https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/harris-laying-new-plan-empower-black-men-energize-114771743 ERIE, Pa. -- Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan on Monday to give Black men more economic opportunities and other chances to thrive as she works to energize a key voting bloc that has Democrats concerned about a lack of enthusiasm.
Harris' plan includes providing forgivable business loans for Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships and studying sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African American men.
Harris already has said she supports legalizing marijuana and her plan calls for working to ensure that Black men have opportunities to participate as a “national cannabis industry takes shape.” She also is calling for better regulating cryptocurrency to protect Black men and others who invest in digital assets.
The vice president's “opportunity agenda for Black men” is meant to invigorate African American males at a moment when there are fears some may sit out the election rather than vote for Harris or her opponent, Republican former President Donald Trump.
The vice president unveiled the plan as she visited Erie, Pennsylvania, where she stopped by LegendErie Records and Coffee House, a Black-owned small business, for a conversation with Black men from the area.
The business, opened just five weeks ago, is the project of Ishmael and Allana Trainor, a married couple of Erie natives who returned to their hometown after living for years in Arizona.
Later, Harris held a campaign rally in the northwest Pennsylvania city, where she pilloried Trump for suggesting in a weekend Fox News interview that the U.S. military may need to be deployed to quell an “enemy from within” if Election Day is disturbed by agitators.
Her push comes after former President Barack Obama suggested last week that some Black men “aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Anonymous
>>1353467 The Harris campaign also has been working to increase support among other male voting blocs, including Hispanics, by founding the group “Hombres con Harris,” Spanish for “Men with Harris.” The latest policy rollout is notable because it comes with the stated purpose of motivating Black men to vote mere weeks before Election Day.
As her campaign has done with the “Hombres” group, Harris’ team plans to organize gender-specific gatherings. Those include “Black Men Huddle Up” events in battleground states featuring African American male celebrities for things like watch parties for NFL and NCAA football games. The campaign says it also plans new testimonial ads in battleground states that feature local Black male voices.
Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign and a former Louisiana congressman who is Black, said Harris wants to build an economy "where Black men are equipped with the tools to thrive: to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth.”
Black Americans strongly supported Joe Biden when he beat Trump in 2020. Harris advisers say they are less worried about losing large percentages of Black male support to the former president than that some will choose not to turn out at all.
Trump, too, has stepped up efforts to win over Black and Hispanic voters of both genders. He has held roundtables with Black entrepreneurs in swing states and will sit for a townhall sponsored by Spanish-language Univision this week. He also has sought to openly stoke racial divisions, repeatedly suggesting that immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are taking jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans.
Anonymous
>>1353468 Harris' new round of proposals includes a promise that, if elected, she will help distribute 1 million loans of up to $20,000 that can be fully forgivable to Black entrepreneurs and others who have strong ideas to start businesses. The loans would come via new partnerships between the Small Business Administration and community leaders and banks “with a proven commitment to their communities,” her campaign says.
The vice president also wants to offer federal incentives to encourage more African American men to train to be teachers, citing statistics that Black males made up only a bit more than 1% of the nation's public school teaching ranks in 2020-21, according to data from the National Teacher and Principal Survey.
Harris also is pledging to expand existing federal programs that forgive some educational loans for public service to further encourage more Black male teachers. She also wants to use organizations like the National Urban League, local governments and the private sector to expand apprenticeships and credentialing opportunities in Black communities.
Anonymous
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>>1353469 The vice president's advisers have been urging her to talk more about cryptocurrency as a way to appeal to male voters. Her campaign said that as president, Harris will back a regulatory framework meant to better protect investors in cryptocurrency and other digital assets, which are popular with Black men.
Harris also promised to create a national initiative to better fund efforts to detect, research and combat sickle cell disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, mental health challenges and other health issues that disproportionately affect Black men.
A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas. There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women.
Anonymous
>>1353467 I whitest boy you know am hereby black, if you say otherwise you are denying my human right and my internalized race which makes you a transphobe. Now where's my 20k.
