Biden Needs to Make Closing the Racial Wealth Divide a Priority on Day One President-elect Joe Biden speaks as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris looks on during day two of laying out his plan on combating the coronavirus at the Queen theater January 15, 2021, in Wilmington, Delaware. Alex Wong / Getty Images Twelve years ago, the inauguration of America’s first Black president had many Americans believing that a future free of racial discrimination and inequality was finally within reach. This year, as Obama’s former vice president Joe Biden takes office amid a surge in far-right violence, it’s clear we have a long way to go — not just to build a safer country for all of us, but to close the vast racial wealth divide.