🕸️ Chapter 3: Anti-Black Racism and White Supremacy
16 3.3: Gatekeepers Part 1
Case Study #2: Barriers to Funding for Black Farmers
Author: Kishon Warmington from Manitoba
Trigger warning: This case shares examples of gatekeeping, institutional and structural racism, the influence of capitalism and colonization of land on farming practices, and disparities in generational wealth and generational knowledge.
Note on Terminology: As per the discussion on the use of the word “caucasian” in Chapter 1.3: What is Whiteness?, we did not alter the words of the author of this case study.
Being a first-generation Black farmer in Manitoba has been plagued with many obstacles. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have access to purchase my farm in which I reside on 78 acres and 45 minutes away from the nearest big city.
When I first started farming, I knew that I wanted to give my community access to culturally acceptable food and food that was not sprayed with chemicals or overly medicated. I knew that I wanted to become a goat farmer because access to fresh goat meat has been getting harder and harder. Goat meat is still not recognized in most governmental regulations as consumable.
Because of this, there was very little information or research done for the goat market. It was quickly evident to me that Canada has not considered having culturally appropriate food for our community. I even had other Caucasian farmers who tried to tell me that there was no market in goats. The irony of this is that goat meat is one of the most consumed meats around the world.
It has been a struggle building my farm, as I have had to learn everything from my own experience. There is no funding or grants for goat farming, no access to information, and any mentorship is modelled after the sheep market. Although sheep and goats are similar in some aspects, they are greatly different in management.
I remember sitting in a program where everyone but myself was a Caucasian farmer, and there was a discussion about funding in which they had identified that they had extra funding that they had to use. They were trying to navigate how they could use it amongst each other. Although I was in the room and could benefit from the funding, I was excluded from the conversation since they were trying to keep it among themselves.
This really opened my eyes and made me realize how funding for Black people needs to be specifically allocated because general funding was not designed for our community. It is also hard to farm culturally appropriate foods for our community when there is a lack of resources to help us succeed.
Contributor Connection: Learn more about his work or support his initiative directly via the Back to Roots Farm LTD Website.
Activity
Instructions: Test your knowledge. Determine which keywords describe the examples of privilege and exclusion in Kishon’s experience:
Keywords: gatekeeping, white privilege, structural/systemic racism, discrimination, lack of generational wealth, culturally acceptable food, generational knowledge or the lack thereof
Scenario A: Culturally vital staples like goat meat are excluded from standard Canadian agricultural frameworks and food safety guidelines, forcing diverse communities to navigate systemic resource deserts for traditional foods.
🔍 Click to Check Keyword Alignment
Alignment: Structural/Systemic Racism & Culturally Acceptable Food. Institutional food regulations normalize Western/Eurocentric standard diets while excluding the foundational dietary requirements of global populations, creating systemic barriers to community food sovereignty.
Scenario B: White farmers within a program explicitly circle together to allocate surplus systemic funding opportunities solely among their pre-existing personal networks, actively ignoring a Black producer in the same space.
🔍 Click to Check Keyword Alignment
Alignment: Gatekeeping, White Privilege, & Discrimination. This displays informal gatekeeping mechanisms and direct interpersonal discrimination where unearned relational networks dictate capital distribution, keeping structural wealth within dominant groups while explicitly excluding minoritized peers.
Scenario C: Operating as a first-generation minority farmer requires creating production standards, infrastructure, and markets entirely from personal trial and error without ancestral land equity or safety nets.
🔍 Click to Check Keyword Alignment
Alignment: Lack of Generational Wealth / Knowledge. Systemic discrimination prevents historical asset accumulation, leaving first-generation minoritized producers to absorb all operational hazards alone compared to established, multi-generational farming setups.
Post-Case Activity: Critical Reflection & Applied Practice