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- The White House has announced new plans to narrow the racial wealth gap.
- The plan aims help small businesses access federal contracts and address housing discrimination and
- Biden announced the new measures on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday announced new measures designed to narrow the racial wealth gap and build wealth in Black communities.
The plan would help combat discrimination in the housing market, and grow the number of federal contracts given to small, disadvantaged businesses by 50% over the next five years – an extra $100 billion in contracts, according to the White House press release.
The Biden-Harris administration unveiled the new measures on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, when an estimated 300 Black Americans living in Greenwood, Tulsa – also known as the "Black Wall Street" – were killed by a white-supremacist mob.
"Because disparities in wealth compound like an interest rate," the statement said, "the disinvestment in Black families in Tulsa and across the country throughout our history is still felt sharply today."
Homeownership is a key part of Biden's plan to build wealth in Black communities. The statement cited a 2018 Brookings study that found houses in majority Black neighborhoods were often valued at tens of thousands of dollars less than similar homes in majority-white areas.
The White House said that a cross-government effort would potentially enforce existing fair housing laws, and develop new guidance with industry "to root out discrimination in the appraisal and homebuying process."
The White House statement also included more detail on programs in Biden's American Jobs Plan to build wealth in communities of color. The measures include a new $10 billion Community Revitalization Fund to pay for community-led civic infrastructure projects that aim to "spark new local economic activity."
