Buttigieg’s anti- racism plan unveiled

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg rolled out an ambitious policy plan Thursday to “dismantle racist structures and systems” in the U. S., proposing changes to the country’s health, education and criminal justice systems that he hoped would amount to “a comprehensive investment in the empowerment of black America.”

Dubbed the Douglass Plan, after the abolitionist and activist Frederick Douglass, the plan is similar to what Mr. Buttigieg first outlined a month ago in an op- ed for the Charleston Chronicle in South Carolina. The fuller announcement comes as the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate continues to try to make inroads with African American voters.

“We have lived in the shadow of systemic racism for too long,” Mr. Buttigieg said in a statement.

The 18- page plan includes proposals to establish health equity programs; to award a quarter of all government contracts to minority business owners; to reduce the incarceration rate by half at both the federal and state levels; and to “massively increase federal resources” for Title I schools.

Some of his proposals — such as increasing federal resources by $ 25 billion for historically black colleges and universities and other minority institutions; issuing new regulations to diversify the teaching profession; and setting a goal to triple the number of black entrepreneurs within a decade — are targeted at minorities.

Other aspects of the plan, such as doing away with the electoral college and replacing it with a national popular vote, are ideas Mr. Buttigieg already had been touting to general audiences on the campaign trail.