The Biden Administration has Given up on Black America and Our Dreams
By Alveda King, Jack Brewer, and Kenneth Blackwell in Fox News
Biden has not pursued the sort of policies that lift Black Americans to self-sufficiency and independence.
President Joe Biden has a long history of making it clear that his goal is to cynically use racially divisive identity politics to capture the Black vote. That was clear when he ran for president in 2020 and long before. He would rather be cynical than promise real solutions to the problems facing Black communities.
It’s no surprise that since becoming president, Biden has not pursued the sort of policies that lift Black Americans to self-sufficiency and independence. Instead, President Biden has continued to give up on the Black community and further abandoned us—and his recent smoking kits for "racial equity" initiative is just the latest example in the long list of insults.
Last week, it was revealed that President Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services has slated $30 million in taxpayer funding for the dispersal of "safe smoking kits" and other drug paraphernalia.
The irony, of course, is that Joe Biden played a major role in crafting the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which resulted in the criminalization and sentences 100 times greater for offenders in possession of crack cocaine compared to similar amounts of powder cocaine.
Now, the Biden administration has done a complete reversal by pledging taxpayer dollars for "safe" drug use—all while substance abuse and drug addiction continue to rip apart the fabric of American society, tear families apart, empower violence and criminality, and take innocent lives.
These policies are particularly disheartening because they accept the premise that American decline and dysfunction in the Black community, in large part due to broken families and failures of fatherhood, is something to be managed rather than something to be beaten back and conquered.
Today, drug abuse is running rampant throughout all segments of American society, and it results in the yearly deaths of over 100,000 Americans. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, and ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns, overdose deaths have increased by 28.5%.
Due to this exploding drug crisis, millions of Americans have seen the pain of addiction firsthand. They’ve seen their children, their brothers, their sisters, their family, and their friends consumed by addiction’s hopelessness, its scourge, its destruction. They see the people they love, people who are destined for greatness as children of God, and they see the debilitating effects of drug use in preventing them from fulfilling their true potential.
Those who have been affected by drug addiction know that the road to recovery is difficult. Even the strongest among us can be shackled to substance abuse. Those who have beaten addiction know that they could not have done it on their own. The road to recovery is a long one. These fellow Americans need love, they need support, they need help.
The last thing they need is a "safe smoking kit." But that’s exactly what Biden and his fellow Democrats want to give them.
The Christian understanding of "love" is willing the good of another person for that person’s own sake. Sometimes, this love looks like warmth and affirmation. But in many cases, love looks like a firm hand of guidance in the right direction.
When those affected by the devastating effects of drug addiction think of their friends, their loved ones, the people they care about and for whom their heart breaks — is the man handing them a "safe smoking kit" truly their friend? Or is he their worst enemy?
Is he leading them down the path to redemption, or destruction? Is he turning their eyes towards the dirt, or the heavens? Is he leading them to new life, or to destruction?
Is he showing them true love—a love that guides them to the best that they can be?
Everyone—particularly those afflicted by addiction—knows the answer.
A loser, a defeatist, a pessimist looks at an addict and feeds the addiction. A winner, an optimist—an American—sees a child of God in need who deserves that helping hand of loving guidance, all the way from womb to tomb.
Joe Biden’s attempt at a racial equity program is an insult to those who are suffering. This is the worst way to go about "helping" America’s underserved communities.
As Americans, we cannot forget the true victims of the Biden mindset: the countless voiceless individuals who will continue to suffer from drug addiction.
Each individual is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore everyone deserves to live a life of dignity, self-sufficiency, and independence. There is only one race—the human race. We all share one blood on the inside.
As conservatives, we know that empowering people in their addiction isn’t true love or true compassion.
President Biden, as concerned Black Americans, hear us when we say, we don’t need your safe smoking kits, we need help to dream again.
Dr. Alveda King serves as Chair, Center for the American Dream for the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). Jack Brewer serves as Chair, Center for Opportunity Now and Vice-Chair, Center for 1776 for the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). Kenneth Blackwell serves as Chair, Center for Election Integrity for the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).