just referring to nearly every existing club, program, and center. Which is of course the point you refuse to see.
Can you give an example? What existing club, program, or center is specifically intended for white people?
Let’s see if these Black students develop Green thumbs.
Good for them!
Who cares. Too bad it’s not called “Back to the Land” so it offers experience to all Urban raised. It is just racist to assume that there aren’t plenty of non white farmers in the world just because they are not right here at the moment. But what’s new… Principle is never the point.
After trillions of dollars of generational wealth was stolen from black people (a term that, to me, applies to the descendents of enslaved people in the US) they then had millions of acres of farmland stolen from them in the end of “reconstruction”.
Of all the silly programs that are excused as forms of “reparations”, programs that seek to empower black youth to regain the self reliant cultural heritage of food production are some of the few that actually address the real harm done by the real crimes committed by the government of this country.
Check out the Pigford v Gluckman case to see the most recent instance of this prolonged campaign to disenfranchise black agriculture.
You know who else had millions of acres of farmland stolen from them? Native Americans and Mexico. You know who else was enslaved in the US? The Chinese, who by the way, are the reason the transcontinental railroad was built. You know who else we did wrong? The Japanese during WWII when we put them in internment camps. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s just an example. So yes, we have a long history of not treating all races humanly, but for some reason it’s only one group that gets a majority of the attention. 🤷♂️
Bill Gates buying up farmland.
For McDonald’s. He’s only trying to help the human race.
Bill Gates was also hanging with my man and covert intelligence agent Jeff Epstein. I follow all his medical advice.
I agree with you, but outside of the native population none is those other groups experienced the level of or length of overt government oppression.
The Chinese were not slaves….they were more of a expendable asset. Slaves do not get paid for the work they do. They for sure didn’t get paid what a white man would have….but they had a choice.
Maybe South Africa is a cautionary tale of black on white violence.
They’ve driven the white farmers off their land and personally, I hope they learn something from mob rule
https://gab.com/gailauss/posts/108174075892395493
There has long been a legacy of actively discouraging black farmers in the US. As recently as 2017, only 0.5% of US farmland was black-operated. Banks and the USDA farms programs have a history of discrimination against black farmers.
The principle behind these kinds of programs is to overcome the effects of such long-term dissociation between specific cultures and agriculture.
Please, I think it’s important that you offer some information on the post Jim Crow era efforts to keep black Americans out of farming.
And definitely offer evidence that banks and USDA have discriminated against black Americans.
And then please explain why (even if what you are claiming is true) it would make any sense at all to offer these opportunities to people based on the history of people with their skin color, versus those who are disadvantaged in this regard, for any given reason.
How is it more helpful and less divisive to only offer opportunities like this to people with a certain skin color, rather than all those who could benefit from the opportunity?
A simple web search will give you a plethora of results, including from the USDA itself which admits it has a history of discrimination.
So you claim . . .
https://dc.medill.northwestern.edu/blog/2021/09/28/usda-vows-to-address-historical-discrimination-as-black-farmers-accuse-agency-of-racism/
First one in the search results.
Pigford v Glickman.
That’s complete bullshit and you know it. The lawsuit is in no way based on discrimination on the part of the USDA. Rather due to historic racism black farmers had less access to credit than farmers of some other races. There was no direct or intentional discrimination against black farmers on the part of the USDA.
That case found that there was explicitly exclusion from access to credit and support programs by usda. It had nothing to do with historical disenfranchisement.
If the government had big programs out there to get black people to farm, after a little while, someone would bring up that it seems like the larger society was trying to subjugate them again by herding them into being farmers. Even white people discourage each other from becoming farmers, even a lot of farmers discourage their own kids.
My response to these comments:
Sigh😞 and thanks again for proving our point about you racist, ignoramuses! There is just so much stupid in this county,it actually hurts. Good luck when you visit the real world!
Have a blessed day!
♥️💙💜💛💚🖤🧡✊🏽
Right back at you!
Do urban black kids areas have less access to farming than other races of urban kids?
Yes
Why would that be the case? I’m surprised that young urban Latinos don’t have better access to farming than urban black youth.
When we were kids we had fantastic gardens Everything from tomatoes to pees and squash.
Never once did we use plastic green houses.
I wish people were taught how to Garden and how not to grow plastic stuff.
“pees”?
“grow plastic stuff”?
It all sounds quite fantastical.
Oh I can’t white for the conservative snowflakes to get going on this one- Pass the popcorn!
