A basic income program in Georgia is giving Black women $850 a month to help them reduce debt.
Participants say the Atlanta-based program allowed them to pay their debts and gain financial security.
The program, which launched in 2022, provides payments of $850 a month to 650 women over two years. Black women must be low-income and single mothers to qualify.
C. Harper, one of the recipients, told Georgia Public Radio that she was struggling to pay her rent when she qualified for the program in 2022. After joining, she said she found permanent housing for herself and her children and used the money to help get a teaching certificate.
“The end result was I was able to get a better job,” Harper said.
But commenters on an Atlanta message board say the program is discriminatory.
One person wrote: “This looks like black privilege to me. Did the low income whites and hispanics of Georgia not qualify? [sic]”
Another person wrote: “Sounds like racial discrimination to me. Might be sexual discrimination too. Why wouldn’t young white women or Asian women qualify for the program?”
A third person wrote: “They state that black women earn less than black men – but are completely open to funding trans woman.”
