Are Minorities Getting Enough Out of the Stimulus? - TIME

"...federal and state governments are missing a great opportunity to use the stimulus to aid the poor." http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1940338,00.html?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A time%2Ftopstories %28TIME%3A Top Stories%29&utm_content=Google Feedfetcher (via shareaholic)

 In Illinois, President Obama's home state, a Chicago Public Radio investigation this fall found that less than 10% of the Department of Transportation's stimulus contracts had gone to "disadvantaged business enterprises," or DBEs, even though the state says it benchmarked almost a quarter of the dollars for those minority- and women-owned firms.

Given such different track records, minority-business advocates like John Powell, director of the Kirwan Institute, which studies race and ethnicity issues, feel that additional stimulus billions should be pushed more directly to the local level, where it stands a better chance of boosting poor minority areas. "These communities see tons of money moving around, but they fear it's passing them by," says Powell, noting that many, if not most, U.S. municipalities don't yet know how to access stimulus funds for basic green projects like home weatherization and biofuel stations. (See pictures of the effects of global warming.)

Powell thinks it's only fair that more stimulus money finds its way to minority communities, since much of today's economic disaster can be traced to those areas being lavished with subprime mortgages. Despite recovery.org, the federal website designed for tracing stimulus outlays, Powell argues, "We need to put how this is playing out under a larger magnifying glass, make it more transparent." If not, he warns, "we'll have the irony of the first black President presiding over the greatest economic restructuring in decades, but it could actually end up worsening the racial disparity." Whether or not that's an exaggerated warning, heeding it could help Obama ensure that his recovery crusade is on a track that does the most long-term — and not just immediate — good.

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