Volume
1 Issue 3- May 2001
Black Businesses
"In other words, White businesses received over 734 percent more business from UAB than did Black businesses over the last three years."
By Del Bloomer, Executive Director
The Birmingham Black Chamber of Commerce is actively engaged in advocacy and public policy research on behalf of the Black business community in Birmingham, Alabama. Most of Birmingham's most prominent corporate citizens have historically underutilized Birmingham's Black business community, particularly over the last twenty years. The BBCC's current focus on UAB has been precipitated by the disparate treatment that Black businesses have received in their attempts to gain fair and equal access to partnering opportunities with UAB, while at the same time the university is receiving unprecedented amounts of federal funding in the form of grants and contracts.
Although UAB asserts that they have a "good record" in partnering with Birmingham's Black business community, their own data belies this assertion. According to purchasing data produced by UAB (click here for the graph), the "Top 20" White businesses received $68.7 million over a three-year period while the "Top 20" Black businesses received only $9.3 million during that same three-year period. In other words, White businesses received over 734 percent more business from UAB than did Black businesses over the last three years. The top two White businesses received over $24 million during the three-year period, almost three times the total dollars received by the "Top 20" Black businesses!
UAB is currently stuck in a pattern of denial that a problem exists in the way that they do business. The Alabama State Bid Law and bonding requirements are often sited, by UAB officials, as reasons why Black businesses are not successful in procuring more business at UAB.
Here again, UAB's argument is contradicted by the fact that their record in awarding professional service contracts, which are not regulated by state bid law or bonding requirements and include such services as legal, architectural, interior design, consulting, research, etc., has been equally egregious. When inquiring about such contract opportunities at UAB, the response is often "Those contracts are very individualized and based upon relationships…", translation: "We're giving these contracts to who we want, and that's not you".
Unless and until senior management at UAB develops a grasp of the fact that they are using public dollars and are required to make good faith efforts at utilizing Small and Disadvantaged Businesses to the maximum extent practicable in all their purchasing and contracting activities, they will be a target of those who remain excluded from the business process.
NOTE: The Birmingham Black Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1997 and consists of business owners and professionals who believe that power concedes nothing without a struggle, and who are willing to educate, agitate, and litigate to remove the vestiges of racial discrimination in business, particularly among businesses and organizations that receive significant public dollars and/or large Black consumer patronage.
The BBCC is a separate and independent organization from the Central Alabama African American Chamber of Commerce. While we support the efforts of this fine organization, we believe that education, agitation, and litigation still have a place in Black business development in the new millennium.
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