To Help Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses is to Help New York State’s Economy
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State Senator Kevin S. Parker, New York State, July 8, 2008
In 1988, New York State created the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise Program, which ensures minority participation in State purchasing and contracting, and provides community-based management training targeted to minorities and women starting new businesses.
In the 16 years since the founding of the program, the State has seen a great deal of its population gains come by the way of immigration from Latin America and South Asia, and business opportunities for women and minorities already here have profoundly increased.
That said, while minority and women owned businesses comprise about half of all small businesses in this State, these companies do less than 10 percent of the State’s business. New York State spends some $10 billion annually on contracts for goods, services and construction. Clearly, 10 percent is not enough.
That’s why I was pleased to support legislation strengthening and extending the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises Program, commonly referred to as Article 15-A.
Senate Bill 5684, whose chief sponsor is Senator Ada L. Smith, Chair of the Senate Minority Conference, extends the program until 2018, and adds the Urban Development Corporation and its subsidiaries under Article 15-A.
Senate Bill 2697 requires that state agencies and departments that do more than $2 million in state service and construction contracts, report biannually to the State Legislature, the Governor, the State Department of Economic Development and the State Office of General Services regarding the progress of that entity in awarding contracts to small businesses and minority and women owned businesses.
These reports will enable us to examine whether current practices are making progress, or if more needs to be done. In addition, the legislation calls for agencies to maintain a list of certified minority and women owned businesses in New York State. The agencies will mail notices to listed businesses explaining the opportunities for the businesses to sell services and provide construction services to that agency.
I’d like to take this opportunity to inform minority and women business owners who are not listed with the state that it is easy to do so. Simply call 1-800-STATE-NY for more information, or visit Empire State Development’s Division of Minority and Women Owned Business Development website at: http://www.nylovesbiz.com /Small_and_Growing_Businesses/mwbe.asp
At the website you can learn more about what the Division has to offer, review Article 15-A of the Executive law, and even search the Division’s directory of the Minority and Women Owned Businesses.
In the 15 years that the Minority and Women Owned Business Program has existed, we have made great progress in ensuring that those businesses traditionally under represented in contract opportunities begin to receive those opportunities. However, there is much progress to be made. I am hopeful that the next 15 years will bring even greater success to our efforts.
  State Senator Kevn S. Parker |
(Posted on July 8, 2008)
Comments
Why go through the trouble of saying “Minority and woman owned businesses”? Why not just say “Businesses not owned by white men”.
I would wager, 99% of shoppers do not care about who owns the business they are spending their money at, and I would wager that 98% aren’t even aware of the race or gender of the actual person that owns the business.
Has anyone shown that the fact that BET is owned by Viacom which is run by a white person has hurt their ratings with black people?
Posted by Patrick at 6:17 PM on July 8
The answer here is simple. Do not mail-order things from any New York business if you live out of state. I stopped buying from California businesses 15 years ago. I also stopped mail-ordering from any state that taxes out-of-state sales.
These states use tax money for interests diametrically opposed to mine, so I won’t pay them.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 6:40 PM on July 8
Since almost all of the employees of the government are people of color, shouldn’t they make up for that by giving preference to White contractors?
Posted by at 7:10 PM on July 8
The fantasy of equality gets stranger every year.
If the women and minorities can’t compete with White men, make a law that says White men must take care of them. That way they don’t have to actually compete anymore. They also don’t have to admit that failure was their own fault.
Do you Liberals still wonder why we White Nationalists don’t believe in equalty?
You will say oppression is the cause of inequalty but like clockwork, your favored groups never can compete on their own and always end up being oppressed in some way.
Inferiority is the cause of oppression.
For established businesses, giving special privledges to incompetant people will likely work to keep the playing field clear of serious opponents as well as make them the primary funders of the new businesses. That sounds much like direct control wrapped up in a pretty package of easy money. Do you really think these new businesses will ever want to challenge those who give them their contracts?
So much for women and minority independence from White men. Enjoy your illusions of equality for they are all you have.
Posted by True Resistance at 7:17 PM on July 8
Yes, I can just Imagine 50,000 Black Females storming Normany on “D-Day”, screaming “I bees woman hears me roah”, but I gots to be home at 5 to pick up my babies.
Posted by Bandmo at 7:19 PM on July 8
Eh, at least they’re out trying to run businesses instead of causing crime.
Posted by Fall Of The Tyrants at 7:20 PM on July 8
Not to worry, I’m sure each and every contractor, black, yellow, brown, or white, practices ‘affirmative action’, in favor of non-whites, as a condition of being able to bid on contracts in the first place. Not that they would need such a condition before practicing affirmative action, other companies and corporations don’t.
Posted by Dr. Smith at 7:25 PM on July 8
These programs in NY are only inviting corruption, fraud and nepotism….wasting taxpayers money to give the incompetents a leg up at the expense of those who don’t need government programs to survive…it is totally insane.
Posted by Lisette at 7:56 PM on July 8
I am curious.
Who is it that “certifies” a business as “minority-owned”, and what do they do to determine if one is a minority or not?
If you are high yella and can pass for white, are you a minority?
If they judge you as not being a minority, can you appeal to a higher court?
Do they use a paper bag test?
