For more than a generation, Black Americans have been held back by many of the big government policies and programs created to assist them. Although this phenomenon is not exclusively happening to Black Americans, it has disproportionately affected their ability to live out the American Dream.
Project 21, an organization aimed at ensuring that Blacks who are conservative or centrist can have their views promoted in the media and within American society, has released an updated “Blueprint for a Better Deal for Black America.” This document is a declaration calling for the end of the harmful left-wing policies of the past and offers hope for a prosperous future — one that works to let Blacks attain the American Dream without limiting the abilities of the rest of America to achieve that same goal.
A powerful quote in the document says that government assistance is supposed to be a “hand up, not a handout.” This embodies the message of the blueprint perfectly. Black America can and should be in the driver’s seat determining their own destiny.
After winning the Democratic primary in 2020, largely because of the Black vote, Joe Biden, once in office, has made things worse. Under his watch, rampant crime, inflation and stifling regulations have become obstacles that disproportionately impact Black America’s well-being. The situation has exposed a truth that conservatives have been saying for decades: The road to a more prosperous Black America does not pass through Washington’s bureaucracy and big government schemes.
Instead, building on the principles that have made America a “city on a hill,” the Blueprint offers 56 policy recommendations that will promote prosperity in Black America — notably, without harming other races.
It offers a powerful critique against critical race theory (CRT), the “Defund the Police” movement, and other so-called “equity” programs, while proposing commonsense solutions on criminal justice, excessive regulation and subpar education offerings in low-income communities, among other things.
But the Blueprint’s goal is solutions, not merely criticisms. Offering innovative policies to lower the costs for college, encourage greater educational attainment for urban youth, and end the crime epidemic, the plan is far-reaching in scope.
The Blueprint uses history and data to support each of its policy proposals. For example, when discussing its push for expanded work requirements for federal aid programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the authors show how the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program achieved a 56 percent decline in caseload once an employment requirement was put in place with the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
The Blueprint is as comprehensive as it is bold. Take abortion. It is no secret that Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger desired to use abortion as a eugenics tool. The Blueprint explains that over 19 million Black babies have been aborted. Had those babies been born, the Black population in America would be double what it is today. That staggering level of lost lives isn’t the only consequence of Sanger’s vision; it also represents a huge setback for the political impact of Black America. Blacks in less than a generation are no longer the largest minority in America. In California, they aren’t even the second largest minority. The Blueprint urges policymakers to reverse policies that encourage the loss of life and the related reduction of political impact.
One of the more provocative topics that Project 21 tackles in the document is their recommendation to end the move to legalize marijuana. Even some conservatives have embraced this terrible idea. The Blueprint provides a compelling argument that legalizing marijuana nationwide would actually result in greater education losses, negatively impact wealth attainment and reduce job skills in the Black community.
The Blueprint urges Washington to reverse the harmful anti-energy policies pushed by Biden and the environmentalists. A revitalized push to expand fracking and oil exploration will help Black household budgets that have been hard hit by the so-called “environmental justice” agenda.
This document lays out a roadmap for true Black empowerment — one of growth and hope, and one that doesn’t rely on the old zero-sum game of forcing other groups to sacrifice. It is a must read for Washington policymakers.
Horace Cooper is a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board and a legal commentator. Follow him on Twitter @HoraceCooper21.