I regret to present in short succession another story on how people are blamed for thinking with their pigment and profiling, while cause and effect are ignored. To be painfully explanatory, do African-Americans get fewer business loans because they don’t want to start businesses, because they don’t have much collateral, because they don’t major in business when they go to school, or because bankers are bigots?
Another item on council’s agenda was a presentation from a group formed to address the disparity between the percentage of entrepreneurs who are African-American and citizens who are African-American in Asheville. Tasked with addressing “capital access” and “business literacy” challenges faced by African-Americans, the group received $10,000 from Asheville taxpayers for staffing meetings.
The group complained that lending institutions turned a jaundiced eye on African-Americans. They wanted startup capital and mentoring, among other things. It was even suggested that the city create a reserve to cover defaulted loans made to African-Americans.
City staff was leery. They didn’t mind supporting minorities, or ethnic minorities; but the requests were being made expressly for the African-American community, and that is not considered (yet) to be Constitutional.
At Tuesday’s meeting, while presenting the report, Al Whitesides asked council for $70-some thousand dollars. Councilwoman Esther Manheimer challenged the request. Community Development Director Jeff Staudinger pointed out the request was not in the staff report and would therefore not be accepted with receipt of the report.
One might also be interested in looking at the statistics presented by a senior in political science at UNCA.
