Add your name: The racial wealth gap is holding back our economy and choking off entrepreneurship.

If you work hard and have a good idea, you should be able to start a small business and build something solid for you and your family.

But let’s face it: Not every entrepreneur starts out with an equal chance at success.

Decades of government policy helped create a racial wealth gap. That means the playing field is tilted against entrepreneurs of color — they don’t have as much money to put into their businesses to get them going.

Just look at this stat: On average, Black entrepreneurs start a business with $35,000 in capital. That’s a third of the startup capital for the typical white entrepreneur.

If everyone started off on the same footing, we’d have more small businesses opening their doors — and keeping them open — across the country, creating millions of new jobs and billions of dollars of economic growth.

That’s why I have a new plan: a Small Business Equity Fund to help close the startup capital gap for entrepreneurs of color.

But we can only get it done if we build a grassroots movement for it. Add your name to support our new plan.

Because this new plan is part of our economic patriotism agenda  — to use all the tools of government to defend and create good American jobs  —  this new program will be run by the new Department of Economic Development.

We’ll provide entrepreneurs with $7 billion of grants — no strings attached that would leave businesses with debt when they’re trying to grow.

Why $7 billion? That’s enough to ensure that if Black, Latinx, and Native American entrepreneurs start businesses at the same rate as white entrepreneurs, we could fully close the startup capital gap for the next ten years — supporting over 100,000 new businesses and 1.1 million new jobs.

But we also need to tackle more of the systemic issues tilting the playing field against entrepreneurs of color.

Eighty-six percent of venture capitalists are white, and studies show that investors are more likely to partner with entrepreneurs who look like them. So I’ll direct all federal pension and retirement funds to seek out a more diverse set of investment managers, require states and cities administering the new Fund to work with diverse investment managers, and triple the budget of the Minority Business Development Agency.

Wondering how we’ll pay for all this? I’ve got a plan for that: It’s fully covered by the Ultra-Millionaire Tax, which is just  two cents on every dollar of wealth above $50 million.

Our new plan embraces the fundamental truth that we can never achieve racial justice without economic justice.

Government helped create the entrepreneurship gap, and government has an obligation to help solve it — with bold policies that tackle the problem head on.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to fight for the American dream — to build something real and build a brighter future for themselves and their loved ones.

Add your name if you agree. We’ve all got to be in this fight, side by side in a grassroots movement, to make government work for everyone — not just the rich and powerful.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth