Opinion
‘State of Black America’ Town Hall
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
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S USAN F RIED
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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