Senator Kamala Harris rocked the house today at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
Didn’t see anything posted about this event specifically so thought I’d do a short piece.
Here’s the full speech.
(Sorry — have not found a transcript yet )
Kamala Harris Unveils $100B Black Homeownership Plan At 2019 Essence Festival
On Saturday morning, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris let it be known to the crowd at the 2019 Essence Festival in New Orleans that whatever the current president means by “Make America Great Again,” she’s not going back to it.“What exactly does ‘again’ mean?” Harris questioned. ” Back before the Civil Rights Act? Back before the Voting Rights Act? Back before Roe v Wade? Back before the Fair Housing Act?” “Well, Essence, we’re not going back,” she said to raucous applause. “In fact, it is time to turn the page. And it is time to write the next chapter.”
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Harris also emphasized the need to pay close attention to Black life, underlining pivotal work done by the Black Census Project; led by civil rights activist Alicia Garza, it is largest survey of Black people conducted in the United States since Reconstruction. Harris believes that Black life, and by extension, Black people’s issues, are America’s issues: such as the economy, health care, the racial wealth gap, national security, and more. Some of these entrenched inequities are the fuel behind Harris’ $100 billion plan to invest in Black homeownership.
“I’ll invest $100 billion to put homeownership within reach for those who rent or live in federally-supported housing,” Harris said to applause. “It would help up to 4 million families with down payments and closing costs. “By taking these steps we can shrink the wealth gap between Black and White households by at least one third,” Harris continued. Still, the former prosecutor was clear that righting the institutional wrongs of the past are but a necessary precursor to shaping a just future.
“We cannot bridge the racial wealth gap just by addressing historical inequities, although we must do that, we also have to write the next chapter.”
Powerful words closing her speech
Cecelia S made a great comment about the plan this morning — since I haven’t read it yet, I’ll put her’s here:
I just finished reading it—Kamala Harris and her detail-oriented, multi-perspective approach has produced another outstanding, comprehensive proposal. Grants to cover down payment and closing costs for low- and moderate-income people in historically red-lined districts, which I expected from the headline—but also a change in how credit scores are calculated, including rent and utility payments to include the “credit invisible”; change in debt/income calculation; tracking for individual mortgages to catch discriminatory patterns like redlining and steering...She’s really thought of all the angles. (Also, redlining and steering are two things the media has been mightily ignoring this week while continuing the bullshit busing narrative.)
She’s really getting back to back kudos, yesterday it was a standing ovation from teachers:
FYI Michelle Obama speaks this evening.
Kamala 2020!