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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 29, 2012)
Opinion ‘State of Black America’ Town Hall “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Page 4 The Portland Skanner “T o demonstrate that this Congress is both morally and fiscally responsible, the time to act on job creation is now.” – Members of the Congressional Black Caucus Mark your calendars. Wednes- day, March 7 is the date for one of the most important pre-election events of the year – the release of the National Urban League’s 2012 State of Black America Report. We are urging everyone who can to join us at 7 pm EST on March 7 for our State of Black America free town hall at Howard Universi- ty in Washington, DC. If you can’t be there in person, you can view the LIVE WEBCAST at www.iamempowered.com. You can also be a part of the national conversation on Facebook and Twitter (#SOBA 12, #Occu- pyTheVote). This year’s State of Black Amer- ica report and town hall will launch a year-long campaign, “Occupy the Vote to Educate, Employ & Empower.” The National Urban League is encour- aged by steadily declining unem- ployment numbers and the passage last week of an extension of the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. But, the economic recov- ery is still lagging far behind in urban America. While, overall unemployment has fallen to 8.3 T O B E E QUAL Marc Morial percent, the January unemploy- ment rate for African Americans is still unacceptably high at 13.6 per- cent. The rate for Hispanics, also at double-digits, now stands at 10.7 percent. Clearly, more must rent national approach to educa- tion, from early childhood educa- tion to adulthood and beyond. A broken national system of educa- tion and job training will continue to yield a broken economy. The National Urban League’s 8- point plan to tackle this problem is designed to spark serious dis- cussion, while also serving as a policy playbook ready for action today. Our plan includes: 1. Fair and equitable school fund- ing for all; 2. Robust early childhood educa- We are issuing a call for immediate national action around the education and job-training steps necessary to bring jobs back to communities most in need be done to ensure that our econo- my’s rising tide lifts all boats. That is why we are issuing a call for immediate national action around the education and job- training steps necessary to bring jobs back to communities most in need. Any serious discussion of job creation and economic oppor- tunity must offer solutions for the obvious shortcomings of our cur- tion for each child; 3. Strengthen high schools and re- engage students to prevent dropouts; 4. Robust STEM (Science, Tech- nology, Engineering, and Mathematics) focused curricu- lum and programs; 5. Qualified, effective and diverse teachers; 6. Strategic workforce develop- ment: targeting Americans most in need; 7. New job training models cou- pled with job placement; 8. Improving and integrating cur- rent data systems. In addition to a fuller discussion of our “Occupy the Vote” cam- paign, this year’s State of Black America report and town hall will include a discussion of the Equali- ty Index — a statistical analysis of the status of Blacks, Hispanics and Whites. The report will also con- tain essays by a host of political, business, and community leaders including Senator Kirsten Gilli- brand, singer John Legend, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nut- ter, entrepreneur and author Steve Stouts, and others with prescrip- tions for the empowerment and education crisis facing the nation. With new voter ID laws and vot- ing rights under attack, this year’s report is also a clarion call for everyone to “Occupy the Vote” in this important election year. We hope to see you in person, 7 pm, March 7th, at Howard University or online at www.iamempow- ered.com. The time to act is now! Marc H. Morial is the President and CEO of the National Urban League Obama Closes MBDA Regional Offices B lack Americans continue to stand by President Barack Obama, despite how he and his minions treat us. Nine of every 10 African-American voters have “got the president’s back” but there is still discussion as to whether President Obama has got the backs of Black Americans in return. At this stage of the Obama presidency it is quite obvious how the people running things at the White House view Blacks’ eco- nomic betterment. Representatives of the Obama administration recently told mem- bers of Congress that they plan to close all five of the Minority Busi- ness Development Agency’s (MBDA) regional offices. Unless something happens, MBDA offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dal- las, and New York will close by Sept. 30 and the San Francisco office in March of 2013. Black Americans would be wise to pay attention to these matters and how they are resolved. House Small Business Committee mem- ber Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) said that the regional closings “might be the beginning of the demise of the agency.” Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said the Obama administration’s actions “sends the wrong message to entrepreneurs and businesses in our community at this time when we need to have an expansion.” Rush is right. Black Americans should find it unbelievable that the Obama administration would allow programs that are vital to the creation of jobs and infrastructures for minorities to fall or fail. Propo- nents of minority business devel- opment need to step to the fore and demand that instead of downsizing February 29, 2012 B USINESS E XCHANGE William Reed the MBDA, Obama and his people need to be increasing its reign and clout. The political climate among African Americans should be to not let the only federal agency cre- ated specifically to foster the establishment and growth of minority-owned businesses to be ment spend more than $500 billion a year in contracts and has facili- ties in all 50 states that include 2,500 offices that have “authority to buy.” But, Black-owned busi- nesses have historically been mar- ginalized in federal contracting. Under the nation’s first Black president Black-owned businesses have done no better than they did than they did before, having received a paltry 3.5 percent of federal contracts funded between Representatives of the Obama administration recently told members of Congress that they plan to close all five of the Minority Business Development Agency’s regional offices put on the path toward death and dismantlement. Blacks need for President Obama do more on this current February 2009 and November 2010 compared to the 81.3 percent White-owned business enjoyed during that period. Black Americans would be wise to pay attention to these matters and how they are resolved presidential watch to ensure that all U.S. businesses have a propor- tionate share of the jobs and opportunities created by federal government. Obama heads the world’s largest purchaser of goods and services. The federal govern- President Richard Nixon started the Office of Minority Enterprise in 1969 with a mandate to increase Blacks’ percentage of federal busi- ness. That percentage of federal contracts peaked at six percent during the Reagan Administration. During Fiscal Year 2010 there were 64,880 Black-owned firms in the federal procurement database, but just 3,990 of those firms received contract activities. What would be wrong with President Obama showing that he’s on our side? The federal government has an ongoing need for an array of goods and services. Millions of federal government contracts are awarded each year, but minority entrepreneurs continue to be stymied in getting public sector contracting opportunities. To rem- edy this situation, Obama adminis- tration officials need to put more impetus on the MBDA to focus on federal procurement and proce- dures that will offer Minority Business Enterprises fair and pro- portional opportunities. Instead of disbanding MBDA, Blacks should petition the president to have the agency do more to help entrepre- neurs navigate the federal bureau- cracy’s purchasing venues. Black voters need to take a long hard look to gauge the value offi- cials in the Obama Administration place on Blacks and their busi- nesses. Let’s lift our voices to say: “Instead of disbanding it let’s give the MBDA a broader portfolio” to provide more opportunities for minority businesses; to have ongo- ing dialogue around issues like how to access to contracts; to offer mentor-protégé opportunities with major corporations and help Black and minority firms compete for large contracts. William Reed is head of the Business Exchange Network and available for speaking/seminar projects via the BaileyGroup.org