There are still many many liberal people who have not abandoned Martin Luther King’s vision of color blindness and see these types of programs as unintentionally racist.
To say Black is not racist. Did you forget you have a “Black” VP? What a joke, she insults true Black persons.
I am all for righting wrongs and a helping hand, but can anyone explain how segregation can help anyone. We are really moving backward here. Where are the red, yellow, and white segregated farms.
So encouraging individuals who are members of a group that has a long history of being pushed out of access to something like farming is segregation?
When you only help people based on their skin color rather than their history of being pushed out of access to something, it may not be technically segregation but it’s certainly racial discrimination.
A program like this is based on helping people with a history of being pushed out of a thing regain access to that thing. The skin color was the basis of the excluding and its now the basis of the inclusion efforts.
Not a perfect system by any means
No one is asking for a perfect system. This system is actually unintentionally racist. There are youth of all backgrounds without access to farming.
Skin color should be the basis of nothing!
The point is that if these black people want to farm, there are many programs they can join. Creating a black only program is exclusionary and only grows the racial divide we are trying to undo.
Did anyone see Mike Tyson pummel the affluent white wokester fool who kept harassing Mike on an airplane in SF, posing with selfies behind his seat a million different ways, and yucking it up after Mike had the decency to take one selfie with him. The wokester kept pushing because he is a fool and looks at Mike as an object to mess with. Well, lil wokester got his just desserts. Good for Mike!
Beating someone on an airplane.
He’ll need an attorney. Again.
The guy had it coming. This is one time I’ll take Tyson’s side and say let him go with a pat on the back. By the looks of the guy’s face it seems as though Tyson showed a bit of self restraint.
Segregated farm program. Oh woke is me. Will they get 40 acres and a mule when they pass the program ?
Will Cal Poly support a Chinese or Jewish farm program ?
The entire US population directly pays for a Jewish Farm program. It’s called the modern nation of Israel. Look at the history of irrigation and farming and greenhouses in Israel when the land was first occupied and turned over to settlers.
Cal plastic.
Why the hell does every garden have these plastic green houses ?
Can they still claim organic if it grown in a fuming chamber.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, now we know you were upset when you got your first little brother, Pomona, riding your coat tails and wet behind the ears trying to be just like his bigger brother. Well this is going to throw you off here Luis, but meet your supposed half brother Humboldt. Humboldt claims to be related to the Poly’s by way of his hippie hooker mom who had a fling with some engineer at the nuke plant up in Humboldt a long time ago when it was being built. He’s kind of slow and dumb. Probably made the whole thing up to extort us but until someone can prove he’s a fraud we’re going to have to play along. Maybe this whole thing will blow over if we play along. Crazy as he is, he might move on to something bigger like claiming West-West Point or Humboldt Air Force Academy or Humboldt School of Medicine.
The comments just reaffirms my perceptions about how many A- holes are out there.
I’m sure I’m on that list and I can not disagree with your observations …
I got a black truck I drive to work everyday. I got a brand new white truck that got zero miles sitting in my driveway. One day coming home from my grow scene my neighbor was standing in my driveway. I pulled in and got out of my black truck. When I slammed the driver door the rear tail light on the black truck fell to the ground next to my neighbors foot. I ran over and scooped it up and attached it back onto my black truck. My neighbor says to me “what about the white truck arn’t ya gonna fix it’s tail light.”
Much less A-holes than when I was younger but more than one is to many.
You all sound like fucking idiots
Yeah it happens. That’s why we need sober friends like you here to speak up sometimes.
Which side? Anyone specifically?
Growing and caring for gentle life is always a honorable and healing experience.
I understand why each human group needs to distance itself and individuate from others human groups, especially when power differentials exist or used to exist or are perceived to exist..
The irony is saying we value a culturally integrated planet when it’s so clear it’s mostly just rich travelers saying that.
integration, or cultural abandonment, is contrary to much of humanities tribal nature.
We destroy “diversity” if we all become the same free market, right?
So bring on the pan African farmers!
grow plants and redevelop individuated culture simultaneously.👍🏿
Develop separate laws and separate jurisdictions modeled after local Native American redevelopment efforts.
Pan-European people need to be having these same conversations and re-invigorating the better of our traditions lost to commercialism.
Americans are not all the same and it’s foolish to continue that 1980’s story, especially considering events of the the past 10 years.
The future is the past in certain ways,
Progress is not always forward trajectory!
fall, winter, spring and summer..
