Where the Candidates Stand: Racial Equity

Joe Biden

Vice President Biden recently unveiled Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America. It is comprehensive, multi-faceted plan that confronts the issue of racial equity on many fronts and proposes policy and federally funded programs that will: 1) Advance The Economic Mobility of African Americans and Close the Racial Wealth and Income Gaps; 2) Expand Access to High-Quality Education and Tackle Racial Inequity and Our Education System; 3) Make Far-Reaching Investments in Ending Health Disparities By Race; 4) Strengthen America’s Commitment to Justice; 5) Make the Right to Vote and the Right to Equal Protections Real for African-Americans; 6) Address Environmental Justice.

The Biden plan proposes $70 billion in additional federal money for historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions, up sharply from current levels. It promises to eliminate the estimated $23 billion annual budget gap between public K-12 schools in white and nonwhite neighborhoods. The plan would spend $100 billion building new affordable housing units. And, believing that expanding Black small business is crucial to building Black wealth, Mr. Biden offers measures to improve access to capital for those companies.