Anonymous
>>1353478 20k is very little. 18k was poverty income thirty years ago. BTW they haven't adjusted the poverty line to account for recent cost of living inflation. 20k can get a business very little, like 60 days of rent at a strip mall.
Anonymous
>>1353467 Madame President
Anonymous
>>1353488 Never gonna happen
Anonymous
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>>1353502 It already did happen. Trump lost.
Anonymous
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When can we finally see a remake of Roots with an all white cast.
Anonymous
>>1353482 It's probably going to be like COVID all over again and the black Twitter community spinning up fake sole proprietorships just to get this money and using it for personal expenses
Anonymous
>>1353513 So like every white CEO in this country? Guess how many didn’t pay back their PPP loans? Representative Boebert got 2 million in PPP money. Bought new cars and a new house and then closed her restaurant and fired everyone in our small town. Now because the business closed she doesn’t have to pay back that 2 million.
Anonymous
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>>1353520 These are all lies
Anonymous
>>1353482 people have killed for far less I would like my 20k please from the racist VP
Anonymous
>>1353562 You can't get a small business loan without a small business.
Anonymous
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>>1353564 can i just setup a lemonade stand? I'll hire some teen to run it and pay him like 2 bucks an hour + free juice
Anonymous
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>>1353564 >government: "So, what's your business?" >urban youth: "I sell candybars to fund my basketball team." Anonymous
how is this not in violation of the 14th amendment? this is racist as shit
Anonymous
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>>1353604 When the government was giving out COVID aid for small businesses, Biden/Harris refused to give any money to businesses owned by White males. Democrats argued that the 14th Amendment doesn't apply to White men. Fortunately they lost that argument in Federal court which is why they eventually had to give aid to businesses owned by White males too, but if Harris is able to flip SCOTUS blue, then the 14th Amendment would no longer apply to discrimination against White people or men.
For now they're probably going to try to bullshit about it not actually being only for Black males, like they're trying to find loopholes in the affirmative action ruling.
Anonymous
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2 weeks until america collapses, foreign shills?
Anonymous
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>>1353467 Lol, bitch is grasping for the black vote with that fake reparations
Anonymous
>>1353564 Didn't massive corporations get a ton of stimulus money intended for small businesses back during the pandemic? It's obviously not that hard to defraud the US government
Anonymous
>>1353667 Ask Lauren Boebert.
Anonymous
Anonymous
>>1353670 About government loan fraud.
Anonymous
>>1353671 You gonna tell me what you're referencing?
Anonymous
>>1353672 The queer gets on a topic then spams threads with it. Check every other thread on the board and you'll figure it out.
Anonymous
>>1353672 I love it when you people pretend to live in an information vacuum.
>>1353723 For you "The queer" is every poster to the left of Jack Posobiec.
Anonymous
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>>1353467 democrats are morons, if they wanted Kamala to win just go with the angle of it'll trigger clinton. You could have trump win but don't you want to see Clinton turn into a lolcow and have her spot as the first female president get taken by Kamala.
Anonymous
>>1353736 Fucking hell dude, not everyone is terminally online like you and keeps up with every news piece about every single fucking member of Congress. I looked at her Wikipedia page and in the "legal issues" section there's nothing about loan fraud. Just say what the fuck you want to say and stop acting like some ancient Greek oracle like "Ooooh I'm not telling you, you have to solve my riddle first!"
Anonymous
>>1353667 Remember that Trump fired the guy who was supposed to oversee that the funds were distributed fairly.
Anonymous
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>>1353799 Cool strawman, gramps
>>1353804 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations >Multiple publications have called attention to the record-setting turnover rate in the first year of the Trump Administration.[ Anonymous
>>1353564 You're not allowed to investigate whether a black person actually qualifies for a loan, that's racist. Just gibsdemdat.
Anonymous
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>>1353924 Well you personally aren't allowed to investigate but the SBA and banks do all the time.
muh feet's and grills shine
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20k buys a lot of Adidas and grills
