You should apologize for being easily persuaded to vote for “a bucket of chicken and a couple of grape sodas” (Marcus, Bad Boys 2)
It wouldn’t take that fucking long if you niggaz would stop giving away your damn votes for free!!! It would take one term and they’d get their shit together.
Have you died since Regan, the Bushes, or Trump been president?!
But niggas voted for nothing just to have a demokkkrat barely lose.
Let these hoes lies by a landslide because we say “no vote for nothing in return” and they’d get their shit together on our behalf.
Vice President Harris Will Deliver for Black Men
She Will Provide the Tools to Black Men to Build Wealth, Support Their Families, and
Lead in Their Communities
Vice President Harris will build an Opportunity Economy where everyone has the opportunity to
not just get by, but to get ahead. She knows that Black men have long felt that too often their
voice in our political process has gone unheard and that there is so much untapped ambition and
leadership within the Black male community. Black men and boys deserve a president who will
provide the opportunity to unleash this talent and potential by removing historic barriers to
wealth creation, education, employment, earnings, health, and improving the criminal justice
system. Black men deserve a president who will deliver on promises and equip them with the
tools and resources to make their aspirations a reality.
This year, Vice President Harris launched a first-of-its-kind, nationwide Economic Opportunity
Tour to help entrepreneurs access the capital and resources they need to launch and grow their
businesses, build wealth, and strengthen their communities—especially Black male
entrepreneurs. While traveling across the country to cities like Atlanta, Detroit, and Charlotte,
she heard powerful stories from Black men about the biggest hurdles that still make it too
difficult for them to get their businesses off the ground and grow them to meet their full
ambitions and discussed policies that can help break down remaining barriers to success.
Drawing on insights from her experience throughout her career and her Economic Opportunity
Tour, today Vice President Harris is laying out an Opportunity Agenda for Black Men to provide
them with the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves
and their families, and protect their rights. This pathbreaking agenda includes:
(1) Providing 1 million loans that are fully forgivable to Black entrepreneurs and others to
start a business.
(2) Championing education, training, and mentorship programs that help Black men get
good-paying jobs in high-demand industries and lead their communities, including
pathways to become teachers.
(3) Supporting a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets so Black
men who invest in and own these assets are protected.
(4) Launching a National Health Equity Initiative focused on Black Men that addresses
sickle cell disease, diabetes, mental health, prostate cancer, and other health challenges
that disproportionately impact them.
(5) Legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to
succeed in this new industry.
Donald Trump spent four years making Black men’s lives harder. On his watch, millions of
Black men lost their jobs, thousands closed their businesses, and hundreds of thousands lost their
health insurance. As thousands of Black men lost their lives to COVID-19, Donald Trump
denied the severity of the crisis and made millions more unsafe. Crime in Black neighborhoods
soared while Donald Trump tried to cut funding for public safety and made Black communities
less secure.
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He has repeatedly shown open contempt for Black Americans and Black men, attacking their
rights, fueling division, and standing in the way of their progress. He falsely accused the
Exonerated Five and called for them to receive the death penalty. His history as a landlord is
checkered with repeated allegations of racial discrimination and outright refusal to rent to Black
tenants. Following the murder of George Floyd, Trump described Black protestors as “THUGS,”
threatening that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” As president he referred to Haiti
and African nations as “s***hole countries.” And, most recently, Trump spread falsehoods about
Black Haitians “eating the pets” of their neighbors and in the past described Haiti and other
majority Black nations as “shitholes.”
If he’s re-elected, his hostility toward Black men and their communities will continue. His
Project 2025 Agenda doubles down on his mistreatment of Black men and their families,
promising to cut funding for urban education, bring back stop-and-frisk practices, and slash
critical investments in safety net programs like Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social
Security. Meanwhile, he will slap a Trump Tax on everything from food to gasoline, raising costs
on the average Black family by nearly $4,000 or more. He will erase four years of financial gains
and job growth for Black men and leave their communities worse off for it.
***
Vice President Harris will lower costs and give Black men the tools to build wealth, provide
for their families, and lead their communities.
Vice President Harris knows that costs are too high for Black men and that Black men have long
been denied the tools that would allow them to grow their wealth, get a good-paying job, and
support their loved ones. That’s why she has a plan to address these concerns.
