It’s been associated with BIG3 owner Ice Cube and endorsed by rapper Lil Wayne. Political commentators and YouTubers Boyce Watkins and Roland Martin have added their two cents, while the black community appears to be torn between the laissez-faire approach of Democrats and the blatant bias of Republicans.
Everyone’s talking about Donald J. Trump’s The Platinum Plan. But, what exactly is it? In the plan, Trump makes one grand promise to “increase access to capital in black communities by almost $500 billion.” He will do this by supplying the black community with what he lists as four pillars: Opportunity, Security, Prosperity and Fairness.
Similar to any racial and ethnic group in the U.S., the black community’s demands are reasonable. The ability to own a home, own a business, have fair access to education, healthcare and resources, and to be able to live freely without the threat of racial violence, intimidation or oppression, are the simple things in life that anyone in the U.S. should be afforded.
Trump claims that he will use the next four years of his presidency, if elected, to deliver on some of these things with his plan. He promises to give black Americans the opportunity to obtain employment and access to capital for new business through his Opportunity pillar.
As for Security, Trump ensures that his signing of the First Step Act will eradicate the broken criminal justice system.
“By signing into law the celebrated First Step Act, President Trump has brought common sense criminal justice reform to the American people for the first time in decades, while ensuring that our streets and communities are safe for families and business owners,” the pillar reads.
The Prosperity pillar simply says that the Trump Administration will continue to “seek” advancement for black people. Lastly, Trump guarantees he will work every day to make sure there is Fairness for black people in wages, health access and education reform as he has done with Opportunity Zones.
In four years, Trump’s Platinum Plan will ensure the following:
- 3 million new jobs for the black community
- 500,000 new black-owned businesses
- Safer urban neighborhoods with highest policing standards
- Commit to working on a Second Step Act
- Access to better education and job training opportunities
- Give black churches the ability to compete for federal resources for their community
- Bring better and tailored healthcare too address historic disparities
- Immigration policy that protects American jobs
- Advance home ownership opportunities and enhance financial literacy in the black community
- On-shoring manufacturing to advance jobs and develop opportunities for black owned businesses
The fact that there is a plan in thee hands of the president that directly addresses the black community in the first place is progress, whether that’s easy to admit or not. However, some of the goals are so general that it is challenging to parse true intent.
This couldn’t be more truer than it is for Trump’s commitment to enforce immigration policy that “protects American jobs,” for instance. Depending on the perspective, this particular promise may be detrimental to more than one community, especially if the policy is to send all immigrants back to their home countries.
Another issue that many political pundits have voiced is that the plan is too short. Can a complaint like this be taken seriously? Rather the plan is long or short, isn’t it more productive to focus on whether the plan makes sense and can actually be implemented?
At the end of the day, honesty, transparency, follow up and action from a transformative leader with a cool head are the traits that will most likely benefit any and all Americans.
