I've recently seen more references to SBA loans being DEI government subsidized financing that excludes white business owners. Have no reference point to compare the program to, but it seems like there's no way a government program could discriminate to the extent it's being portrayed.

As someone with extensive experience in the SBA and lending world, I can not only vouch for this, I can also assure you it’s far worse than you realize

Banks are punished for lending to whites if the loan is under a certain size https://t.co/IzFJZeY3tV

— Bodhi (@silenceyounerd) August 7, 2025

Basically under the SBA 7(A) program there is a specific carveout for minority owned business loans of which foreign nationals qualified for. The only group that didn't qualify was White men.

The SBA 8(A) program which foreign nationals also qualified for set aside government… https://t.co/eou8fm8zR7

— Paul (@WomanDefiner) August 7, 2025

DEI loans via the SBA

- Socially disadvantaged individuals are those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities. pic.twitter.com/H1cBchNn9s

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 7, 2025

BusterAg said:

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When I underwrote SBA 7(a) loans straight out of college in the early 2000's, my loan officer would always encourage young enterprising couples trying to get a start-up loan to make the company 51% owned by the wife, so that it was considered a minority owned business.

We won awards for our close rate through SBA 7(a).

Not sure if white women are still considered a minority to the SBA, but they were in the early part of the century.

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A significant number of small businesses owned by married couples do this. Corporations also have quotas for Historically Underutilized Businesses when they are subcontracting a job. SBA has always been willing to accept that 51/49 split as sufficient for most things.

There's actually an org that certifies women owned and operated businesses and getting that certification is a challenge. I know some corporations prefer that cert because they actually dig into how the company is run to make sure the woman is a key component and not just the 51% owner. I know of a business that got rejected by them because they were run by a husband and wife but the husband had the relevant skill set that was the basis of the company which to them meant he was the key person.

So yes discrimination is alive and well in our government and in corporate America. We've just changed who we discriminate against.

Sba shouldnt even exist. Come on trump doge it.

I knew a fairly successful business majority "owned" by a near homeless alcoholic black man. He was given a crappy place to stay and an occasional bottle of liquor when anything needed signed.

Kozmozag said:

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Sba shouldnt even exist. Come on trump doge it.

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Bad take. If run properly the SBA actually fills a legitimate role in the development of small business. Their loans programs fill a need for businesses trying to grow that lack the collateral and history to secure funding from a bank to get the idea started. Banks don't like to loan against a weak balance sheet and in that situation an SBA guarantee can literally be the difference between the business starting or not.

sam callahan said:

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I knew a fairly successful business majority "owned" by a near homeless alcoholic black man. He was given a crappy place to stay and an occasional bottle of liquor when anything needed signed.

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that's how just about every government contract gets awarded, too. Every consulting company and contractor has a patsy minority or woman that on paper owns 51% of the company. They don't need skills and certainly don't do any of the work. They are only business development on paper for sales purposes

oh no said:

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It's harder for straight white men to get the loan, the job, the promotion, the admissions letter, etc because they're so privileged

/surprised you didn't know that .gif

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This is a fact. I'm not being hateful, I just know it as a stone-cold-straight up fact.

My biz partner and I experienced this when we purchased a business back in 2002 (which I still have). We were literally told by the Wells Fargo bankers processing our stuff for the bank that being white, and also not having a woman in the ownership group was a major hurdle.

Our SBA Rep (Asian) at Wells Fargo went to bat for us HARD, and the business seller was required to front of some of the loan himself (assume risk) - and we got through it.. but honestly, it was a borderline miracle. Years past after we got it and our Wells Fargo banker would go on to leave the SBA, get a major promotion at Wells Fargo and on purpose take on our account as manager because she liked us so much - despite not taking accounts of our type.

She always said that she had to go at her bosses at the SBA extra hard for us because she really believed in us and felt we were a almost-sure-thing success (aka super low risk) and that's why we got it... her constant pushing. She claims they even turned it down multiple times, but kept pushing it. She didn't say that in ego, it was 100% heartfelt truth. Cause that deck was stacked hard. She was always brutally honest with us, through the whole process day one to the months later...

25-ish years later she's now retired, but she's still a good friend to both of us. We hired her son as an apprentice a few years back, and he spent about 2 years with us before moving on to a bigger job.

The truth is, there's a hidden (or maybe not hidden) quota that has to get served for the "Spirit of the Small Business Administration" whether it be women vs men, white vs other races, etc.

Think I'm wrong? Go try to get a GSA business Gov't contract without minority (race/women) ownership. That's just a very open reality.

I've asked before but why hasn't the Supreme Court struck thats crap down yet? It's such a shady game on top of it being outright discrimination.

BusterAg said:

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When I underwrote SBA 7(a) loans straight out of college in the early 2000's, my loan officer would always encourage young enterprising couples trying to get a start-up loan to make the company 51% owned by the wife, so that it was considered a minority owned business.

We won awards for our close rate through SBA 7(a).

Not sure if white women are still considered a minority to the SBA, but they were in the early part of the century.

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Yup. Then wife and I went with the 51% recommendation... and that was 20 years ago.

kubiak03 said:

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I've asked before but why hasn't the Supreme Court struck thats crap down yet? It's such a shady game on top of it being outright discrimination.

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Small businesses don't have time or resources for this kind of silliness and the right leaning civil rights orgs that would fund the lawsuit haven't seen fit to take this on.

