President Barack Obama reached another significant milestone on the long, difficult road toward economic recovery of the economy in the United States when General Motors recently launched one of the largest initial public offerings in American history. I believe that the proper stimulus investment in the African-American business community will also bring a much-needed economic recovery.
Despite the pseudo-economists and near-sighted politicians who vociferously criticized Obama for using federal stimulus funds to reorganize and stabilize G.M., the stimulus worked. The investment of taxpayers’ dollars worked to save jobs and to catalyze a financial rebirth of G.M. As a result, in Detroit and in other cities where the automotive industry is based, there is an increase in economic opportunity.
The nation’s biggest automaker, in very heavy trading, closed its first day on its return to Wall Street Wall at $34.19-a-share price. Billions of dollars were raised. Obama said, “We are finally beginning to see some of the tough decisions that we make in the midst of crisis pay off.”
In the African-American community, we should not just be a witness to the recovery of G.M. We must take due note and ask if there are lessons that can be applied to an action agenda for development to bring the African-American community out of economic crisis.
Black-owned businesses need reinvestment, expansion and, most of all, support from African Americans. The Black Press is a business as well as a community service; we need to be more supportive. We have entered the holiday spending season. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually without considering how to target our collective consumerism for more economic development of businesses that are owned and operated in the heart of our communities.
The first lesson from the G.M. stimulus recovery is the question of leadership. Obama’s leadership in facing down the skeptics and doing what was necessary and prudent from a financial perspective was outstanding and effective. We need more bold, innovative and committed African-American business leaders, as well as political leaders, who will dare to fight for all that is necessary to advance our economic development interests.
We need an African-American Economic Recovery and Development Plan that will set the right measurable goals and objectives for the ongoing economic benefit of African-American businesses and communities. We have many different professional and advocacy organizations that all should work together to formulate and implement such a plan.
We have something that G.M. did not have. We have, in circulation in the African-American community, nearly a trillion dollars every year. But most of this money goes out of the African-American community. The plan for recovery must address this contradiction. It is time that we “stimulate” our own communities and businesses with our own capital.
Our most vital resource is our children. We must do whatever is necessary to ensure the best education of our children. Our youth need to be encouraged to excel in education at all levels.
We need more hands-on opportunities to rise up a new generation of young “freedom fighters” who are committed to the economic recovery of our communities. We must say to our youth, “Don’t leave our communities as a measure of your financial success, but rather stay to help lead our communities to new sustainable heights of wealth-building, development, and economic prosperity.”
Poverty and economic crisis should not be the reality for far too many African Americans.
Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is senior advisor to the Black Alliance for Educational Options and president of Education Online Services Corporation.
