Vote Like Your Business Depends on It

Op-ed by Ron Busby

At her small business in Newark, New Jersey, Tara Williams-Harrington helps kids learn STEM concepts by playing with Lego toys. She had only recently signed a new lease for her franchise when the coronavirus turned everything upside down. Suddenly, she was calculating how big of a loan she would need to stay afloat. As if that stress wasn’t enough, Tara’s husband tragically passed away from COVID-19 in April, and she was soon diagnosed with the virus herself.  

Tara said as a Black business owner, “we’re hit three ways around” in dealing with the coronavirus. She is right. For nearly every metric of how COVID-19 has affected the general population, it has hit Black Americans harder. As the head of U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., I also know that long before the pandemic, we have never had a level playing field to get ahead in this country.

Joe Biden is up to the job of changing that. He's released a plan for how he’d build an inclusive economy to finally make sure every American gets a fair return for their hard work and an equal chance to get ahead in this country. Accounting for every card in the deck that’s stacked against Black Americans would stretch too long. But here are just a few of the numbers. More than 40 percent of Black-owned businesses stopped working during the pandemic, compared to 17 percent of white-owned businesses. The federal Paycheck Protection Program was not designed with Black business owners in mind, considering the majority of Black-owned businesses are solely operated and therefore don’t have payroll. Additionally, historic and present day lending discrimination has systematically deterred many Black business owners from establishing a relationship with a bank. That was an issue for Tara when she tried to apply for a PPP loan. Early data show that just 12 percent of Black business owners received the full amount of funding assistance they requested.

The lack of pandemic relief funding coupled with the rapid rate of Black business closures, Black Americans are nearly twice as likely as other groups to die of COVID-19, “we’re hit three ways around,” our businesses, our community, and our health. During a time of such devastation, we need to elect a President that can lead us out of this extremely alarming crisis. While President Trump tried to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner over the June jobs report, Black unemployment actually ticked upward to 16.8 percent, the highest it's been in more than a decade.

The challenges that Black Americans and Black business owners face are not confined to COVID-19. Black business owners have historically been locked out of capital from banks. And despite adding enormous amounts of labor and wealth to the U.S. economy every day, Black women earn just 61 cents on average for every dollar that white men make. All these numbers add up to Black Americans facing down daunting challenges in this country. It will take a monumental shift to create an economy that works for all Americans, break down the structural barriers that Black business owners and employees face, and turn the tide toward equity.

Joe Biden has a plan to get us there. His Build Back Better strategy would direct manufacturing tax credits specifically toward small businesses and those owned by women and people of color. He will also invest $300 billion in research and development for new technologies like 5G and AI. This funding will spread across all 50 states, with historic investments in communities of color. Biden has also long been passionate about buying American, a policy that would further boost the growing movement to support Black-owned small businesses.  

For workers, his plan would increase overtime pay protections and make sure women get equal pay for equal work. Biden has pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, but he also recognizes the wage increases shouldn’t stop there. He wants paychecks to go up across the board. This is such a basic step – but an essential one – to closing the pay and wealth gaps in this country.

Paychecks are important, but so are the kinds of jobs that are available. Biden’s manufacturing and innovation strategy will focus on creating jobs in communities of color. That will help bring back the jobs that COVID-19 took away and also add millions more that are high-quality, high-skilled opportunities with safe workplaces and the chance to join a union.

At its heart, Biden’s jobs plan would invest in all of America and across every aspect of our economy, from procurement, R&D and infrastructure to training and education. And he’s pledged to equitably allocate these funds. This is what it will take to tear down the economic barriers that Black Americans have faced for generations.

In order for there to be a great America, there must be a great Black America, and in order for there to be a great Black America, there must be great Black Chambers of Commerce. 

As the umbrella organization to many Black Chambers of Commerce, I’m glad to hear Tara was able to get the loans she needed with the help of the African-American Chamber of Commerce.

As the kids she works with learn and make new creations out of legos and building blocks, we need to make sure our country builds back better with Joe Biden as President.  

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Penned: July 16, 2020