If you'd trace this back to its leftist intellectual roots, it is as simple as vengeful spite that can be rationalized as virtuous. It requires an identity group based political perspective where each participant is defined by and judged by the stereotypes of the identity group memberships they are a part of, and the thinly veiled idea is that it is justified in the present for persons to take vengeance on the groups today who are categorized as oppressors in past generations. It has woven itself into progressive political ideology for a few decades now but it was more subtle until the last generation or so, because it could be given a facade of virtue of helping the disadvantaged versus what it later has become: vengeful spite against the universal oppressor categories.

ts5641 said:

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I still think we've barely even scratched the surface of the entrenched racism and corruption of the federal government. This is why They tried to kill Trump and unleashed a virus on the world. He was the greatest threat they've ever faced.

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Its not so much racism against whites. Look at their treatment of Sowell and Thomas.

Their enemies are "keepers of the spirit." They hate Protestant western civilization because it carries intrinsically ideas of God, obedience, discipline, condemnation of sin, and self determination. They are in a religious war fighting for the unnamed Church of Performative Empathy which places them squarely opposed to traditional Americans.

kubiak03 said:

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I've asked before but why hasn't the Supreme Court struck thats crap down yet? It's such a shady game on top of it being outright discrimination.

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Because, in US and A, racism is perfectly acceptable, as long as it's the right kind of racism.

LOYAL AG said:

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Kozmozag said:

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Sba shouldnt even exist. Come on trump doge it.

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Bad take. If run properly the SBA actually fills a legitimate role in the development of small business. Their loans programs fill a need for businesses trying to grow that lack the collateral and history to secure funding from a bank to get the idea started. Banks don't like to loan against a weak balance sheet and in that situation an SBA guarantee can literally be the difference between the business starting or not.

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I don't necessarily disagree with your point but it's another program so easily abused and corrupted that I would prefer it was just ended.

"Run properly" just means the next dem administration will run it badly.

My sincere hope for the Trump administration is less what legislation they can pass and more what they can dismantle.

The minority owned business game has been around since the 90's for sure. Same with college admissions/financial aid.

My family was what I would consider a lower middle class farm family in 93 when I came to A&M. A fair amount of of assets in land and equipment by not many years of profit. We lived in 50 year old modest house (1,800 sq feet) and drove cars for 7 to 10 years before getting a new one. Only thing I was eligible for were about half my student loans to be subsidized. I applied for probably 100 scholarships and the only ones I received were from organizations I was in like 4-H and FFA for $500 each. Even back then the scholarship books my high school councilor had where well over half filled with scholarships I wasn't eligible for because I was a white male.

30 years later and my oldest son is now a college freshman. Good grades, participates in multiple orgs with leadership positions and nada for financial aid and only offered PSA option for A&M admittance. He has a couple of minority friends with similar or worse grades and only sports for their extracurriculars and both were admitted to A&M and are receiving some forms of financial assistance.

I work in the construction industry currently and if I had to guess at least 30%+ of our customers are considered "minority owned". They have a woman or other minority shown as the owner and they now get preferential treatment for all government bids as well as a lot of major corporations that have DEI requirements of their own in regards projects/bids. Decisions are still made by the white guys who took the risks and built the businesses but they play the game because they have to. Everyone knows its a sham but nobody is going to say anything about it and risk getting roasted in the court of public opinion.

It would be untruthful to say I'm not bitter about the double standard but the reality is, I've still been able to be successful. Iff I've done my job right as a father, my two middle class, white sons will be as equally successful in their careers when the time comes. I tell them all the time that life isn't fair but that isn't an excuse not to succeed in your endeavors, you just need to work harder or smarter.

Urban Ag said:

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LOYAL AG said:

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Kozmozag said:

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Sba shouldnt even exist. Come on trump doge it.

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Bad take. If run properly the SBA actually fills a legitimate role in the development of small business. Their loans programs fill a need for businesses trying to grow that lack the collateral and history to secure funding from a bank to get the idea started. Banks don't like to loan against a weak balance sheet and in that situation an SBA guarantee can literally be the difference between the business starting or not.

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I don't necessarily disagree with your point but it's another program so easily abused and corrupted that I would prefer it was just ended.

"Run properly" just means the next dem administration will run it badly.

My sincere hope for the Trump administration is less what legislation they can pass and more what they can dismantle.

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Certainly can't argue. I think this is another in the extremely long list of things that started out as good ideas and has been corrupted by the left for personal and political gain.

Not sure this particular agency enters the crosshairs. My perception is that the future core of the Republican constituency is the middle class and the working class and that's where almost all small business exists. Killing the SBA would be hard for a sizable portion of the new Republican Party. The challenge would be to gut it while keeping the loan guarantee programs that are beneficial to the American economy. Or finding a way to shift the program to the states with some sort of federal backstop in extreme cases like we saw with the Covid era EIDL loans.

The SBA should be abolished as a lending / guarantee source. It should only be an informational and educational department. Wildly distorts the market, is a drain on taxpayer $$, and the risk/return reward is dramatically skewed.

This isn't 1925, just like student loans, the government does NOT need to be involved. Current SBA applicants would find some bank or lender to lend them the $$, and would work harder and put more sweat equity into making it a going concern given it would be a private loan with their name and credit on the line.

Jarrin Jay said:

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The SBA should be abolished as a lending / guarantee source. It should only be an informational and educational department. Wildly distorts the market, is a drain on taxpayer $$, and the risk/return reward is dramatically skewed.

This isn't 1925, just like student loans, the government does NOT need to be involved. Current SBA applicants would find some bank or lender to lend them the $$, and would work harder and put more sweat equity into making it a going concern given it would be a private loan with their name and credit on the line.

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Their name and credit are already on the line. If you default on an SBA guaranteed loan you're getting hammered personally. All an SBA guarantee does is provide collateral to the bank for a business with a weak balance sheet that a bank is unwilling to lend to without that guarantee.

I'm not saying the SBA needs to exist to provide those guarantees just clarifying that they don't absolve the borrower of personal responsibility.