February 5, 2012

Beyond the ‘State of the Union’: What Now for the Black Community?

By Hazel Trice Edney

White House aid Michael Strautmanis stands to address packed boardroom after watching President Obama's State of the Union. PHOTO: Don Baker/Joint Center

White House aide Michael Strautmanis sits by Ralph Everett, president/CEO of the Joint Center, as he explains to grassroots, business and political representatives where the Obama Administration will go from here. PHOTO: Don Baker/Joint Center 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Michael Strautmanis, deputy assistant to President Barack Obama, was ready to go home as was the other dozens of State of the Union watchers packed into the boardroom at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Despite the obvious fatigue of a long day; plus the intensity of watching President Obama’s hour-long State of the Union speech, there was a late-night agenda on the table. Strautmanis and other White House representatives were on assignment. Their mission was to – not only break down the President’s speech – for the Black political, grassroots, business and civic leaders in the room, but to make plain the President’s plan for the Black community in coming months – especially as it pertains to economics.

“Some things couldn’t be done in three years, some things we still need to work on,” Strautmanis spoke frankly to the people packed in around the mahogany conference table. “The president is into acting and doing. He laid out the blueprint of what he’s going to focus on. It’s incumbent upon all of us in those areas where you have expertise to use those doors that are open to you… It would be a shame with all of the power and the expertise that we have now if we didn’t fundamentally transform our community. And this President, the First Lady, and [Senior Advisor] Valerie Jarrett, they have talked about it. They intend to do it.”

With that, Strautmanis gave previews of specific plans by the Obama Administration to speed up the economic recovery in the Black community as part of what President Obama described as moving forward as “one nation.”

A major step, says Strautmanis, will be gatherings to enhance existing and grow the number of Black-owned businesses rather than simply focus on Black employment.

“We want to do a series of urban entrepreneurship summits this year. We’re using the convening power of the White House to really shine a spot light on entrepreneurship in urban communities, what it can do to create jobs and the success stories that are there,” he said.

These gatherings, details of which are to be announced, will have the following impacts, Strautmanis outlined:

• We’ll learn ways that we can be better as a government to help people.
• We’re going to bring people together and create opportunities for them to network with each other and create more business opportunities.
• We’ll give the press opportunities to write about and tell stories about successful businesses in our cities.
• We’ll be able to point those who want to start that business … don’t really know if it’s possible to start that company – point them to the money that we gave our community development financial institutions, the money that we gave to the banks to lend to small businesses.

Despite the clear evidence of movement on a Black economic agenda, those gathered expressed reality-based concerns and offered their advice to the Obama Administration for the coming months.

Maryland State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh, underscoring the need for business creation, expressed concern that race discrimination will continue to absorb job opportunities.

“Black folk are not the only people unemployed in this country. What happens is when you start filling jobs, the people who own businesses, who do the hiring fill them first with people who look like them,” she said. “That’s why we need to talk about business creation. But, people are saying you don’t have the expertise in your community.”

Agreeing with Pugh, Gilbert G. Campbell III, co-owner of Volt Energy LLC, a 3-year-old North Carolina-based solar energy company, said Blacks are also being stereotyped by the federal government.

“A lot of times we get pigeon-holed as African-American companies just in construction,” Campbell said. He expressed interest in doing business with the U. S. Navy, an agency that is leading in the need for experts in wind and solar energy.

Strautmanis said the Obama administration’s only interest is in “creating a level playing field. Our businesses can compete and win when they have that.”

He assured Campbell that top naval personnel have been sensitized to the need for diversity in contracting.

“I have had a specific conversation across his very nice table in his very fancy dining room with Sec. of the Navy Ray Mabus who has made a commitment to me and he has made a commitment to Valerie Jarrett,” he said. He said Mabus has already demonstrated his seriousness about outreach “when he went with [EPA] Administrator Lisa Jackson to the Gulf in the aftermath of the gulf spill. And she came back with good reports about Secretary Mabus.”

Ralph Everett, president/CEO of the Joint Center, a Black think-tank, seated at the right of Strautmanis, moderated the discussion, when continued to close to 11 p.m. Only 40 people had been invited to the meeting, but the center had to open up multiple rooms and even turn some people away after more than 140 responded, he said.

This shows that people want to “participate in the process. This was just one way to do that,” he said. The other way will be to vote in November he said.

Other concerns expressed around the table:

• That the President will stress to all government agencies to partner with racial and other minorities for inclusion rather than allow big businesses to dominate contracts. Strautmanis: In addition to this, there must be a “focused conversation with our community banks and finding ways to give them the support that they need to make the loans” that will build and strengthen new businesses.
• That the President will stick to his message on health care and make sure the tenets and benefits of the legislation are broken down for lay people to understand. Strautmanis: There was a question of how much to talk about health care in this speech. The decision was made that it did not need one speech. It needs a multi-month, multi-pronged plan. We need to explain to people where that is and that is coming.
• That contributions and deductions for non-profit organizations are also prioritized. Strautmanis: The president is focused on striking a balance. We recognize how much so many of our organizations that are “standing in the breach” rely on private sector donations.
• That unfunded mandates be limited. Strautmanis: “I’m not interested in doing any of this on the backs of our state governments.”
• That there be limits in government personnel cuts, given the significant number of African-Americans with government jobs: Strautmanis: “Frankly, as I look at the unemployment numbers I get alarmed when I see private sector growth and public sector cuts, particularly when you look at the African-American community…We should have a robust conversation and sit down and talk with our economic team about how we’re going to do this.”
• That HBCUs are well-funded. Strautmanis: HBCUs need to get its fair share of federal dollars. And “we don’t need to have an either/or conversation about community colleges.”

In the State of the Union, President Obama stressed what he described as “the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement. 

“The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive,” he said. “No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules,” he said to applause. “What’s at stake aren’t Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. And we have to reclaim them.”

Strautmanis said none of the President’s vision laid out in the State of the Union can happen without all hands on deck.

“When he said everyone, he means everyone. He spoke in that way as an African-American president,” Strautmanis said. “When he spoke about us building this country together, he included us.”