For years, Black Americans heard talk but didn’t see any action from the past leaders who could not address critical community problems like lead leaching pipes, crumbling roads and bridges, and flooding streets. But now, thanks to the current president, Joe Biden.
Earlier last week, the Senate has passed the infrastructure bill to remove the federal highways that have divided communities of color across the country, stopping them from economic opportunities and strengthening the racial inequality for years. Complaints have been heard that the bill discriminates against white people at every turn. The bill is referred to ‘a racist bill’ since it hands out jobs and contracts and locates projects based on race. The bill includes grants to install solar or wind technologies and generate jobs in areas decimated by closing coal mines or coal-fired electric plants. Biden has offered debt relief to black farmers, but not white farmers, and provided billions in aid to minority-owned and women-owned restaurants, notifying the struggling restaurant’s owners. The latter happened to be white men who had to go to the back of the line.
Black business owners have experienced discrimination in history and know what happens if the government fails to recognize the composition of their businesses. For example, the first round of Paycheck Protection Program funding in the 2020 CARES Act restricted COVID-19 relief subsidies to employers, which largely shut out Black entrepreneurs. Lucky for them now, this bill came in their favor, President Biden’s jobs plan intends to reconnect neighbourhoods and cut off by historic investments” and “redress historical inequities.” It can do this by building capacity in Black businesses and Black communities. By investing in the development of Black firms and employing them in infrastructure projects, the plan will enable the Black community to participate in its recovery. Growing Black sole proprietorships and converting them to employer businesses is a critical first step before realizing this vision.
Someone in the forefront, Fitzgerald, whose work links racial equity issues with economic development and innovation, says it’s high time the federal government undoes the damages caused by “racist infrastructure” that have helped shape economic inequalities among communities of color and white communities. She argues that the infrastructure bill funding is an opportunity to right the wrongs produced by federal policies that have marginalized communities of color and add to an ongoing conversation about reparations, or racial redress efforts, that are building in the country. Fitzgerald says the story of racist infrastructure began in the early 1900s when race-related restrictive deeds began appearing in many American cities. Racial contracts could be found in property deeds across the country. These deals included stipulations that barred people of color from owning property. The funding from the infrastructure bill could be viewed as a form of “restorative justice” and an important, if symbolic, step in the healing process for millions of Americans.
