The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

The stimulus spend-a-thon was nothing more than one big PR stunt to convince folks that the government can single-handedly create jobs where their was no market demand. Foolishly, too many people stood in line for this kool-aide to top all other kool-aides only to find out it was nothing more than flavorless, colored sink water.

Black Contractors Say Stimulus Isn’t Providing Jobs
chicagopublicradio.org

A nine-mile stretch of the Bishop Ford Freeway is one of the first “shovel-in” stimulus projects in Illinois. And the government wants you to know it; there are big signs with the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act logo and the slogan “Putting America to Work”.

WILLIAMS: When you see these signs saying recovery and stimulus, it’s almost a joke.

That’s Pastor Anthony Williams. We meet off an exit of the Bishop Ford project. He’s been trying to get black politicians to pay attention to what he sees as a huge problem with how money is getting out from the stimulus plan.

WILLIAMS: It’s not beneficial to the community and the people aren’t benefitting.

That’s the same thing I heard from Black Contractors United, the African American Contractors Association and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. They all say that Chicago’s black contractors are in desperate need of work and they’re not getting the jobs the recovery act promised. The national unemployment rate is 9.4 percent. Compare that to the unemployment rate among black men – 16 .8 percent.

Dan McDuffie had to lay off about a dozen guys. He’s the president of Destiny Decorators, a minority certified business.

MCDUFFIE: We’ve been told that money is on the way and projects are on the way that have the stimulus money but we haven’t seen anything yet. (more…)