With Biden’s trillion dollar infrastructure bill now passed and awaiting expenditures, many Black Americans are wondering what benefits if any, do they stand to gain from this omni-bill.
Well in short, no. Black Americans stand to get nothing of note from the passing of this legislation.
Let’s break down the numbers.
Road/Highway and supporting infrastructure
$110 billion will go to construction firms with the white house’s stated intention of “improving road conditions.” However, the bill doesn’t specify allocation methods, which would lead speculators to assume that funding will be doled out through bidding, which almost always leads to Black firms being left out of funding.
There are also worries that funding may go to the very same white construction companies responsible for building highways and other economic deterrents through Black communities. Companies like the Sanders Brothers, the Koss construction company, the Boh Brothers (who were also famous anti-Black slumlords), Kiewit Construction Company, and of course Chicago’s very own mob associated Powers and Son Construction Company.
Freight and Railways
Making up nearly $70 billion of the bill’s $1.2 trillion in funding, railways account for the second largest funding measure in President Biden’s infrastructure bill, which again, should be a major worry for Black Americans.
Texas has the Dallas high-speed railway project and it happens to be the nation’s most prominent freight way construction project. However, the project also seeks to exclude Black Americans from benefiting from its usage in any way possible.
The Dallas high-speed railway will run 240 miles from Dallas to Houston and will not stop anywhere in Beaumont County, home to a significant number of Black Texans. The railway will for some reason skip over the Black city of Austin completely, and we’ll all just assume construction in Houston will be far away from Pearlman or Independence Heights which the white supremacist are working on destroying at this very moment.
Dallas is a good example of what firms plan to do nation-wide to Black enclaves once they receive funding from the Biden administration.
Public Transit
Being one of the white supremacists’ earlier methods of discrimination, public transportation carries a particular stench within it that others on this list do not.
Biden’s bill provides 50 billion in funding for public transportation and does nothing to address the “choice riders” vs “dependent riders” issue that legalizes anti-Black discrimination in bussing practices.
Biden’s bill also doesn’t address supplies or equipment disparities between Black areas of operation and non-Black areas.
Water and Wastewater infrastructure
The bill allocates $55 billion in funding for water treatment and replacement of lead pipes.
Obviously, we’ll all be looking to see if any of that funding goes to the Black community in Benton Harbor or Flint, but if the past is any indicator of the future in terms of white house funding initiatives geared toward Black people, look no further than the Obama administration’s 2009 American Recovery and Investment Act which included $6 billion in funding for water and waste projects.
Flint never saw a drop of that funding neither did Cleveland or the Bronx. All are Black cities and much of the cities’ water sources have Ph or toxicity readings that have been found to be undrinkable.
All in all, Black American’s not only didn’t get anything from Biden’s infrastructure bill, but they may turn out to be hurt by it.
Until next time, Be unapologetic
–Kerry Hill, B1Daily
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