Too many African Americans/Blacks have latched on to the phrase “What has Biden done?” and that in itself is a sad two-fold statement. On one hand they’ve done a lot not just for black people but the country as a whole but it’s so sad they have failed to express that or empower local community leaders at the local level to fully do that. Has the Biden Administration been perfect? The Biden Administration hasn’t been perfect but who is because I haven’t heard of a leader ever in history who was at this point. The black community is being bamboozled with this repeated mantra that aligns with Donald Trump when he says “what the hell do you have to lose” and the gullible in the black community dives in. This is what the Biden Administration has done:
- Over 2.5 million jobs for Black Americans
- Confirmed more black women to federal courts than all other Presidents combined
- Over 1 Billion in loans to black businesses after Covid-19 caused the close of 50% of black businesses
- Black Americans are starting new businesses, creating jobs, buying homes, and taking advantage of increased education opportunities at historic rates- contributing to a 60% increase in wealth compared to before the pandemic.
- Cut in half the number of Black children living in poverty in 2021 through ARP’s Child Tax Credit expansion. This expansion provided breathing room to the families of over 9 million Black children.
- Began reversing decades of infrastructure disinvestment, including with $4 billion to reconnect communities that were previously cut off from economic opportunities by building needed transportation infrastructure in underserved communities, including Black communities.
- Connected an estimated 5.5 million Black households to affordable high-speed internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program, closing the digital divide for millions of Black families.
- Supported small and disadvantaged businesses through CHIPS Act funding by requiring funding applicants to develop a workforce plan to create equitable pathways for economically disadvantaged individuals in their region, as well as a plan to support procurement from small, minority-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses.
The only Black Americans asking what Biden has done are the ones who don’t follow politics or the very policies that they could take advantage of and that’s sad on the part of the black community. Maybe if some of these same black people get up off their behind, out in front of the TV or the club and go to a community or political party meeting they would learn these things. The next time a person asks what has Biden done then ask them when was the last time they attended a political or community meeting? After you ask the previous question follow up with some of the facts stated above and some that will appear below.
The Biden-Harris Administration has increased access to housing and also been rooting out discrimination in the housing market for black communities but if you’re not attending political and community meetings then you would be asking what has Biden done. I like the fact that the Biden Administration created the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity, or PAVE, a first-of-its-kind interagency effort to root out bias in the home appraisal process, which is taking sweeping action to advance equity and remove racial and ethnic bias in home valuations, including cracking down on algorithmic bias and empowering consumers to take action against misvaluation.
Every informed person owes a duty to answer the question of what has the Biden Administration done with these facts. Sometimes we in the black community have to ask others in the black community what have they done and what part of building ourselves up are we responsible for? There’s a lot of self-inflicted things in the black community that we ourselves could fix but everyone wants to act as if it’s not happening. So many of the people Trump appeals to are African Americans who have dropped out of school or never attended college. Again so many things (but not EVERYTHING we want) were done that we must share with the uninformed black voters in our communities and here are a few:
- Delivered a historic investment of over $7 billion to support HBCUs.
- Increased Black enrollment in health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act by 49%—or by around 400,000—from 2020 to 2022, helping more Black families gain health insurance than ever before.
- Financed projects that will replace hundreds of thousands of lead pipes, helping protect against lead poisoning that disproportionately affects Black communities.
- Countered hateful attempts to rewrite history including: the signing of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act; establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday; and designating the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois. The Department of the Interior has invested more than $295 million in infrastructure funding and historic preservation grants to protect and restore places significant to Black history.
- Repeatedly and forcefully called on Congress to pass essential legislation, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, including calling for an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
- Signed a historic Executive Order to put federal policing on the path to becoming the gold standard of effectiveness and accountability by requiring federal law enforcement agencies to ban chokeholds; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate the use of body-worn cameras; implement stronger use-of-force policies; provide de-escalation training; submit use-of-force data; submit officer misconduct records into a new national accountability database; and restrict the sale or transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, among other things.