It’s a cycle, a circle
I wonder who all you racists are in the community. Am I seeing you on the Coast? In the food stores? Restaurants? Farmer’s Markets? Costco? Mack? Gville? Arcata? Eureka? Fortuna? Are you old? young? or just a bunch of typical racist dirtbags? (I’d prefer to say shit to dirt, but it might get the comment deleted for name calling)
Shame on you. screw off and walk into the sea with your jellyfish smooth brains
And there it is… The whole not listening thing. Let’s see if it can be turned into some you can hear- maybe …
Yeah I’ve seen you bro. Get woke!
Not a woke bone in my white body, but fuck off with the bigotry. All of you. At least with MCs or WP gangs or the KKK you can see up front what the politics is. Now y’all hide on public comment forums. Punks
Well I’d say you can start with whoever runs this program if you’re looking to identify racists.
I’m encouraged by anyone who wants to take up gardening. It can teach many desirable traits: hard work, patience observation skills ability to see past setbacks…
I do worry though in how tribal this nation is becoming. Why do people have to make such a big deal about how they only hang out with people that look like them. That is a road to perdition.
Wow- another racist comment!
Aren’t you the person who has an affinity for referring to others on this site as Nazis?
Only when they are. Happens like once every couple years. Are you a fan of mine?..because you seem a bit obsessed w me and that’s weird
We are tribal for a very good reason.
The tribe is the extension of family.
Can anyone take a joke these days?? Every where I go I’ll make fun of myself and others. Usually we all laugh, Humor brings people together. Racism is more about cultural identity. We are inherently always judging others wether we like it or not its a survival mech!! How can persons genetic identity not get involved. We need to establish level of threats or opportunities. People really can’t see things on a higher level of thought. Its not black snd white. Yes not every situation can be generalized we have outliers.
Tribalism leads to blood and soil type conflict. That is the norm throughout human history. I would choose citizenship over tribalism.
Citizenship is an expanded notion of tribalism. As we move from tribes, to city-states, two nation states, we have expanded our notion of tribe. Tribalism carries with it many negative effects but evolved because of the fitness benefits that offered our species. It’s nice that today we have expanded our definition of tribe to include people of many colors and backgrounds ( well not all of us, obviously people like those that run this program still seek to divide people).
Not necessarily.
Chinese people who were taught by the government that they didn’t need mothers, or fathers, they just needed their country.
I agree discrimination is wrong, but reverse discrimination is worse, and seems to be how people like Al Sharpton,an ex criminal, manage to spit out their hate. Kamala Harris is incapable of having a serious conversation about anything, regardless of her race!
I wouldn’t say reverse discrimination is necessarily worse than the originating discrimination. I would say it’s more like smacking someone back who smacked you. It’s just a response that’s involving doing to others as have been done to them, but when it’s mostly in terms of negative situations. What reverse racism does seem like to me is being resigned to the intent to fight out the issues instead of solving the problems. I don’t have as much problem with the stands people like to take as long as they can think them through and be honest (at least with their own self) about the future results and implications and original motivations.
I can’t say that I disagree with what the Black Panthers were doing with their 10 Points Program in the 1960’s before being completely infiltrated, monitored, and manipulated by the FBI. Fake integration while being harassed and having limited sovereignty and power could necessitate people taking a stand in a tribal manner. Jews are extreme in their tribalism and inward looking favoritism and they benefit and prosper immensely from it and hardly anyone brings it up and discusses it or says the things that people do when another group of people try to get enough numbers of people organized to have any chance of having any amount of influence.
I don’t care much for anything that excludes any race or even offers the suggestion of exclusion.
Haha who cares. Let them do what they want. I’m white and if I had any free time I’d go help/check it out. Unfortunately you really can’t have a labeled “white garden” right now so suck it up and either go about your business or go to their garden and help them.
“I’m not racist they are!” “ how dare they have a space to garden”. How small and boring is your world that this bothers you. I think it’s a bit much but hey, if it makes them happy and feel more connected to the earth then more power to them.
Again how boring are your lives that this is what gets you riled up.
My question is, where is the cutoff? What shade does your skin have to be to be let in?
I actually overheard someone at the bar last night say “I’m not actually white, I just look white” 🤮 it’s just a shame that this type of thing is still so common after we had a two term black president. I wish we could have got past this type of division as a society, these types of things only seek to take us backwards. That’s why people are rolling their eyes at this. It does no good for anybody in the end