|
When Will We Get Ours
By Jay Black, President,
Toledo African American Chamber of Commerce
Guest Column
As we look at the state of
the economy in the local African-American community I am
often asked “when will we get ours” or “when will it be our
time?”
There is an
ever-increasing frustration within our business community
concerning the lack of procurement opportunities from public
institutions and elected officials who rely on the
African-American vote but in turn do not use their influence
or economic resources to support us.
Many within the Toledo
African American Chamber of Commerce (TAACC) have argued for
a way to effectively hold publicly-funded institutions and
public officials (and private sector institutions for that
matter) accountable to ensure that they “do right by us.”
We have watched for a long
time how other racial, ethnic or religious communities feed
at the “public trough. They have much more success at it
than the black community. We believe there are a number of
reasons for this reality. Some of those that we discuss at
our monthly meetings are listed below:
1.
We have not done what we need to do to position ourselves to
access these opportunities. This includes networking,
providing a quality product at a competitive price,
effective marketing and providing superior customer service.
2.
Many procurement managers, purchasing agents, and
institutions operate using the ‘FBI’ business model. They
only do business with friends, brothers and in-laws.
3.
And yes, institutional racism still exists.
Some of the information we
have requested from public, tax-funded organizations that
come to voters periodically and seek help via levies is as
follows:
·
Do you have a written plan that outlines your intent to
involve African-American owned businesses?
·
How much money have you spent with the groups listed above
over the past three years?
·
The organizations’ hiring results of blacks and other
minorities over the past three years.
We will review the results
of the data received to provide you with a scorecard summary
with an associated grade to help you determine if the
organization has done “right by us” or not. You can then
use this information to decide whether you want to vote for
their levies, or in the case of candidates, vote for them as
individuals.
We strongly encourage our
members and our community to stop supporting organizations
and individuals whose track record clearly shows they have
not “done right by us.” We believe it is now time for
the African-American community to “get ours.” Having tools
that are based on facts that we can use for accountability
purposes will help us to understand who we can partner with
to strengthen our community economically.
In future articles we will
highlight some of the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” that we
allow to fleece our community, help you identify some of the
CEP’s (ask me the next time we talk what this means) who are
doing our community more harm than good, and some practical
ways we can work together to build and retain wealth in our
community.
Finally, please support
the TAACC Gala on August 8, 2015. Please visit our
website: toledoaacc.com for more information |
