Selling Black People on The Infrastructure Act ... as It Goes State & Local
Communities must guard against the defeatist notion that they'll get nothing out of it .... but, everyone must play an intense messaging game as those dollars circulate to states & cities
Publisher’s Riff
As President Biden signed the infrastructure bill into law on Monday, it struck us as odd that White House administration officials and Democratic lawmakers were all crowded up around the South Lawn celebrating its final passage. Why? Because most of the American public still doesn't know what's in this bill and most folks - especially Black communities hit hardest by infrastructure failures, historical redlining and environmental injustice - have no idea how this benefits them directly.
What administration officials and Democratic policymakers on the state, local and federal level should have done, instead, is be on the trail. Bad enough this week’s news cycle is overcrowded with media obsession over all things Trump, including the legal troubles of his cronies. Hence, as Biden officially signed the Act with pen in hand, state, local and federal Democratic policymakers should have been - simultaneously - back in their districts or on the phone or Zoom or all of the above talking to every constituent group and local media outlet they could secure to explain 1) how these dollars benefit their communities and 2) how now is the time for constituents and residents to put pressure on their state legislators and local to county level officials to monitor the flow of these dollars and make sure they are channeled into distressed communities that need them the most.
While, yes, some decisions have been made about how this massive $1.2 trillion investment will be spent, much of the money at the moment is segmented into buckets of priorities that will now trickle into very intricate processes determined by state and local lawmakers in countless jurisdictions. We need to follow that money.
Yet, the conversation in Black communities on this infrastructure law right now is: What does this have to do with me? Added to that is: We elected President Biden and nothing is in this bill for us, all the money is going to White folks and their businesses, Black businesses and contractors won't be seeing this money and there will be very few Black people seen on construction projects. That's, literally, the conversation unfolding in Black communities right now on the grassroots level as Democrats are celebrating in the White House and sharing selfies with fellow lawmakers on social media as they took bus trips from Capitol Hill to the signing ceremony.
They need to get serious and hit the ground running because as far as their Black constituents are concerned, this law and its money are dead on arrival.
That's a failure in both messaging and civics. The messaging is still unclear about what exactly these dollars are being allocated for that could directly benefit these communities. The civics has failed because many in distressed, disenfranchised and jaded Black communities don't know or understand that the real work starts where they - as constituents and residents in their jurisdictions - now need to 1) know how much money is coming to their state, city and county and 2) put serious and aggressive pressure on their state and local elected officials to make sure that those dollars are being funneled equitably through grants and the contracting and procurement process. No: not every cent of the money will go "to the White folks" .... but, it certainly will if we're throwing our hands up and failing to track it and making sure our elected officials are fighting for our interests to ensure the money arrives in our neighborhoods.
It will be extremely important for residents to start calling, letter writing and, literally, bugging their elected officials about this. The Congressional Black Caucus should have already telegraphed this to their colleagues on the state and local level. Key organizations like the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (which is busy promoting yet another Annual Meeting) have yet to put out a statement or a plan for how it’s deploying its Members (nearly 700 Black state legislators, many who lead committees) to identify those dollars. Neither did the African American Mayors Association. Instead, it’s all platitudes and photo-ops ….
We need comprehensive plans.
So-called activists must start being aggressive advocates for these dollars by organizing the community and speaking on their behalf. We need everyone from Black churches to community groups to the local branches of major organizations like the NAACP, the National Action Network and the National Urban League to be put on notice that we need them to do this work and to hound elected leaders for these dollars. Organizations like the Urban League which focus on economic development need to activate their chapters to provide 1) advocacy for local infrastructure dollars and 2) technical assistance to Black businesses and non-profits on how they can secure that money for community projects. The race begins now ... and Black elected officials, along with Democratic leaders and President Biden need to seriously do the follow up if they want to energize these important base communities in 2022. This is not business as usual. These are dangerous, uncertain times plagued by an open-season surge of racism, pandemic and inflationary pressures. Do what you were elected to do: Follow up and step up.