Black Businesses Cheated in First PPP loans says U-M Researcher

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The first iteration of the federal Paycheck Protection Program was by most accounts a success in helping small businesses survive in a pandemic, despite some high-profile stumbles. But as the money was released last spring, data showed that Black-owned businesses were closing at higher rates than white-owned businesses.

Felix Kabo, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, was among a team of researchers that recently published findings that may help explain why.

The study showed non-Black business owners were 30 times more likely to share in the PPP funding than their Black counterparts.

Roughly 0.3 percent of Black business owners reported receiving government benefits for businesses affected by the pandemic, compared with about 9 percent of non-Black business owners.

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