Duval Times

Comm Cap America is closing in on its 12-state “Revitalizing Our American Dreams” (R.O.A.D.S.) bus tour to coincide with the Nov. 3 election.

After hitting Jacksonville on Oct. 28, the tour's final stops are scheduled over the next two days in Miami and Atlanta. The Unite 2 Fight 4 Economic Rights-themed campaign is being shepherded by march/protest organizer Kareem D. Lanier, chairman and CEO of Unite 2 Fight.

“Black, Latino and minority America is currently facing our greatest economic challenges in the history of this country,” organizers said in a press release highlighting that Black America has recently lost 41% of black-owned businesses while losses for Latino America stand at 32%.

Moving forward, a Goldman Sachs study predicts the losses for Black America could climb to as high as 43% “if they do not get access to capital, primarily short-term via SBA [and] PPP” funding.

Complicating matters all the more, even with minorities making up 40% of the population, statistics show that of the 5,200 FDIC-insured banks across the country holding in the neighborhood of $20 trillion in aggregate assets, only 144 are minority-owned with just $250 billion in aggregate assets.

“This is during a time in which Black spending power is at an all-time high,” organizers said in the release, pointing to Black Americans now pumping some $1.3 trillion into the annual economy.

Organizers point out the lack of available resources has come at a high cost.

“A historic lack of access to capital has led to historically high crime rates in minority communities,” the release added. “When you lack choices within your community, you take chances within your community.”

That may also account for the lure of socialism now perhaps being on the rise, it said.

“Socialism is incredibly attractive when you do not have access to capital,” organizers stated. “Socialism is gaining in attractiveness due to the historic trend where minority communities lack access to capital to take advantage of traditional capitalistic opportunities. Lack of access to capital is creating a new breed of socialist-driven legislation, civil unrest and dangerous extreme un-American ideology.”

Some, like Lanier, point out that many of the shortcomings minorities now face are addressed in President Donald Trump’s Platinum Plan for Black America over the next four years.

Finally, the tour is also designed to promote racial harmony, with every “race, color and culture in every city” expected to be strongly represented.