$11.00 Per Hour: CASH or PASS?

Many Black Americans often confuse sharecropping with farming, due in part to the long and painful legacy of agricultural exploitation in the South. Sharecropping, a system that emerged after slavery, typically trapped Black families in cycles of debt and poverty, with landowners exploiting laborers who worked land they did not own. This exploitative model was passed down through generations as a symbol of economic oppression and racial injustice. As a result, when modern agricultural jobs like picking blueberries for $11 per hour are advertised, they can trigger negative reactions and historical associations with backbreaking labor and low wages reminiscent of sharecropping rather than modern day farming. The conversation about this topic recently resurfaced after a job ad circulated requesting blueberry pickers at $11 an hour. To some, this rate of pay, combined with the nature of the labor, felt eerily similar to the conditions their ancestors endured under sharecropping. The misunderstanding lies in conflating farming as an independent or entrepreneurial activity with agricultural labor, which can be exploitative depending on wages and working conditions. While today's farming includes a broad spectrum from small business ownership to industrial agriculture, many in the Black community have not been afforded access to land or capital, which keeps the memory of sharecropping alive and blurs the distinction between opportunity and exploitation.