Why Biden, not Trump, is America’s Best Bet for Solving Racial Inequities
Over the course of over a month of Black Lives Matter protests, two fundamental ideas have become apparent: America’s police system needs reform, and America needs a president who will enact that reform and pass legislation to combat systemic racism.
George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25 sparked protests across America and the globe. His death was just the tip of the iceberg of the 1,299 Black people who had been killed by police since 2015, according to a Washington Post database keeping track of police shootings. In all fifty states, people took to the streets to make their voices heard in the face of modern racism in America, chanting the names of Black people killed by police and calling for change.
Even in 2020, people of color in America still face disadvantages in all aspects of life due to systemic racism. Black people and other minorities have less access to healthcare and higher rates of unemployment compared to white people, according to research done by PhD recipients David Williams and Toni Rucker.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also disproportionately affected Black Americans, exacerbating the existing racial inequities in society. The CDC reported that the high rate of minority populations dying from coronavirus is due to institutional inequalities such as poorer living conditions and lower socioeconomic status for racial and ethnic minority groups that include Black Americans and Hispanics.
Right now, America needs a president who will fight for racial justice and fully support the BLM movement. The current president does not.
Instead of supporting BLM, President Trump has repeatedly spoken out against the protests from the very beginning. In a tweet on May 28, he referred to the Minneapolis protestors as “thugs” and threatened protestors with the line “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Since then, he has even sent out “heavily armed soldiers” onto the streets to stop the protests.
Trump has made it clear through his actions that he is not willing to combat racism in America. America needs a president who will begin the process of dismantling the systemic racism found in America’s healthcare, education, justice, and police system: Joe Biden.
The Biden Plan for Black America outlines Biden’s numerous plans for alleviating racial disparities in America, from supporting Black-owned businesses, expanding access for owning homes for Black Americans, passing legislation with the aim of reducing racial wealth gaps, investing in Black communities, supporting Black workers, tackling racial inequity in education, taking action to alleviate healthcare disparities, to taking steps to reform the justice system.
To alleviate economic inequities for African Americans, he plans to improve on Small Business Administration programs that help Black-owned businesses, increase opportunities for Black-owned businesses to have federal contracts, add funds to the Minority Business Development Agency budget, and ensure that COVID-19 economic relief reaches African American businesses hard-hit by the pandemic.
Even in the housing industry, Black people are at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving loans and living in certain communities due to exclusionary zoning. To combat discrimination against Black Americans in the housing market, Biden plans on rolling back Trump administration policies that negatively impacted fair lending and fair housing protections and fighting against racial bias in house appraisals for Black communities.
For housing inequities, Biden also plans to enforce settlements against lenders found to be discriminatory and eliminate discriminatory regulations like exclusionary zoning.
According to the nonprofit public policy organization Brookings Institution, the average white family’s net worth in 2016 was almost ten times as much as the average Black family’s net worth.
To combat this vast racial inequity and allow for more Black Americans to save up enough money for retirement, Biden plans to equalize tax benefits of contribution plans to allow lower and middle income workers also receive a tax break when saving for retirement, encourage caregivers, who are often African Americans, to save up for retirement by removing penalties, and make Social Security benefits more generous.
Additionally, Biden intends to implement Congressman Jim Clyburn’s 10–20–30 plan to help those living in impoverished communities, help rural communities access federal funds, and drive capital into low-income communities for development of more affordable housing. He also aims to invest 20 billion dollars into broadband infrastructure so that low-income households have access to the internet.
To support Black workers, Biden will increase penalties for companies who discriminate when determining salaries, pass legislation to make sure that national infrastructure investments create millions of middle class jobs, and encourage diverse hiring.
To combat racial inequities in America’s education system, Biden will work towards recruiting and preparing more teachers of color, reducing the estimated 23 billion dollars funding gap between white and non-white school districts and make college more affordable for Black students by expanding college financial support to more low and middle income individuals and making public colleges tuition-free for students whose family income is below 125,000 dollars.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation, 11 percent of nonelderly Black people were uninsured in 2018 compared to 8 percent of nonelderly white people. Especially during this pandemic,
healthcare has never been more important for all Americans. Biden intends to reduce the uninsured rate of African Americans by creating a public option health plan like Medicaid, lowering costs for African Americans enrolled in Obamacare plans, and increasing investments in community health centers, which disportionately serve minorities like Black people.
For policing and the justice system, Biden plans to eliminate cash bail and create a 20 billion dollar grant program to reduce crime and incarceration and to encourage states to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes.
All these reforms indicate that Biden is unafraid to take change against systemic racial inequities present in our society today. As president, he will enact legislation necessary to eliminate racist policies and pave the way for a more just and equal America.
