Newspapers of record in our nation, and around the world, are starting to publish in-depth stories they have been working on for months about police-involved shootings in the United States. Both The Washington Post and The Guardian recently moved major enterprise stories based on months of intensive work that organize scattered information about police shootings that even the director of the FBI has complained that he can’t find in one place. We commend the diligence of their reporters and editors – including Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post, a familiar face in Ferguson – and believe their work has the potential to be foundational in effecting lasting, positive change in the unconstitutionally disparate impact of law enforcement based on race.
Thanks to The Guardian, we can now state for a fact what protestors have anecdotally claimed to be true for months: that you are much more likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed if you are black than if you are white. The data collected by The Guardian show that black people are, in fact, twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed than white people. This is an outrageously unethical practice by government agencies that is patently unconstitutional. The protestors who have staked their lives and careers in calling attention to this unconstitutional, unethical practice and calling for its end – “today,” as the late Eric Garner said – are right to do so. We continue to stand with them and their cause.
But there is so much more work that must be done to address the unmet needs and unrealized potential of our community. We submit that the ultimate racial disparity that mostly determines and perpetuates the other racial disparities is related to economics. Until African Americans are able to earn and control a proportionate share of wealth in this region and country, justice will remain unequal for us.
According to a recent disparity study – so many disparity studies, so little time – the City of St. Louis failed to employ a fair amount of minority- and women-owned businesses when awarding city contracts for construction jobs from 2007 to 2012. The study specifically found a disparity in how the city awards construction contracts to black-owned businesses, both as prime contractors and subcontractors. These contractors do not have adequate access to capital, the study noted – and the city should work more intentionally towards breaking down these barriers.
That is why we welcome the announcement of a new $10-million Contractor Loan Fund, which is designed to give minority and women contractors better access to capital they need to grow their businesses. The loan fund will offer construction-related loans of up to $1 million with “relaxed qualifying criteria.” The goal is to increase the number, size and stability of minority and women-owned construction companies in the region. This is a vital goal, and the fund is a modest but important step toward achieving this goal. We commend the civic and community leaders who organized the effort.
Granted, greater minority participation in construction may have limited direct value in addressing our overall structural needs, but it is a highly visible and easily understood issue where we have natural allies (i.e. women). Moreover, this issue does resonate with much of our community, and it can stir some timid elected officials to be more active in addressing more substantive community concerns.
Relaxing loan criteria to give minority contractors better access to the capital needed to compete for major construction projects – let’s face it – is a far less stirring rallying cry than “Stop killing us!” And while we certainly continue to stand with those protestors, newly authenticated by published data, who say, “Stop killing us,” we also believe strongly that we need bold, creative solutions to make more productive use of African Americans and black-owned business in the regional and American economies. For that reason, we believe “better access to capital,” though less compelling, is also an important rallying cry for our community.