She will ensure that Black men can build wealth and achieve economic success by:
● Providing 1 million loans that are fully forgivable of up to $20,000 to Black
entrepreneurs and others who have historically faced barriers to starting a new
business or growing an existing business, in partnership with trusted organizations
like mission-driven lenders and banks with a proven commitment to their
communities. Vice President Harris has already laid out a plan to help more small
businesses start, innovate, and expand. She proposed a historic tenfold expansion of the
tax deduction for small business startup expenses from $5,000 to $50,000 and an
initiative to help existing small businesses grow by providing low-and no-interest loans to
small businesses that want to expand, boosting access to venture capital, and supporting
innovation hubs and business incubators. And she’s said she will cut unnecessary red tape
that makes it harder for small businesses to file taxes, hire a reliable workforce, and get
off the ground.
But Vice President Harris knows that today, the money needed to start your own business
is not accessible for many Black Americans. Studies suggest that Black Americans are
twice as likely to be denied credit by banks, regardless of their credit scores. Experts and
Black entrepreneurs have identified limited access to capital as the most important factor
that limits the creation and growth of Black-owned businesses. That’s why, today she is
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proposing a new partnership between the Small Business Administration and
trusted partners on the ground to provide loans that are forgivable of up to $20,000
to entrepreneurs who have a good idea but don’t have the resources, connections, or
access to capital to get their business off the ground, as well as entrepreneurs
locating in underserved communities. This will help Black men and other
Americans start or grow a business in their community when they don’t have the
startup capital. For example, these loans can help entrepreneurs rent office space and
industry-standard software to launch a cybersecurity company, pay for permitting fees
and purchase a van for a catering business, set up a studio and buy advertising for a new
architectural company, buy professional hairstyling equipment and chair space for a
barber shop, buy lawn mowers and tools for a landscaper, and more. She will also work
with the private sector and call for additional funding to expand on proven ways to break
down barriers and provide financing and venture capital to entrepreneurs and small
business owners in Black communities.
● Expanding access to bank accounts and lending to help Black men build wealth.
Vice President Harris will also work with the private sector to expand access to
affordable banking options that will allow Black men and others who are locked out of
the banking system—and the wealth building that comes with it—because of high fees to
save, invest, and build credit. She will also go after banks that slap on hidden fees for
basic services. Vice President Harris took on predatory lenders when she was Attorney
General of California. She will stand up for Americans who are exploited by predatory
lending practices by going after these scammers and requiring credit reports to exclude
bad debt resulting from predatory lending practices.
● Enabling Black men who hold digital assets to benefit from financial innovation.
More than 20% of Black Americans own or have owned cryptocurrency assets. Vice
President Harris appreciates the ways in which new technologies can broaden access to
banking and financial services. She will make sure owners of and investors in digital
assets benefit from a regulatory framework so that Black men and others who participate
in this market are protected.
● Breaking down unfair and unnecessary barriers to employment for Black men. Vice
President Harris knows that Black men are disproportionately shut out of the job market
based on their criminal records and credit scores. Vice President Kamala Harris believes
that employers should consider a job candidate’s qualifications first—without the stigma
of a conviction or arrest record. That’s why she will work with Congress to require
businesses to limit the use of unnecessary criminal arrest histories, convictions, and credit
scores in their employment decisions. Laws like these have been shown to lead to
increased employment among Black men and have been embraced by 37 states and 150
cities led by both Republican and Democratic governors. This program would build on
her work as Attorney General of California and District Attorney, where she implemented
nationally recognized and successful programs to help former offenders secure
employment, reduce recidivism, and reintegrate into and contribute to their communities.
● Enabling Black men and other workers to profit when company executives profit.
Right now, Black employment rates are at all-time highs, but too few Black Americans
own assets that build wealth over time. Vice President Harris has a plan to help Black
men own more assets by reforming our tax laws to reward employer participation in
employee stock ownership plans, profit-sharing plans, and comparable arrangements,
3
with appropriate guardrails to ensure these plans benefit and protect workers. Giving low-
and moderate-income workers a stake in the business has been shown to close the racial
wealth gap and fuel business growth—a win-win proposition.
● Expanding pathways for Black men to good-paying jobs, whether or not they have a
college degree. Vice President Harris will also eliminate unnecessary degree
requirements and promote meaningful pathways for those without college degrees for
500,000 federal jobs—and she will challenge the business community to do the same.
She will set a goal to double the number of registered apprenticeships in America by the
end of her first term—which provide quality training in high-demand industries with a
clear pathway to a good-paying job—and will bring together high schools, trusted
community organizations like the National Urban League, state and local governments,
and the private sector to ensure that Black men are able to get the training and technical
credentials they need to succeed in these registered apprenticeship opportunities and
access jobs in highly paid, sought-after professions. Moreover, she will help Black men
stay in school by investing in programs aimed at retention and graduation of Black men
and boys, not just from high school but also from high-quality career and technical
education programs and two and four-year institutions, providing ongoing mentorship
and support.
