“We want fair share to go to NNPA,” said Jackson, who has fought alongside NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell for inclusion in advertising dollars for NNPA newspapers and economic parity for small and Black-owned businesses in general.
WASHINGTON – The Rev. Jesse Jackson emerged from separate meetings with new General Motors CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner full of hope June 8. Jackson, CEO of the Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, believes that new levels of Black business participation are on the horizon as activists continue to press for economic inclusion and fair share in hiring, contracting and advertising dollars.
“This is the time to apply the affirmative action laws, Title VI and executive orders,” Jackson said in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “We want parity in employment, parity in executives, in entrepreneurship and in business.”
An initial public offering worth billions of dollars, plus $300 million in fees to begin managing the public resurgence of General Motors, must be subjected to affirmative action and racial inclusion laws or the federal government will find itself in violation of economic inclusion mandates, according to Jackson and based on a recent executive order issued by President Barack Obama. Jackson pointed out that 60 percent of GM now belongs to the federal government. He met with Whitacre and Geithner, making clear the need and the demand for fair share for small and Black-owned businesses, including the 200 members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
The meetings came on the heels of Jackson’s own June 12-16 Rainbow/PUSH convention in Chicago, and before his keynote on a Crisis in Black America panel at the NNPA’s 70th Anniversary Convention June 16-19 in New York, where he says he will discuss further the plan for unrelenting Black inclusion.
“We want fair share to go to NNPA,” said Jackson, who has fought alongside NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell for inclusion in advertising dollars for NNPA newspapers and economic parity for small and Black-owned businesses in general. As a long list of white-owned newspapers have gone out of business during the economic crisis of recent years, most Black-owned newspapers have survived, but under great duress – largely because of longstanding race discrimination. Bakewell pointed to an executive order issued by Obama late last month that set forth plans for small businesses to benefit from federal dollars.
“Our president should be given credit for that significant move,” Bakewell said.
The president’s memorandum directed the heads of all executive departments and agencies to develop more opportunities for small businesses to participate in the Recovery Act. The memo specifically calls for heightened participation of businesses owned by minorities, women and economically disadvantaged individuals in the $500 billion in federal purchases made annually.
Ken Smikle of Target Market News, a foremost authority on Black business inclusion, said in a story published by the NNPA News Service, that Obama’s “memo addresses many of the issues on which Black media owners have been seeking action from the White House. It includes directives that were addressed in Executive Order 13170 issued by President Bill Clinton in October 2000. That executive order required all executive branch agencies, including the military, to engage in affirmative action to include minority owned businesses in the procurement of advertising.”
GM filed for bankruptcy protection June 1. The company will now become two parts, a “new” GM and an “old” GM. The former will hold on to plants, dealers and brands that the company will drop or divest. The new GM will acquire the assets the company desires to keep.
Although Jackson is hopeful, he is determined to fight until tangible results appear. Beyond the conferences, “We must keep applying pressure. That’s what we must do. Civil rights strategy is that we expose contradictions and keep applying pressure. That’s what we do.”
Copyright 2010 NNPA.
About Post Author
