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Black Chamber Of Commerce Leader Urges ?Ugly Stuff? In Street

HAMMOND [Indiana]| The leader of the Washington, D.C.-based National Black Chamber of Commerce on Friday issued a rallying cry for minority-owned business to take to the streets and shut down big cities if necessary to get their slice of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds.

Harry Alford was keynote speaker at the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus symposium at Purdue University Calumet....

Alford said American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds should be administered according to Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established affirmative action for minorities. Federal agencies, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, also are mandated by law to give 30 percent of all jobs available to those in poverty.

Really? Aside from the question of whether ?Federal agencies, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development,? ?give? any jobs at all, Mr. Alford must have in mind a different Title VI from the one I know. The one I know is introduced on the Department of Justice web site as follows:

Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq., was enacted as part of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. As President John F. Kennedy said in 1963:

Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination.

And the statute itself says, in relevant part:

No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Mr. Alford also said

This is something to fight for. We have to go to war, train soldiers. We?ll do the ugly stuff in the streets. We need our legislators to do their work in the Legislature.

I suppose Mr. Alford has the right to send his troops into the streets to ?do the ugly stuff? (although the police, in turn, have the right to arrest them if they?re ugly enough) and to urge his legislators to do their ugly stuff in chambers, but he should at least admit that the ?ugly stuff? he wants is a racial quota, not the non-discriminatory equal treatment called for in Title VI.

Full post as published by Discriminations on September 13, 2009 (boomark / email).