Biden’s infrastructure bill teeming with anti-white racism

The infrastructure bill that the Senate passed on Tuesday discriminates against whites at all times.

Americans are excited to spend money on physical infrastructure – bridges, roads, broadband. But this racist bill distributes jobs and contracts and locates projects based on race, not merit. Businesses and minority neighborhoods are on the inside track. If you are white, you do not have priority.

The bill includes grants to install solar or wind technologies and create jobs in areas decimated by the closure of coal mines or coal-fired power plants. Here’s the catch: When contractors bid, the bill says minority-owned businesses will be selected first. Bad news for small white entrepreneurs in disadvantaged areas.

The same goes for the bill’s proposals to improve traffic patterns in cities. Entrepreneurs and subcontractors only have priority if they belong to minorities or women. Caucasian male business owners can take a hike.

Americans should be outraged, but not surprised. After all, Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, passed in March, also established a system of discrimination against whites. He offered debt relief to black farmers, but not to white farmers. Another provision offered billions in aid to minority and female-owned restaurants, but told struggling restaurant owners who happened to be white men that they had to go to the back of the pack.

The injustice was blatant. White farmers and restaurateurs sued, claiming the anti-white provisions were unconstitutional. So far, these challengers are winning. Either way, federal judges have suspended race-based programs in the American Rescue Plan Act until the challengers have their day in court. Politico reported last week that Biden’s Justice Department could step down without a fight in the black farmer debt relief cases because the law is not on the administration’s side.

You’d think Democrats and the White House Biden would get the message. Instead, they are redoubling their efforts to rig the law and distribute taxpayer dollars to benefit minorities and aggrieved whites.

Chances are, the infrastructure bill’s anti-white discrimination mishmash will be overturned in federal courts. In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution’s equal protection clause prohibits the government from trying to equalize the score by discriminating against whites and in favor of minorities. The judges cautioned against creating “a patchwork of racial preferences based on statistical generalizations” to correct past injustices. That is precisely what this infrastructure bill does.

Supporters of the bill would have you believe that obsolete airports, dilapidated public works and deteriorating roads and public spaces are evidence of racial injustice. Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) denounces that “our infrastructure is racist” and calls on Congress to pass a bill that “puts the needs of underserved and disadvantaged communities first”.

This is the code for minority communities. But the truth is that there are also plenty of poor whites in this country, and poor, predominantly white communities who could benefit from a bold federal infrastructure initiative. Race and ethnicity shouldn’t have anything to do with it. Locate projects and invest funds where the economic need is greatest, regardless of race.

West Virginia has the lowest average income in the country and ranks 46th for Internet connectivity. Maine ranks 36th out of 50 states for revenue and 34th for broadband connectivity. The people of these states could really benefit from federal broadband assistance. Here’s the problem: The infrastructure bill skews the scale of subsidies in favor of states with large minority populations and non-English speakers, instead of considering only economic needs and existing broadband capacity. Because Maine and West Virginia are 94% white, they’ll get less.

Polls show Americans prefer to repair roads, bridges, tunnels and airports. They know that good infrastructure promotes economic growth. But they have been kept in the dark about the fine print of the bill. Under the pretext of improving the nation, the bill unfairly treats whites as second-class citizens.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.