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In this week’s article we are going to talk about people and
institutions who claim to be our community’s friends but do
not “do right by us” economically. In fact they do little
to use their influence or procurement processes to ensure
that the African-American community has the same or similar
economic opportunities that are afforded other groups.
Matthew 7:15 tells us to beware of these types because
“inwardly they are ravening wolves.” In fact, these people
should be “marked” and declared public enemies of our
community and all support for them and their institutions
should be withdrawn unless and until they began to “do right
by us.”
For example, we have an election in November that will
determine who will be our mayor for the next two years, as
well as who will occupy key City Council seats, and whether
tax levies will be approved or not.
We should use this opportunity to send a clear message to
the “wolves in sheeps’ clothing” that we will withhold our
votes and other forms of support from them (both individuals
and institutions) and strategically work against them to
ensure that they are defeated in November.
We must challenge all the mayoral candidates to talk about
their past and future economic solutions for
African-American businesses and what they have done and plan
to do to create jobs in our community.
We must challenge the levy sponsors to prove to us how they
have been good stewards of our tax dollars in giving African
Americans the same opportunities in procurement and
employment as other groups have received. If we are honest,
we have to admit that significant disparities exist.
We have to hold all elected officials accountable for their
past and present performance as elected officials in using
their position and influence to help people of color access
public contracts and employment opportunities like they’ve
done for other groups.
This includes those who have held multiple elected or public
positions.
For example, there are past and present Toledo School Board
members who not only declined to use their position of
influence to help businesses of color economically, but
some of them also voted against a referee’s report that
stated that the allegations levied against an
African-American administrator did not warrant termination.
We need to ask one ex- school board member and current City
Council candidate why she supported out-of-town businesses
when she had the opportunity to support local and qualified
black-owned businesses, and why we should support her
candidacy.
In the words of Jim Clingman, “we must demand what we want,
very specifically, and get an oral and written commitment
from them before we give them our votes”. While this may
seem extreme to some, it is just as extreme for us to
continue to support the “wolves in sheeps’ clothing” and
continue to see millions of dollars in public funds continue
to by pass our community in favor of individuals and
businesses who do not live or operate their business in the
City of Toledo, who are not investing in our community, and
who cannot vote for the candidates or levies in November.
By the way of an update, we have received information from
the Toledo Zoo, and Metro Parks that will allow us to
compile and publish the Scorecard Summary that we’ve talked
about previously. To date, the Toledo Lucas County Public
Library has not complied with our public records request.
In subsequent articles I will give more examples of how we
can hold those politicians and institutions that have not
used their position and influence to help us economically.
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