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The ‘Maynard Jackson of the State of Georgia’ is Asking for Your Vote

October 21, 2022 By MKE Community Journal Leave a Comment

Abrams was in the Atlanta University Center at Clark Atlanta University Tuesday night. Photo by Menra Mapfumo/The Atlanta Voice

By Donnell Suggs | The Atlanta Voice

Lakewood Heights, Ga. – Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams came out of a side door and greeted a small crowd that managed to generate raucous applause. She was in her element, among Democratic supporters Wednesday night at an event space in Southwest Atlanta.

The large ballroom at Ali at Lakewood, a local event space that shares a building on Jonesboro Road with Black Coffee, a black-owned coffee shop, was half-full but that did not stop Abrams from pouring on the charm and buttering up the crowd before sitting down with that evening’s host, radio personality Rashad Richey, to talk about her future plans for Black small business owners.

Those plans only go into effect if she wins the gubernatorial election on Election Day, November 8. The impact of what can follow Abrams if she does win reminds her of a certain former Atlanta mayor. Abrams is inspired by the road he took and the immense changes he put in place once he became the first Black mayor in Atlanta’s long history as ’The city too busy to hate.’ The kind of groundbreaking and transformative leader she plans to become for Georgia if she is elected. “I intend to be the Maynard Jackson for the state of Georgia,” she said.

Abrams (center) prepares to answer a question from a Clayton County small business owner.
Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

The four C’s

Abrams’ plan for minority businesses has four C’s: capital, contracts, college & childcare, according to a flyer that was being handed out to guest and the media.

During the nearly 45-minute-long community question & answer session Abrams spoke of creating funds for investing in small businesses and ways to make federal primary contracts more accessible for Black-owned construction companies and developers.

Less than 1% of the primary construction and development contracts in Georgia are awarded to Black-owned companies. Less than 10% of those federal contacts are awarded to companies owned by people of color. Before Jackson arrived at City Hall those numbers were even worse.

“The governor has the authority to determine how we allocate resources,” said Abrams. “We don’t need legislation, we need leadership.”

Attendees came to the microphone to ask Abrams questions about how she would do more to help small businesses thrive if she became governor. Abrams, who will need a stronger than usual midterm voter turnout from Black voters in order to unseat current Governor Brain Kemp, came prepared with plans for Georgia businesses. She was once a small business owner and understands the paperwork and pitfalls of working for yourself while depending on public support. “As governor I’m going to push for equity across the board,” Abrams said.

She has a plan to create an entrepreneur learner’s permit to make starting a business less of a financial Scarlett letter if that business happens to fail. Abrams asked the crowd how many of them had started a business and had to go back to the drawing board in order to regroup. A large majority of the room raised their hands.

On the college and childcare portion of the plan. Abrams wants to expand Medicaid, creating more than 60,000 jobs, and restore tuition-free technical college while also expanding access to the HOPE scholarship.

From Bankhead to Buckhead

Abrams spoke of making a concerted effort to talk to voters from “Bankhead to Buckhead.”

On Tuesday Abrams made an appearance at Clark Atlanta University for the Black Radio United For the Vote town hall. Kemp, Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Bee Nguyen and Jen Jordan were also in attendance. Herschel Walker, currently defending accusations of having paid for an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion and from social media attacks from his son Christian, did not attend. Last week Friday she was at local bar and lunge, Atlantucky, to address Black male voters.

With two weeks remaining till early voting begins Monday, Oct. 17 there aren’t too many places Abrams can’t be seen. That said the promise to help small business owners was the ficus Wednesday night in Lakewood Heights.

Pedicabs ATL owner Jay White took the podium and asked about Abrams plans to help businesses like his. With the World Cup coming to Atlanta in just a few years his business will be one of the many that could make a year’s worth of profits in a short period of time. He wants to make sure his small business isn’t left out when time comes to apply for permits.

The post The ‘Maynard Jackson of the State of Georgia’ is asking for your vote appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

COMMENTARY: Is the Economy Rebounding?

September 9, 2020 By MKE Community Journal Leave a Comment

Economic recovery is dependent on the development of a COVID vaccine, which the current President says will be ready in October or November. More realistic, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, say a vaccine might not be ready until next summer or even later. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Hundreds of thousands of small businesses, including 40 percent of Black-owned companies, have closed, resulting in permanent job loss. Some of the hardest-hit industries include the leisure industries — travel, dining, and more.

By Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Newswire Contributor

On the Friday before Labor Day, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report, The Employment Situation. It reported good news – the unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 percent, higher than in February before the pandemic hit. We added 1.4 million jobs last month, the highest gain since the corona recession began. But while this is progress, it is no cause for celebration.

The Black unemployment rate remains double-digit and has not dropped as rapidly as either the overall rate or the white rate, 7.3 percent. Eleven million fewer people held jobs in August than in March. And the “rebound” is not spread evenly across populations. The top 10 percent have already recovered. The bottom 40 or 50 percent are still struggling.

Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris told CNN that “one in five mothers is describing her children as hungry.” The lines at the food banks have not gone down, and in some communities, they are getting longer. Once thought to be relatively immune to the virus, small-town America is now being hit, and forcefully. The challenge is that there are fewer hospitals or health care facilities in rural areas.

Economic recovery is dependent on the development of a COVID vaccine, which the current President says will be ready in October or November. More realistic, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, say a vaccine might not be ready until next summer or even later.

The bottom line is that the macro indicators may show some progress, but a deeper dive is far less optimistic. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses, including 40 percent of Black-owned companies, have closed, resulting in permanent job loss. Some of the hardest-hit industries include the leisure industries — travel, dining, and more.

Women, especially women of color, heavily populate some of these industries. While COVID hit women of color harder than others, recovery will not make these women whole.

The economy will not regain its position from early March. Indeed, the slight comeback in leisure industries has been partly a function of people enjoying safer, outdoor dining. The colder it gets, the more likely it is that people will choose to pass up dining out in favor of eating at home.

People bought more groceries between March and August, not wanting to risk the possibility of contagion. Many have cautiously begun to eat out again, but restaurants lose money when they reduce seating because of social distancing.

By mid-September, we will know whether the Labor Day weekend will spark another COVID outbreak. And if there is another outbreak, count on the economy to slow again. Congress could at least prevent some of this if the Senate passed the HEROES (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act, which would extend unemployment insurance, provide relief for cities and states, and provide money for schools.

The HEROES legislation has been caught in partisan drama, with a bipartisan group of Congressional representatives passing it, but with Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell failing to even put the legislation up to a vote. Some Republicans dispute the need for the HEROES Act because of the latest unemployment rate data. But many states and local jurisdictions will lay off public servants – teachers, police officers, sanitation workers, transportation workers, health care workers, and others, pushing the unemployment rate back up.

The August Employment Situation report has more good news than bad. It indicates that for the fourth month in a row, things are improving. But this improvement is not enough, and it could be much better if our legislators would offer some assistance, especially to those at the bottom.

Even though 45 has made the economy his issue, repeatedly proclaiming that he created “the best economy in the world” until COVID, his inability to grasp the many ways that COVID will continue to plague the economy raises issues about his sagacity and discernment.

Don’t celebrate the rebound yet. Don’t stop the pressure either. The Senate must pass the HEROES Act or face the consequences. If we want economic recovery AND economic justice, we must vote.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author. She can be reached through http://www.juliannemalveaux.com