Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he begin to will restore the dollars stolen from black Americans through generations.

Buttigieg said, “The reason we’re seeing racial inequity in this country is it was put into place on purpose. And I’m not just talking about slavery beginning 400 years ago. I’m talking about policy decisions within living memory, excluding black Americans from fully accessing the GI bill to labor protections. These have consequences.”

He continued, “There is a much bigger picture here, and it has to do with inheritance and the wealth gap and the fact if you are black in this country as a consequence of systemic racism, you start out with less. In the same way that if you save a dollar, it compounds over the years and becomes more and more. Same is true of a dollar stolen. And that has happened to black Americans through generations. It is why I’ve proposed a Douglas Plan as ambitious as the Marshal Plan that rebuilt Europe, but this time we have to invest right here in America. Criminal justice reform is important, but that is not all there is to the black experience in this country.”

He added, “We have to be lifting up black entrepreneurs, making sure that federal taxes spending and I propose a 25% target is going to businesses owned by those who have been systematically disadvantaged in the past and investing in HCBU’s that are training what could be the new class of black millionaires and of black middle class of professionals in education, law enforcement, medicine,” Buttigieg added. “We need systemic answers to deal with this issue, and we need to confront the legacy of discrimination.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN