President Joe Biden is hoping to address the racial wealth gap by investing in black business owners and homeowners on the 100th anniversary of the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The White House unveiled its plan Tuesday to expand the share of federal contracts awarded to small minority-owned businesses twofold by 2026, or by an additional $100 billion over the next five years. But the Biden administration has yet to detail its proposal for student debt relief, a major contributor to the racial wealth gap, according to advocates.
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“Federal spending power is enormous and has the potential to have extraordinary impact on the racial wealth gap,” a senior administration official said late Monday ahead of the announcement. “The federal government is the largest consumer of goods in the world.”
Federal Reserve Board data released in 2019 found that black families’ median and mean wealth is less than 15% that of white families, at $24,100 and $142,500, compared to $188,200 and $983,400, respectively. About 10% of federal agency contracting dollars are awarded to “small disadvantaged businesses,” a government term which is defined under federal law to include small minority-owned business.
Tuesday’s announcement coincides with Biden’s trip to Tulsa, the first presidential visit to commemorate the massacre. There, he will stop at the Greenwood Cultural Center and meet with survivors of the race riot, which on May 31 and June 1, 1921, targeted the historically black, then-thriving Greenwood District, once nicknamed “Black Wall Street.”
The White House is also waiting for Congress and the public to review federal regulations cracking down on discriminatory housing practices and establishing a legal framework for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to enforce equitable policies, a senior official told reporters Monday. Both rules will be published in the Federal Register during the week of June 7.
“In both cases, HUD is moving to return to traditional interpretations of the Fair Housing Act, which reverses the last administration’s attempts to weaken the act’s protections,” the official said.
At the same time, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge will lead an interagency initiative addressing inequity in home appraisals.
“This disparity in home appraisals limit homeowners’ ability to properly benefit from refinancing or reselling their homes at higher valuations,” the official added.
Senior officials touted, too, new, more specific provisions in Biden’s $2.25 trillion “infrastructure” package aimed at mitigating the racial wealth gap.
As part of that spending pitch, Biden wants to create a $10 billion community revitalization fund, as well as provide $15 billion for grants improving “community connectivity” through transportation and $5 billion for grants ending exclusionary zoning and increasing affordable housing choice.
Biden has earmarked another $31 billion for capital and support for small minority businesses to apply for federal contracts and research and development projects. The president also seeks to introduce a Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit to incentivize private investment in affordable housing.
The officials defended the White House’s silence 100-plus days into Biden’s presidency regarding student debt relief, which disproportionately affects black students, according to groups such as the NAACP.
“We are running at every problem as fast as we can. What we have to announce today [is] what we have to announce today, and we look forward to conversations in the future,” an official said.
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As many as 300 black Tulsa residents died and another 10,000 were left homeless when white residents destroyed houses and businesses in 1921. Tensions had boiled over after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a black man, was accused of assaulting 17-year-old Sarah Page, who was white. A ground and aerial assault razed much of the 35 square blocks considered to be the Greenwood District.
A 2001 Oklahoma commission found city officials had allied with white residents in the massacre. That commission recommended reparations be paid to black residents affected by the violence.