● Providing more pathways for Black men to become teachers and school leaders.
Only 1% of public school teachers are Black men. Vice President Harris will build a
pipeline of Black male teachers, including by investing in programs under the
Department of Education, which Trump wants to eliminate, to collaborate with
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions
(MSIs) that will empower Black men and others to enter and succeed in the teaching
profession, where they can serve as role models and mentors to students and improve
academic outcomes. Vice President Harris will also expand registered apprenticeships for
teachers and continue to support the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program to recruit
and retain Black male teachers—which Trump tried to eliminate as President. Statistics
have shown that Black student retention rates and overall success is increased when they
have at least one Black male teacher during their elementary school years.
● Invest in grant programs for mentorship and leadership development. Vice President
Harris will commit to expanding funding for existing community mentorship programs
that have a proven track record of helping young Black men succeed and connecting
them with established leaders in various fields—thereby establishing the next generation
of community leaders. She will also support programs like My Brother’s Keeper and
increase investments in leadership training and mentorship within public schools as well
as HBCUs and MSIs to provide more opportunities for young Black men to develop
leadership skills early and throughout their development.
● Providing financial support to financially stressed farmers and ranchers—including
Black farmers and ranchers—that have been denied access to capital by banks and the
federal government for discriminatory reasons. Vice President Harris already distributed
more than $2 billion to more than 43,000 farmers and ranchers, including thousands of
Black farmers and ranchers, who were discriminated against and denied access to loans
and other financial support from banks and the federal government. Now, she’ll commit
to scaling up this program by providing additional financial support to more farmers and
4
ranchers facing financial stress—including Black farmers and ranchers—so that they can
grow their farms and ranches and stay competitive.
● Providing Black men and their families with reliable, low-cost internet access, by
reenacting the Affordable Connectivity Program. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s
Affordable Connectivity Program provided 23 million households with up to $30 off of
their monthly internet bills and a one-time discount of up to $100 to buy a laptop, desktop
computer, or tablet. This program connected an estimated 5.5 million Black households
to affordable high-speed internet, closing the digital divide for millions of Black families.
Vice President Harris will reenact this popular program, which ended June of this year, to
ensure that Black men and their families throughout the country are able to connect to the
internet and obtain the financial, educational, and employment opportunities that come
from reliable internet access.
● Relieving the burden of medical debt, so Black men can take advantage of
opportunities to build wealth and start businesses. More than 1 in 4 Black households
report having medical debt, significantly higher than the rate of medical debt for all
adults. Vice President Harris’ plan to work with states to relieve medical debt—the
leading cause of bankruptcy in America—will disproportionately help Black Americans.
She will also implement a rule that would remove medical bills from most Americans’
credit reports, enabling them to more easily be approved for mortgages, car loans, and
more. Indeed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that roughly 22,000
more safe mortgages could be approved annually as a result of this rule.
She will also make it a top priority to lower costs for Black men by:
● Revitalizing competition in food and groceries and enacting the first-ever federal
ban on corporate price-gouging—benefitting Black families, who spend significantly
more of their budget on groceries than other families.
● Lowering rent. Vice President Harris will incentivize the private sector to create new
affordable housing units throughout the country so that the high cost of rent does not
stand in the way of anyone’s ambitions. She will also partner with the private sector to
build 3 million additional housing units in her first term. And she will go after
price-fixing schemes that raise housing costs for Black men and their families and end
unfair practices that help large corporate landlords dramatically raise rents.
● More than tripling the number of new first-time Black homeowners each year by
the end of her first term through her housing plan. Vice President Harris has proposed
an ambitious plan to lower the costs of renting and buying a home by building 3 million
additional homes and providing up to $25,000 for a down payment for first-time
homebuyers who lack inherited wealth. Based on an analysis by Moody’s, the number of
first-time Black homeowners will more than triple per year under her housing plan—a
250,000 yearly increase—by the end of her first term. Although home ownership is a key
engine of wealth building in America, fewer than 20% of Black Americans under the age
of 35 own a home, less than half the rate for White Americans. Research shows that
promoting first-generation homeownership is associated with not only building wealth
but also improved health and educational outcomes for children in the home.
