President Biden on Tuesday announced several initiatives to reduce racial disparities, including a pledge to boost federal contracts to minority-owned businesses by 50 percent and a rollback of two Trump-era actions that have hamstrung fair housing laws. Mr. Biden, who spoke in Tulsa, Okla., to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the massacre of Black citizens at the hands of a white mob, has aimed many of his recent policy moves at bolstering the Black middle class. His choice of a city whose vibrant business district was decimated by racial violence was seen as a fitting backdrop to emphasize his commitment to erasing the wealth gap between races, a key campaign promise, White House officials said. The announcement “builds on the president’s historic approach to advancing equity and racial justice across the whole of federal government,” Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman for the president, said on Tuesday.

Source: New York Times June 01, 2021 14:03 UTC