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Monitor
The Bailouts Won’t Save Black-Owned Businesses
Small business PPP loans aren’t going to the communities that need them most
In almost every crisis faced in our country’s 243-year history, it has rallied and, usually, come out on the other side as better than before. It’s why, for so long, we collectively believed in the concept of “American exceptionalism.” The idea being that in comparison to much older nations, we are — as the musical Hamilton attested—“young, scrappy, and hungry” and constantly innovating our way into the future. Except, what’s become apparent under the Trump administration’s utter failure to stop the Covid-19 crisis from upending everyday life is that America is only as exceptional as its leadership.
Deficient of the ability to unify a nation built on the false premise of “rugged individualism,” we are quickly devolving into some version of Lord of the Flies.
The virus that was initially seen as a public health crisis has exploded into a full-blown economic catastrophe that has exacerbated race and class tensions. The race for food, tests, and resources — played out sadly in grocery store aisle fights — is a real-life dystopian movie, our own Hunger Games. In just a few weeks, over 20 million Americans have filed for unemployment, and that number will…