● Fighting to end racial bias in home appraisals that have lowered home values for
Black men and Black Americans. For Black Americans that do own a home, homes in
more majority Black neighborhoods are nearly twice as likely to be appraised below the
5
contract price than those in neighborhoods that are majority white. As Vice President,
Kamala Harris took on appraisal bias by ensuring consumers can appeal and providing
greater training and professional development for appraisers. As a result, the rate of
difference between Black and white home values has declined 40%, which is creating a
significant increase in the values of Black homes. Now, as President, she will ramp up
efforts to root out racial bias in home appraisals to make it easier for Black men and
Black Americans to build wealth for their families.
● Helping reduce costs for Black men with children through tax cuts and affordable
child care. Vice President Harris will help Black men working to provide for themselves
and their families by expanding the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $3,600 per child
and providing up to $6,000 for new parents in the first year of a child’s life to help Black
families purchase cribs, diapers, clothes, and car seats when they are most needed. She
will also save families thousands of dollars in child care costs and increase access to
high-quality child care options, including by supporting small businesses and child care
providers.
● Helping Black men provide care for their aging parents. Almost 40% of caregivers of
older adults are men, and one-third of that group is Black. Vice President Harris will help
Black men with caregiving needs by providing home care services through Medicare so
that seniors are able to get the care they need while staying in their homes.
● Cutting taxes for Black men in lower-wage jobs by increasing the Earned Income
Tax Credit maximum to $1,500, so that more of the money they make can go toward
achieving their dreams like building a business.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda would raise costs and increase the racial
wealth gap for Black men and their families.
● Trump wants to raise the prices of household goods, from clothing to groceries to
medicines—costing a typical family nearly $4,000 a year—by slapping hidden taxes
on goods coming into the United States.
● Under Trump, jobs disappeared and unemployment spiked to nearly 17% for Black
Americans, including 16% for Black men.
● During the pandemic, Trump shortchanged many Black-owned businesses and gave
special treatment to large, well-connected companies.
● Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will give tax windfalls to big corporations and the
wealthy while raising taxes on middle-class families.
● Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will terminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness
program, which will affect more than 3.6 million educators, social workers, nurses, and
other public service workers and will leave borrowers who are already in the pipeline for
relief saddled with $250 billion in student loan debt.
Vice President Harris will ensure Black men have access to high-quality, affordable health
care.
Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are committed to bringing down health care costs and
protecting access to health care. Black Americans face higher risks of developing cancer,
diabetes, and other chronic and costly diseases. To ensure that Black men have their health care
needs met, Vice President Harris will:
6
● Launch a National Health Equity Initiative for Black Men. Vice President Harris
knows that Black men face elevated risk of health conditions like diabetes, sickle cell
disease, prostate cancer, and more. That’s why she will cap insulin costs at $35 a month
and out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs at $2,000 for all Americans, bringing
down costs for Black Americans—who are two-thirds more likely to have diabetes and
are more likely to report rationing their drugs because of cost concerns. She will also
expand preventative screening programs, including prostate and colon cancer screenings,
where the risk factors for Black men are especially high. And, she will expand the budget
of the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, fully fund the Sickle
Cell Data Collection Program, and build a sickle cell database to improve prevention and
treatment. As part of this initiative, she will also expand access to mental health and
substance abuse treatment and work to reduce the persistent stigma around seeking such
treatment among Black men.
● Increase investments in HBCU and MSI medical schools and health care programs
to train a medical workforce—including mental health professionals—that understands
the needs and experiences of Black patients in the healthcare system. HBCUs and MSIs
disproportionately produce the country’s Black doctors and other critical health
professionals and are focused on addressing health care inequalities and building a more
diverse workforce for the future.
● Protect and strengthen the Affordable Care Act to ensure that the 1 in 4 Black
Americans with preexisting conditions can keep access to affordable health care.
● Keep health insurance premiums down so that Black men and their families can see a
doctor and get treated without breaking the bank.
● Protect access to clean air and clean water. Today, too many Black Americans do not
have access to clean air and clean water, threatening the health, safety, and prosperity of
Black communities across the country. Black people in the United States are 40% more
likely to suffer from asthma compared to white people, which is often caused or
worsened by harmful air pollution, and are more likely to be exposed to toxic lead
through water pipes. Vice President Harris helped secure over $15 billion in funding to
replace lead pipes and was the tie-breaking vote on the largest ever investment in clean
energy technologies that don’t cause pollution. As President, she will ensure all lead
pipes across the country are replaced, will continue to invest in energy sources that
pollute less, and will hold polluters accountable to secure clean air and clean water for
all.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda would increase drug costs and rip away access
to insurance for millions of Black men and their families.
