NEW YORK _ Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is taking to the site of historic race riots in Tulsa, Okla., on Martin Luther King Jr., Day weekend to propose sweeping plans to redress the economic legacy of generations of discrimination against African Americans.
In an initiative similar to calls for reparations for slavery, the Democratic presidential candidate is proposing $70 billion in investment in the country's "100 most disadvantaged neighborhoods," along with steps to create 1 million new black homeowners and 100,000 new black-owned businesses.
Sunday's speech comes as Bloomberg has sought to stem criticism of his handling of "stop-and-frisk," the police tactic that disproportionately targeted people of color while he was mayor of New York City and an issue that remains one of his biggest liabilities among Dems.
"The exploitation worked exactly as it was designed to _ slavery, sharecropping, Jim Crow, segregation and redlining," Bloomberg was to say, according to a copy of his speech. "For hundreds of years, America systematically stole black lives, black freedom and black labor.
"Well, it's past time to say enough _ and to damn well do something about it."
Bloomberg is speaking at the site of the Black Wall Street Massacre, the 1921 riots in which white mobs destroyed a thriving Tulsa business district, killing about 300 people. The candidate was to begin by admitting he'd been ignorant of the incident _ exclaiming "How is it possible that high schools and colleges don't teach this?" _ and threaded his speech with mentions of Dr. King and the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision in 1857 that argued slaves were not citizens and could not sue for their freedom.
In Bloomberg's plan, the feds would identify the 100 most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country, then spend five years "to tackle the neighborhood conditions that perpetuate poverty and exclude the historically disadvantaged from growth and opportunity." A new Neighborhood Equity and Opportunity Office inside the White House would oversee the program.
Bloomberg is promising to utilize the same data-driven approach he brought to New York to tackle the economic effects of discrimination.
"If there is one data point that begins to capture the enormity of the legacy that has been handed down to black Americans, it is this: Today, the typical black family in America owns one-tenth the wealth of the typical white family," said the billionaire founder of Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg says his administration would create 1 million new black homeowners by providing down-payment assistance, getting millions recognized by credit scoring companies, enforcing fair lending laws and other steps.
In passing, he also takes a dig at President Trump, noting that his real estate business was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to comply with the Fair Housing Act.
Bloomberg promises to create a $10 billion Housing Fairness Commission to work with local governments and nonprofit groups to test policies "aimed at reversing the effects of discrimination and expanding programs that work."
On the entrepreneurial front, Bloomberg is calling for doubling the number of black-owned businesses nationwide from its current level, which he put at 100,000. Proposals toward that end include expanding business incubators, providing "incentives for private investors to focus on underrepresented groups" and increasing federal deposits in black-owned banks.
Bloomberg doesn't say the word "reparations" in the copy of his speech obtained by the Daily News. But his proposals evoked calls for compensation for the descendants of enslaved people who face discrimination to this day.
No current Democratic presidential candidate supports reparations, according to an August analysis by Politico. Leading contenders including former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigeig and Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have called for merely studying the matter.
Bloomberg's November apology for stop-and-frisk drew criticism from New Yorkers, with some accusing the former mayor of saying too little, too late.
But in a Democratic primary in which all the top candidates are white, Bloomberg on Sunday appears to be trying to make himself the leader on issues of importance to African Americans.
"The crimes against black Americans still echo across the centuries, and no law can wipe that slate clean. Not here in Tulsa, or anywhere else," Bloomberg was to say. "But I believe that this is a country where anything is possible. And I believe that we have the power to build a future where color and capital are no longer related."
