BVN Staff
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!With Election Day just weeks away, Vice President Kamala Harris is taking a deliberate step to engage Black male voters with the unveiling of her Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.
The Opportunity Agenda for Black Men lays out a list of proposals targeted at supporting Black men and equipping them with “the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights.” The list includes plans to provide one million loans to Black entrepreneurs, expanding pathways to leadership and well-paying jobs, investing in grant programs and legalizing marijuana nationally.
Harris’ agenda aims to address longstanding concerns and roadblocks that have impacted Black men, of which she heard firsthand from Black men while traveling to Atlanta, Detroit and Charlotte during a listening tour.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted between Aug, 26 and Sept. 2, 81% of Black men who are registered to vote said the economy was a very important issue in making their decision about who to vote for in the 2024 presidential election.
Harris’s proposals detail different ways to support Black men succeed in her “opportunity economy” by developing the National Health Equity Initiative that will focus on health concerns like sickle cell disease, diabetes and prostate cancer, all of which impact Black communities and men at a disparate rate. According to the National Cancer Society, Black men in the U.S. have among the highest documented prostate cancer incidence rates in the world and are over twice as likely to die from prostate cancer. They are also more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage compared to white men.
This push to engage Black male voters is part of a larger Harris-Walz campaign strategy to attract different voting blocs. The strategy includes the launch of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Homecoming Tour weeks ago in which trusted advisers and local leaders joined and hosted events across colleges to encourage students, alumni and communities to vote.