October Surprise: Kamala Brings The Black Men A Plan!

Vice President Kamala Harris released her plan to help Black men. She also goes to Roland Martin, All The Smoke and The Breakfast Club to detail her proposals.

Even the Detroit rapper/activist Icewear Vezzo appeared at The Breakfast Club town hall.

He is a supporter of former president Donald J. Trump.

The Democratic nominee is trying to court Black men to Support her. 

Former president Barack Obama told a real truth. Some of the brothas are willing to support a man who is the very definition of white privilege. A man who is a convicted felon. A man who will sell gold tennis shoes, NFTs, bibles and his image of him pumping his fist after he was grazed in his ear. A man who bases his whole campaign on gaslighting, racial politics, grievances and political revenge.

The highly anticipated town hall with Biden critic Charlamagne tha God.

Harris is an African American vice president. She is also the first woman to hold this title. 

Harris is the first African American, Asian American, woman, person of color to be the vice president. She is the second woman and first woman of color to be the presidential nominee. If elected, she will be the first woman and second African American president.

Harris released her plan to help Black America (Black men)

• 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.
• Harris is proposing a new partnership between the Small Business Administration andtrusted 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.
• Expanding access to bank accounts and lending to help Black men build wealth.
• Enabling Black men who hold digital assets to benefit from financial innovation.
• Breaking down unfair and unnecessary barriers to employment for Black men. 
• Enabling Black men and other workers to profit when company executives profit.
• Expanding pathways for Black men to good-paying jobs, whether or not they have a college degree. 
• Providing more pathways for Black men to become teachers and school leaders.
• Invest in grant programs for mentorship and leadership development. 
• Providing financial support to financially stressed farmers and ranchers—including Black farmers and ranchers.
• Providing Black men and their families with reliable, low-cost internet access.
• Relieving the burden of medical debt, so Black men can take advantage of opportunities to build wealth and start businesses.
• Revitalizing competition in food and groceries and enacting the first-ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging—benefitting Black families.
• Lowering rent.
• More than tripling the number of new first-time Black homeowners each year by the end of her first term through her housing plan.
• Fighting to end racial bias in home appraisals that have lowered home values for Black men and Black Americans.
• Helping reduce costs for Black men with children through tax cuts and affordable child care.
• Helping Black men provide care for their aging parents.
• Cutting taxes for Black men in lower-wage jobs by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit maximum to $1,500.
• Launch a National Health Equity Initiative for Black Men.
• Increase investments in HBCU and MSI medical schools and health care programs.
• Protect and strengthen the Affordable Care Act.
• Keep health insurance premiums down.
• Protect access to clean air and clean water. 
• Break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back by legalizing marijuana nationally.
• Build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
• Invest in proven Community Violence Intervention programs.
• Protect the right to vote.

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, 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.”

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.”

Vice President Kamala Harris with Roland Martin, Fat Joe and DL Hughley.

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.

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.

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.