Randi Payton
rpayton@onwheelsinc.com
President Barack Obama may be doing a good job of repairing the nation’s economy but behind the scenes his strongest political base is eroding due to major setbacks in corporate diversity. African Americans reached into their pocketbooks to make unprecedented contributions to Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign last year. However, if the current trend of cutting diversity efforts continues, African Americans will not have the resources to financially support the president’s bid for a second term. When there’s the no work, there’s no money.
Thousands of African American small businesses, automotive dealers and suppliers, minority –owned media outlets and their employees are feeling the brunt of the recession. Businesses cannot get loans, corporations are laying off employees at an alarming rate and domestic automakers, the second largest employer of African Americans outside of the federal government, don’t see diversity as a priority during this economic crisis.
Minority car dealers and minority automotive suppliers who had the funds to support President Obama’s first run for the presidency will almost disappear because of the current economic crisis. Automakers have been corporate leaders in diversity for at least a generation. But diversity is not being considered in the restructuring plans of the domestic automotive industry.
Automakers that championed diversity and encouraged their ad agencies to support it, but did not require those same agencies to practice it, are now dropping diversity advertising and marketing altogether or making significant cuts. Corporations are too concerned with their survival to focus on diversity advertising and marketing which should be an essential part of restructuring. However, it has been looked at as affirmative action instead of a need to reach more than 30 percent of American consumers.
Minority dealers and suppliers who represented a huge financial support base for President Obama during his presidential campaign cannot get financing to operate their businesses and they have lost the support of larger companies that cannot get credit themselves. Not only has progress on this front ceased but all these businesses are closing at an alarming rate.
Small minority businesses experienced huge growth; their owners who often used equity in their homes to finance their start-ups can no longer do so and SBA and VA backed financing is frozen. The banks simply will not loan, although the Obama Administration has pumped money into them to free up the secondary finance markets. Banks either don’t have the cash or they are using the federal money to generate interest payments and to repay the government to escape federal oversight. But small minority-owned businesses have been left out of this equation.
African American employees, who were making inroads into upper management positions when diversity was a corporate priority, are now the first to be cut during tough times. Their input was never really valued; even those who have proven track records of success.
One 30-year senior executive at General Motors told me that this is the worse time that she has ever seen for diversity. Progress in that area is quietly being set-back. President Obama needs to appoint a diversity czar to protect the interests of minority consumers.
Other black politicians as well as President Obama should also be worried because they all need financially healthy voters to support their political campaigns. The ultra conservatives have yet another trick up their sleeve to destroy the economic base of minority consumers. They have one goal in mind – force the domestic automakers into bankruptcy and destroy the unions and the middle class. The current trend is having a devastating impact on African American middle class workers and it would make it difficult for all African American office seekers and incumbents, not just the president, to get future financial support from the black community.
Randi Payton is the CEO & President of On Wheels Media, which publishes African Americans On Wheels, Latinos On Wheels and the www.onwheelsinc.com web site. On Wheels will launch DECISIVE magazines and web hub summer of 2009, a consumer media to help consumer in multicultural market make decision on products and services. Get free digital copies of On Wheels magazines at www.onwheelsinc.com
Comments are closed for this post.
