Kamala Harris Misleads People with COVID-19 Business Loans

Kamala Harris made misleading statements on coronavirus business loans during a campaign in Michigan.

On Tuesday, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris made false claims about the supposed disparities in COVID-19 relief funds to Black restaurants while campaigning in Michigan, as per the report.

According to The Detroit News report, Harris claimed while visiting Flint and Michigan, out of hundreds of restaurants in Michigan that had the relief funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), only one is a Black-owned restaurant. Meanwhile, the PPP has been criticized for treating minority-owned businesses, Kamala's claim does not account for the full picture.

Harris told a WDIV reporter, "Joe Biden and I (Harris) feel very strongly that you have to speak the truth, you cannot deny the fact and where there are disparities, they need to be addressed."

According to U.S. Small Business Administration data, in Michigan, almost 800 full-service restaurants received at least $150,000 in loans through PPP. Among those, a total of one restaurant reportedly have Black or African American owners, while more than 600 did not indicate their race or ethnicity.

Meanwhile, full-service restaurants are classified other than fast food and carryout restaurants. Two carryout restaurants and fast-food restaurants are Black-owned in Michigan that received PPP loans of more than $150,000. On the other hand, twenty-sox Black-owned restaurants in Michigan received less than $150,000 of PPP loans, according to federal data.

Harris' claims are on the ground, and they speak to a larger point that black and minority communities borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign justified. Ben Halle told The Detroit News, "Senator Harris is making the important point that during the coronavirus, Black communities and small businesses have been disproportionately impacted, including Black people dying at two times the rate."

Fox News' source cited the Small Business Administration data indicating that about 75% of all PPP loans don't include any demographic information during the loan application. Harris' claim is based on a small portion of data and does not tell the whole story, while there is evidence of racial disparities among PPP loan recipients.

Michigan has 792 full-service restaurants that received at least $150,000 in loans through PPP. However, 617 of the full-service restaurants did not answer the owner's race or ethnicity. Besides, most of the demographic information regarding owners remains unclear as 81% of the more than 6,700 restaurants in Michigan that received PPP loans did not clarify the race or ethnicity identification.

In July, The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an organization that works to promote investment in underserved communities, said that the federal government's data was "so flawed it is virtually useless to assess if there was any bias to how the money was distributed or how much money went to a particular community."

While PPP loans were available to see if there were differences in their treatment, the coalition sent "matched pairs" Black and White individuals into banks. The analysis revealed that in out of 63 tests, 27 had differences in treatment, with the white tester receiving a much favorable treatment compared with the black tester.

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