00:00I'm Tanya Christian, News and Politics Editor at Essence Magazine.
00:04Recently, I, along with News and Politics Director Ayesha Callahan,
00:07sat down with a number of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
00:12When we spoke to them, we asked,
00:13what message would you like to send to black women voters?
00:16Kamala Harris is a senator from California.
00:19The Howard University grad also served as the district attorney of San Francisco,
00:23as well as the attorney general of California.
00:26What message do you want to send to black women voters?
00:30That the power is in your hands.
00:32The power is in your hands.
00:35You know, black women, well, we've already known it, right?
00:38We knew it, but I think that the world understood the power
00:42most recently with that election, the Senate election in Alabama.
00:48And so let's just keep doing what we do.
00:53You know, it is about a group of women who are always informed,
01:00because we have so much at stake, right?
01:04And it's also about just an expression of voice.
01:10And it is such a powerful and strong voice, the voice of black women.
01:14And it needs to be heard.
01:16And so what I want to do with everything I've got is encourage ownership of that power,
01:24because it is real.
01:25And it can and does determine the outcome.
01:29Like, we don't have time to sit back and wait for somebody else to give us the lead.
01:34We take the lead, right?
01:35Yes.
01:36Now, what three issues do you think are most important heading into the 2020 election?
01:42I think that one of the most important issues is the economy and lifting up working families
01:51and fortifying the health, the economic health and well-being of families.
01:58And so I am proposing, for example, in this election and intend to put in place as president
02:04what would be the most significant middle-class tax cut we've had in generations.
02:10And specifically for families that make less than $100,000 a year,
02:14they'll receive a tax credit that they'll take home at up to $500 a month,
02:20which is all the difference between a family being able to get through the end of the month
02:23of dignity or not, especially because right now in America, almost half of our families
02:28are a $400 unexpected expense away from complete upheaval.
02:33So that's one.
02:34The other is I am proposing what I call the Rent Relief Act.
02:38So for people who are paying more than 30% of their income in rent plus utilities,
02:44they'll get a tax credit.
02:45The other thing is about women and equal pay.
02:49Women are still in this country not paid equal to men for the same work.
02:55Women on average are paid $0.80 on the dollar.
02:58Black women are paid $0.61 on the dollar.
03:00Native American women $0.58.
03:02Latinas $0.53.
03:04And I'm kind of done with that conversation,
03:06meaning we don't need to debate whether women are paid equally as men for the same work
03:12because it's just not a debatable point.
03:13They're not.
03:15So what are we going to do about it?
03:16So what I'm saying is that I'm going to shift the responsibility from that working woman
03:22to prove she's not being paid equally to shift that to the corporations
03:27to prove they are paying people equally.
03:30And if they fail to pay people equally, they're going to have to pay a fine
03:33that will be a percentage of their profits from the year before.
03:37That'll get their attention.
03:38So it's the economy.
03:42It's health care.
03:44That's a big issue.
03:44I am a leader in the United States Senate on what we need to do to deal with black maternal mortality.
03:51Black women in America die at three to four times the rate in child-related,
03:57in childbirth-related illness.
04:00Can you speak to how your proposed plans or policies will affect underserved communities of color?
04:06Yes.
04:07So when, for example, we talk about the LIFT Act, it will, which is the one of giving families
04:15who are making less than $100,000 of tax credit of up to $500 a month,
04:19that will impact 60% of black households in America, 60%.
04:25I have a proposal that is about, that I just shared at Essence Festival
04:33and rolled out for the first time at the festival,
04:37that is about what we're going to do around helping black families actually own homes
04:43and homeownership because, as we know, historically with redlining,
04:48even after the boom from World War II, all these families got these benefits,
04:54but not black families, not black service members and veterans.
04:58And homeownership is one of the greatest sources of wealth in America,
05:03and it is a source of wealth that black families have been excluded from in many ways.
05:09So what I am proposing is putting in place a $100 billion federal investment
05:15in helping black families gain homeownership,
05:19and that will be about targeting, for example, families that live in federally subsidized housing
05:24and what we can do to help them transition into homeownership around down payments
05:31and around how they qualify for loans.
05:33Another part of my vision and proposal is that we change how we keep credit scores.
05:41So right now, when people are scored for whether they're financially responsible,
05:46called a credit score, it doesn't take into account that people pay their phone bill on time
05:51or that they're paying their rent on time or they're paying their utilities on time.
05:57And so people aren't given credit for very good financial responsibility and health.
06:02So I plan on changing that so that that kind of financial behavior is taken into account
06:08when we talk about people's credit scores.
06:11Why?
06:11Because credit scores will determine your eligibility to get a homeowner loan.
06:17It will determine your eligibility to get all kinds of financial benefits.
06:22So all of that is structured around what we need to do to really right what is wrong.
06:27And it's just about simple fairness.
06:31When you look at the fact that today in America, black families have $10 of wealth
06:39as compared to $100 for other families.
06:42And when we know and look at historically how we got to this place,
06:46we know we need to right what is wrong.
06:48The other part of my real area of focus is helping entrepreneurs.
06:55Black women as entrepreneurs, I think there's some number I saw, the fastest growing, right?
07:03I mean, and it's everything from beauty salons to child daycare centers to clothing stores,
07:10to all kinds of things.
07:11And so what we can do to encourage the entrepreneurship, and that's going to be about access to capital.
07:19So that's going to be about how I run the Small Business Administration around access to capital
07:25and creating incentives for access to capital for folks who are starting their businesses.
07:33And it's going to be about financial literacy, which is something we still have a lot of work to do.
07:38You know, I was Attorney General of California during the housing crisis that started around 2017.
07:47And we nationally had more black families lose their home because of the predatory lending practices
07:55and those, you know, reverse mortgages and those predatory loans.
08:00And I took them on.
08:02I actually took on the five big banks of the United States.
08:05And it ended up getting $20 billion back for California homeowners.
08:11But in California and across the country, the folks who were most devastated were black families
08:17who lost their homes, which was, again, their main source of asset and wealth.
08:23One of the things I realized in doing that work is that we still have so much more to do
08:29to help people understand the financial transactions they're getting into
08:34and what it really means for them.
08:37And that's financial literacy, helping people understand if you pay that credit card off
08:41at the end of each month, this is where you'll be financially.
08:45And if you don't, this is where you'll be financially.
08:48So there's still a lot of work to do there.
08:51And I intend to really put resources into that as well.
08:54Well, thank you for coming.
08:56You're speaking to us.
08:57It's been great.
08:58And I just, I cannot thank Essence enough for the voice, for the leadership, for the inspiration.
09:03It's so important.
09:04We appreciate it.
09:05We always love to hear that.
09:06It's true.
09:07It's true.
09:07Thanks to all the candidates for taking the time to speak with us.
09:11I'm Tanya Christian, and thank you for watching.
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