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A Plan Biden-Harris Administration Needs to Consider for the Revitalization of African American Business Community

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Specific areas below to support the revitalization of the African American business community during the Biden and Harris era.

1)  The Biden administration must place a significant emphasis on capital and loan creation for the African American Community. Institute, at least a $50 billion program to aid African American businesses harmed by the Pandemic and unable to participate in the PPP program. This can be done by extending the existing program and establishing a funding program for African American businesses.

2)  More significant support for the Minority Business Development Agency ( MBDA) division of the U.S. Department of Commerce was established to aid minority businesses across the country. They have one of the smallest budgets of any agency, currently $50 million. MBDA’s budget should be doubled to $100 million so that grants and increased technical assistance can be provided. Also, MBDA should assist in identifying capital for minority-owned banks. Provide technical support to HBCU institutions to promote contract opportunities in federal, state/local, and commercial areas. Assist the minority business community in developing greater access for their products and services in international markets, a significant initiative in internet commerce. MBDA should participate in the Small Business Innovate Research ( SBIR) grant program to promote inventions and ideas of the African American community.

3)  Increase the percentage of federal contracts available to African American businesses and end the bundling practice of federal and state/local contracts. This activity over the years has limited contracts for African American businesses.

4)  Eliminate the contract size standard cap for African American Businesses and increase the number of years of their participation in the SBA’s 8(a) program from nine to twelve years.

5)  Create and foster greater participation of African American businesses in the manufacturing sector. This should include programs that promote suppliers of healthcare products and services.

6)  Establish a grant funding program to restore small businesses in local communities, i.e., barbershops, salons, restaurants, and small retail operations. These businesses have been the backbone of the economy in the African American Community.

7)  Strengthen the tax benefit for investors that partner with African American businesses.

8)  Create a long-term capital investment program to support our HBCU community. Provide a matching program for monetary contributions to HBCUs by the federal government.

9)  Appoint African Americans to head the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration.

The African American community requires a “Marshall Plan,” today similar to the economic program established after WWll, to rebuild Europe. Our community will need some major financial help at all levels. We need to reconstruct the African American community today and protect our children and future generations

Please VOTE as if your life depends on it because it does.

www.raceforthenet.com to order my book

alwhite@raceforthenet.com

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 11 – 17, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 11 – 17, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of December 4 – 10, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 4 – 10, 2024, 2024

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COMMENTARY: PEN Oakland Entices: When the News is Bad, Try Poetry

Strongman politics is not for the weak. Here in the U.S., Donald Trump is testing how strongman politics could work in the world’s model democracy.

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By Emil Guillermo

As the world falls apart, you need more poetry in your life.

I was convinced on Tuesday when a weak and unpopular president of South Korea — a free nation U.S. ally — tried to save himself by declaring martial law.

Was it a stunt? Maybe. But indicative of the South Korean president’s weakness, almost immediately, the parliament there voted down his declaration.

The takeaway: in politics, nothing quite works like it used to.

Strongman politics is not for the weak. Here in the U.S., Donald Trump is testing how strongman politics could work in the world’s model democracy.

Right now, we need more than a prayer.

NEWS ANTIDOTE? LITERATURE

As we prepare for another Trump administration, my advice: Take a deep breath, and read more poetry, essays and novels.

From “Poetry, Essays and Novels,” the acronym PEN is derived.

Which ones to read?

Register (tickets are limited) to join Tennessee Reed and myself as we host PEN OAKLAND’s award ceremony this Saturday on Zoom, in association with the Oakland Public Library.

Find out about what’s worth a read from local artists and writers like Cheryl Fabio, Jack Foley, Maw Shein Win, and Lucille Lang Day.

Hear from award winning writers like Henry Threadgill, Brent Hayes Edwards and Airea D. Matthews.

PEN Oakland is the local branch of the national PEN. Co-founded by the renowned Oakland writer, playwright, poet and novelist Ishmael Reed, Oakland PEN is special because it is a leader in fighting to include multicultural voices.

Reed is still writing. So is his wife Carla Blank, whose title essay in the new book, “A  Jew in  Ramallah, And Other Essays, (Baraka Books), provides an artist’s perspective on the conflict in Gaza.

Of all Reed’s work, it’s his poetry that I’ve found the most musical and inspiring.

It’s made me start writing and enjoying poetry more intentionally. This year, I was named poet laureate of my small San Joaquin rural town.

Now as a member of Oakland PEN, I can say, yes, I have written poetry and essays, but not a novel. One man shows I’ve written, so I have my own sub-group. My acronym: Oakland PEOMS.

Reed’s most recent book of poetry, “Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues, Poems 2007-2020” is one of my favorites. One poem especially captures the emerging xenophobia of the day. I offer you the first stanza of “The Banishment.”

We don’t want you here
Your crops grow better than ours
We don’t want you here
You’re not one of our kind
We’ll drive you out
As thou you were never here
Your names, family, and history
We’ll make them all disappear.

There’s more. But that stanza captures the anxiety many of us feel from the threat of mass deportations. The poem was written more than four years ago during the first Trump administration.

We’ve lived through all this before. And survived.

The news sometimes lulls us into acquiescence, but poetry strikes at the heart and forces us to see and feel more clearly.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. Join him at www.patreon.com/emilamok

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