In this liberal day and age when a “man” has a baby, can’t you just “decide” to be a woman or a man?
And if so, isn’t one’s womanhood or manhood a figment of your imagination?
Posted by Big Bill at 9:19 PM on July 8
Oh yeah…they will start up a business go bankrupt and stick the taxpayer with the bill….the black business men/women anyhow…..
Posted by lydia at 9:25 PM on July 8
Which state has the most Black citizens?
You already know the answer. (None of the Southern states.) The state with the most Black citizens is…..New York. Surprise!)
Posted by Memphomaniac at 10:16 PM on July 8
I’ve got a suggestion to increase “minority” and female owned business with the state: let them make the lowest bid.
On another note, I’m pretty sure that white males are a minority in New York. So “minority” should include white males.
Posted by jewamongyou at 11:17 PM on July 8
In all 22 independent federal agencies and in 16 of 17 federal executive departments, blacks are massively over represented.
At the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission blacks comprise 46.4 percent of the employees. The “affirmative action” or racial quota target for proportional representation (percent in Relevant Civilian Labor Force) for the EEOC is 6.4 percent black employees. Blacks are thus over represented in EEOC employment by 625 percent!
But black activists insist the government must do more.
Posted by at 12:34 AM on July 9
http://www.aim.org/publications/media_monitor/2003/09/26.html
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for example, has employed 614% more blacks than their proportion in the civilian workforce, and the U.S. Department of Education employed 473% more blacks.
The protected minority groups include blacks, Hispanics, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and women. The OPM Report for 2003 shows that, of the new federal jobs created, only 22.9% were filled by white males and other “non-minorities.” Tim Fay comments, “It wasn’t a very good year for white guys to apply for a federal job.”
While there is obviously no such thing as “overrepresentation” for the protected or preferred minorities, there is such a thing as “underrepresentation.” And that’s what gets the press attention. Federal Times newspaper ran a story under the headline, “New Push for Diversity: OPM Moves To Address ‘Underrepresentation’ in Senior Ranks.” The story noted that, “Overall, percentages of blacks, Asians and American Indians in virtually all federal pay grades meet or exceed those of the national work force overall. But in the Senior Executive Service and equivalent senior pay grades, all minority groups are underrepresented as compared with their percentage in the national work force overall.”
Posted by at 12:36 AM on July 9
This story is another example illustrating the unrecognized wisdom of Southern whites in the pre-“Civil Rights” era. Perhaps, they realized if “voter rights” were expanded ,there would be no end to the confiscation (robbery) of money from productive groups of citizens, by groups which contribute little to the economy, but just by sheer numbers, hold inordinate political power.
Posted by at 2:08 AM on July 9
Since blacks are overrepresented 614% at the EEOC (among those most concerned with equal opportunity) and overrepresented 473% at the department of education (and, I must add, around 900% at my local license bureau), how come these all important calls for diversity don’t including calls for more whites? Do they just need a bigger budge at the EEOC?
It might be relevant to note: the average age of a white person in America is around 40 years of age. The average age of blacks is around 25. Since most goverment employees are around 25 to 60 years of age, and 15 year old black person would be unlikely to be working a government job, they are actually overrepresented at a much higher rate than 614%. This affects income averaging also (older people of all races earn more money on average than do younger ones) and crime stats, (younger people of all races commit more crime than do older ones). In the case of blacks, around 20,000% more interracial crime.
Posted by at 9:50 AM on July 9
“progress of that entity in awarding contracts “
Funny thing, you don’t WIN a Congressional Medal of Honor, you are “awarded” one.
Notice the proposed law doesn’t say you “WIN” a contract, which is something based nominally on something objective which the minority would compete on, but an “award,” something to be given based on ANY criteria they deem allegedly suitable!
Posted by at 1:09 PM on July 9
“On another note, I’m pretty sure that white males are a minority in New York. So “minority” should include white males.”
Posted by jewamongyou at 11:17 PM on July 8
If you are right, and I think you are - what this news represents is a mop up effort to erradicate the remaining white males from the state. This leaves the white women to be absorbed within one generation.
Posted by Whiteplight at 2:19 PM on July 9
“Blacks are thus over represented in EEOC employment by 625 percent!”
They’re just doing the jobs whites don’t want to do.
Posted by at 2:27 PM on July 9
Why should my taxes go to support businesses? What about free enterprise? What if I don’t approve of the products or services that that business is selling?
Posted by at 2:47 PM on July 9
And some people still wonder why America was attacked on 911? If this is the way our government treats so many Americans, can you imagine what their doing to others around the world in our names?
Posted by Tim at 4:31 PM on July 9
After this happens, white male business owners will be forced to make their business even more efficient. This will also result in minority and women’s businesses becoming less efficient, since they’re not being forced to truly compete in the market. Because of this, the white men’s businesses will be more profitable and the minority and women’s businesses will fail. After all is said and done, the conclusion will be that “RACISM” caused these results. Capitalism is survival of the fittest.
Posted by bidnis manz at 4:08 AM on July 10
Patrick - What hurt BET’s ratings with black people was its pitiful decent into gloficiation of rap videos and other exploitative programming - under Viacom leadership, BTW. They are returning to more family-oriented black programming, as I understand it.
Posted by at 12:22 PM on July 14