As Election Day draws close to an end, the debate lingers on for the black community on which presidential candidate, political party, and plan will best serve people of color, particularly the black community. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has a plan for black America that will focus primarily on the inequalities embedded in American institutions.
Biden’s Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America will:
- Advance the economic mobility of African Americans and close the racial wealth and income gaps.
- Expand access to high-quality education and tackle racial inequity in our education system.
- Make far-reaching investments in ending health disparities by race.
- Strengthen America’s commitment to justice.
- Make the right to vote and the right to equal protection real for African Americans.
- Address environmental justice.
Biden’s strategy will involve targeting education, health, economy, civil rights, environmental and social justice. The plan listed on Biden’s website breaks down the plan for black Americans in a very thought out and comprehensible way, listing statistics and research to back each goal’s reasoning.
The former vice president delves into the intricacies of home ownership for the average black family and seeks to eradicate racial bias in home loan lending and appraisals, and enforce greater restrictions on racially-motivated financial institutions, lenders and the housing market in general. In turn, Biden’s plan will significantly increase access to affordable housing.
The plan for black America will also tackle the impact of the racial wealth gap on black students that obtain student loans.
“According to a recent Brookings Institution study, African Americans graduating with a four year degree are 5 times more likely to default on their student loans than white graduates,” the plan reads. “African American students are three times more likely to default on their student loans than white student borrowers. The inequitable burden of student loan debt contributes to the stark racial wealth gap that exists in society.”
Biden’s plan will cancel student loan debt from two- and four-year academic institutions for borrowers who make less than $125,000 and permit the discharge of student loans in bankruptcy.
Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America hits the issues that the black community face right on the head. Still, with all of the promises and guarantees, the concern remains whether these brilliant visions for a better America will actually come to fruition or if the political tradition of lip service overpower once again in the “Battle for the Soul of the Nation.”
