The Corporate Farmers Market

When I googled “how many African Americans qualified for covid businesses relief” my immediate conspiracy was proven by headlines before I even began to try and uncover any facts to back it up. I had this aching hunch that covid could rapidly increase the rate at which gentrification occurs in cities all across America. 

It's no surprise that a certain percentage of minorities and black people as a whole have always been skeptical to have trust in the United States federal government i.e. Big Bank. This is largely due to the historic president set by decades of systemic oppression induced upon generations of minorities across the United States. We also have a fairly decent percentage that has an anti vaccination perspective again for which I can not fault us but you should still probably go get that thing though.

What is most concerning is the threat of black and minority owned businesses as a whole decreasing to a degree at which already wealthy and privileged people are either not from the communities or just white people in general being the only ones who have the ability to take their former places. As of March 2021a survey by MetLife insurance company shows that 66 percent of black owned businesses may never recover from last year and will now be closed permanently. 

The historic precedent that is people far beyond the average tax bracket swooping into neighborhoods to colonize with a manifest destiny mindset  seems to be on the horizon of a breeding ground for perfect opportunities to come do what they do best. Unfortunately the wealth gap in America is so large and minorities have the handicap of starting to accumulate wealth in America much later than their European counterparts.  Over time it has become apparent that a rising tide does in fact not lift all ships in America and the trickle down economic agenda has become a drip drop system for everyone below the poverty line.

Circling back to when I was doing some proper goggles I saw something else that piqued my interest in a peculiar way. There has been a push for more minorities and African Americans in particular to become farmers. Almost half of a 10.4 billion dollar American Rescue Plan built by the Joe Biden Administration was to be allocated to disadvantaged and yet again primarily black farmers. At first glance this may be a sight for sore eyes as minorities have become so accustomed to getting handed the short end of the systemic stick in this country. As it is a light at the end of a dark tunnel for some there is a darker perspective to be seen as well.

Is this yet another push to get people of color to uproot their families to more rural areas? For some odd reason I can't help but to get sharecropper energy in the form of this financial aid. During covid we saw the price of produce rise the highest in decades due to farms and plants having to reduce their number of employees to comply with CDC requirements which we may not have even fully recovered from so there is a void in the space in production that needs to be filled in order to keep up with our consumption habits. In aspirations of achieving stability the American way is to look for minorities to build their country so they can control how it's sold. It is a repetitive cycle that shows continuous rates of growth. 

As farmers all across the country have already been struggling to make ends meet before covid the Biden plan seems to be preying on an already desperate community or at the very least giving them assistance a day late and a dollar short.

When Donald Trump went on national television with Wal-Mart, CVS, Target, and Walgreens my inner child had to come to terms with what my adult mentality had forgotten to correct for him. My teachers had taught me that there were Antitrust laws that prevented companies performing predatory business practices to their consumers and they should not be able to control their markets. The whole point of these laws was to prevent companies from becoming too powerful and gaining too much control of the American population's reliance on goods and services. 

The overall sentiment of my now more enlightened view of how this country is operated had to share with my inner child was that it is now corporate America we as citizens should look to in times when we feel like we may not have anything else at all. They are the ones in control of keeping the masses afloat not only on a day to day basis but permanently. In other words the days of borrowing a cup of milk or butter from your neighbor are fading into ancient history.

They will continue to reduce the amount of independently owned businesses into smaller and smaller corners in their city leaving less and less room for inner city inhabitants and the property owners of the neighborhoods. Once these locations are bought out there is no telling when or if they will be able to be bought back by members of the community. Will there even be anything left if a time comes when the companies no longer have uses for them? 

Take a look at the Wal-Mart ghost towns if you find yourself what that outcome may look like. There was a sudden popularity in the interest of Wal-Marts leaving small towns from 2016 to around 2018. 

Although the amount of businesses permeate closures may have been gassed a bit the type of closures are a bit more concerning. As some businesses may have already been on the brink, the ones who provide a personal service like barbershops or personal care industries took a large hit. These are typically the ones with an easier path to begin and may be found popular with urban environments. It is still hard to see what the long term effects of that will be as we still have little answers as to the long term effects of covid as a whole. 

Post all of the protests in 2020 I can't help but have this fleeting feeling of hope that history will not continue to repeat itself. As long as there is a history proven by profit and money continues to be a main motivator why would there be a reason to change? There are so many precedents that are commonplace for gentrification and corporate takeovers there is a certain numbness that has overlaid our culture. 

The age of information we live in moves at the speed of internet routers making it easy for everything to become old news before it even has the time to actually age. Genuine outrage is all in a hard day's work of clickbait and scrapped for the next at the bat of an eyelash.

The lines of conspiracy and educated guesses with negative connotations become ever so blurry as time continues to pass.