The NAACP recently criticized BP because black contractors are not getting a decent share of the oil spill cleanup contracts despite the fact that many of their businesses were destroyed by the disaster.
An NAACP investigation conclude that community members and business owners [of color] have been locked out of access to contracts for cleanup and other opportunities related to addressing this disaster. In a letter from NAACP President Benjamin Jealous to BP CEO Tony Hayward, the civil rights organization noted that "contractors of color are not receiving equal consideration for opportunities to participate in mitigation efforts."
Here's news by the numbers according to the latest data set, dated July 9 (though the agency warns its report lags "the work that has been awarded to date"):
$2.2 million of $53 million in federal contracts -- 4.8 percent -- has gone to small, disadvantaged businesses. Women-owned businesses have landed 4.2 percent of contracts.
Of 212 vendors with contracts, just two are African American, 18 are minority-owned, none are historically black colleges or universities.
The Environmental Protection Agency has been one of the worst offenders in this arena, with only 1.7 percent of the dollars it's handed out -- $290,000 -- in contracts going to small, disadvantaged businesses and zero dollars going to women-owned businesses. According to the Federal Procurement Data System, the businesses that have been most left out of contracts are minority-owned, women-owned and nonprofits.
As The Root first reported back in May, African Americans are among the most affected by the spill. The bays around Plaquemines Parish -- where black fishers from the communities of Pointe a la Hache, Phoenix and Davent have trawled for shrimp and oysters for decades -- have been closing, putting an abrupt end to the livelihood of hundreds
Source: Getty Images
I'm not one to make every issue about race, so I will leave it at that. Sometimes the numbers speak for themselves. Your thoughts?
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