● Under Trump, 300,000 Black Americans lost health insurance in his first two years.
● He now promises to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act—ripping insurance
coverage from over 3 million Black Americans and raising costs for millions of Black
families.
● If Trump is elected to a second term, nearly 1 in 4 of Black Americans who have
been diagnosed with a preexisting condition—like asthma, diabetes, and cancer—could
be denied coverage or charged thousands of dollars more for health insurance coverage.
● Trump will cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—as he tried to do in every
one of his budgets. Black Americans are more likely to rely on Medicare and Medicaid,
7
and for 33% of Black Americans aged 65 or older, Social Security is their only source of
income.
● Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will repeal the laws that capped prescription drug
prices.
● Donald Trump brags about overturning Roe v. Wade—if elected, he will go even
further. His Project 2025 agenda would ban abortion in all 50 states and restrict
access to birth control.
Vice President Harris will fight to protect the rights of Black men.
As we enact policies that lift Black men up, we must remove the barriers that have so often held
them back. She will:
● Break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back by
legalizing marijuana nationally, working with Congress to ensure that the safe
cultivation, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana is the law of the land.
She will also fight to ensure that as the national cannabis industry takes shape, Black
men—who have, for years, been overpoliced for marijuana use—are able to access
wealth and jobs in this new market.
● Build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve through the
common sense police reforms in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which bans
chokeholds and no-knock warrants and raises use-of-force standards. She will also make
investments to boost meaningful community-oriented policing and incentivize police
departments to hire in the communities which they serve—such as through local police
cadet programs and high school public safety academies—ensuring both that Black men
are treated fairly and that Black families are kept safe.
● Invest in proven Community Violence Intervention programs. Vice President Harris
will continue to invest millions of dollars in proven Community Violence Intervention
programs made available through the Safer Communities Act to support local
community-based organizations, most of which are led by Black men, working with law
enforcement to reduce violence and crime, empower local communities, and strengthen
neighborhood services.
● Protect the right to vote—a right previous generations of Black Americans died fighting
for—and to have that vote counted, so that in this election cycle and every one to come,
their voices will be heard. Vice President Harris will fight for the John Lewis V oting
Rights Advancement Act to stop racial voter suppression and the Freedom to V ote Act to
modernize our elections, expand vote-by-mail and early voting, put an end to partisan
gerrymandering, and reduce the corrupting influence of money in politics. She will also
surge resources to the Department of Justice to investigate and crack down on those
suppressing or obstructing Black Americans from exercising their right to vote.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda will criminalize communities and roll back
civil rights protections for Black Americans.
● Trump falsely accused the Exonerated Five and called for them to receive the death
penalty.
● Following the killing of George Floyd, Trump called protestors “THUGS” and wrote,
“when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
8
● As president, Trump granted fewer clemency requests than nearly every president
since the start of the twentieth century—and many of his grants were reserved for
well-connected offenders and close Trump associates.
● Trump’s Department of Justice threatened federal prosecutions for marijuana in
states where marijuana use is legal, continuing the unjust and disproportionate use of
marijuana possession laws to put Black Americans behind bars.
● Trump wants to make stop-and-frisk practices mandatory for local police
departments and is calling to defund departments that do not adopt this discriminatory
policy.
● Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will roll back civil rights protections for Black
Americans.
****
Vice President Harris has long led efforts to ensure the security and prosperity of Black men and
Black families, from taking on corporations discriminating against Black Americans as
California Attorney General to launching major initiatives to build wealth in Black communities
as Vice President. Over the past four years, Vice President Harris has worked alongside President
Biden to increase Black wealth by 60% compared to before the pandemic and to help over
250,000 Black Americans become homeowners. As Vice President and as a Senator, she secured
tens of billions of dollars for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the
country and launched the Economic Opportunity Coalition—a novel public-private initiative
where private sector entities are driving tens of billions of dollars into underserved communities.
She has also been fighting for justice reform for decades. As San Francisco District Attorney, she
implemented a nationally recognized model to reduce recidivism rates from 50% to under 10%.
And as Vice President, she strengthened accountability for federal law enforcement by banning
chokeholds, restricting no-knock entries, and providing guidance on use-of-force standards.
But Vice President Harris knows there is so much more work to do to make Black men feel
valued and like they have a government that cares about them and their dreams for the future. As
President, she is committed to knocking down the barriers that have for so long kept Black men
back and giving them the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs for themselves and their
families and protect their rights.
https://kamalaharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/FMfcgzQXJZxzLGgcKmSNQSXCRKXShwxJ.pdf
