A new “equity” initiative in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) aims to declare more black people to be mentally disabled.
Black veterans currently receive disability payments for mental health conditions at nearly twice the rate of whites. But the Biden administration’s Equity Assessment and Action Steps for Mental Health Compensation Benefits, released Wednesday, said that to attain “equity,” that number needs to be even higher.
“A higher percentage of Black Veterans currently receive disability compensation benefits than white Veterans for mental health conditions (21.7% vs. 12.7%),” the assessment said. “On average, Black Veterans also apply for disability compensation at higher rates and receive slightly higher disability ratings from VA than white Veterans. However, Black Veterans have lower grant rates than white Veterans for mental health conditions (70.3% vs. 76.0%). … In response to these new findings, VA will [be] taking immediate and aggressive action to eliminate this gap and ensure that Black Veterans get the benefits they deserve.”
The justification uses a tortured logic in which, although there is a large discrepancy in blacks’ favor when it comes to actually being granted government disability checks, the Biden administration sliced the numbers until they found a secondary metric in which blacks were slightly behind: The percentage who apply for disability but are deemed ineligible.
