Republican Presidential Convention Blacks Out Black Business…Again!
Reality of RNC racism
‘RNC 2024’ – the Republican Party’s presidential nominating convention – presents another slap in the face for African American owned businesses from that major American political party which persistently projects itself as the champion of business.
Financial benefit from the $200-million boost expected for the economy of Milwaukee - the site of the ‘RNC 2024’ – have bypassed African American owned businesses in Wisconsin’s largest city.
This bypass results from Black businesses being blacked-out of contracts to provide services-and/or-goods to that Republican convention scheduled for July 15-18.
Nikki Purvis, the President/CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, said she is “not aware” of local Black businesses that have received RNC convention related contracts.
This black-out of Black businesses from convention related contracts in Milwaukee raises questions about the sincerity of a RNC website declaration that “stimulating economic growth for all Americans” is an essential mission of that political party.
African American business and civil rights leaders in Milwaukee report a paucity of economic opportunities or other inclusion initiatives from RNC 2024 in their city where Blacks represent the largest racial group, comprising nearly 40 percent of the population.
Rickey Townsell, Chair of the Milwaukee NAACP Branch’s Political Action Committee, said the dearth of contracting from RNC 2024 for local African American owned businesses parallels the lack of convention related “outreach” to Milwaukee’s Black community by Republicans.
“We and other constituencies [in Milwaukee] raised questions with the Host Committee prior to the convention,” Townsell said, noting NAACP engagements with political parties are non-partisan.
Wisconsin African American Chamber President Purvis said she and other Chamber members participated in a series of events about convention contracting, but that participation did not produce desired contracts.
“I’ve been in constant contact with the convention Host Committee here in Milwaukee and the national RNC about inclusion. We’ve not seen any contracts,” Purvis said during a recent telephone interview.
RNC 2024 listed eleven categories of possible contracting opportunities during the convention where former President Donald Trump is expected to be anointed the Republican Party’s official 2024 presidential candidate. Those contracting categories included audio/visual services, catering, printing, security and transportation.
Little if any contracting with African American owned businesses during RNC presidential conventions is a long-standing Republican Party practice.
The 2000 GOP presidential convention held in Philadelphia witnessed little contracting with local Black businesses during that confab ironically themed around racial inclusiveness. The GOP black-out in 2000 contrasted sharply with the levels of minority business contracting during the Democrats 2016 presidential convention in Philadelphia.
The 2008 GOP convention in St. Paul, Minnesota that pumped a projected $150 million into the economy of the Twin Cities bypassed black owned businesses in that area by no inclusion in convention related contracting.
This contracting black-out even extended to the RNC Host Committee in St. Paul reneging on pledges to post minority businesses among the preferred vendors category on the website for that convention. An August 2008 article in the African American owned Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder carried the headline “RNC Host Committee overlooks Black business.”
The Milwaukee Host Committee for RNC 2024 boosted that 30 percent of the businesses listed on its ‘Vendor Portal’ were minority owned. Yet, Portal listing proved little benefit for African American owned businesses in Milwaukee.
During the 2012 RNC in Tampa, for example, a leading Black Republican activist in that city made a very public resignation from the GOP. He cited frustrations with the GOP’s consistent short-changing of issues important to African Americans, including exclusion of Black businesses during that convention. The RNC “had no outreach to black businesses” in Tampa, the then President of the Tampa Bay Black Chamber of Commerce said during an interview that year. That Chamber president was also President of the African American Republican Club in that area.
“The Republican Party in my lifetime has done little to cater to Black business.” Milwaukee NAACP’s Townsell, 71, said.
Neither the Host Committee for RNC 2024 nor the RNC in Washington, DC responded to requests for comments about contracting with African American owned businesses in Milwaukee. The Host Committee, in November 2023, did deposit $100,000 in Milwaukee’s Black owned bank to assist increasing home ownership.
The long-standing exclusionary contracting practices during RNC presidential nominating conventions parallels exclusionary practices regarding Black owned businesses during the presidential term of Donald Trump.
A stark example of exclusionary treatment of Black businesses was the Trump Administration’s distribution of billions in various funding initiatives during the COVID Pandemic that conscientiously bypassed Black businesses.
The Public Health Strategy released in April 2020 by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, founded by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and the National Medical Association, comprised primarily of African American medical professionals, assailed the Trump Administration for suspending equitable contracting guidelines involving COVID related federal funding.
“By carving out exceptions to essential equal opportunity polices as related to federal contracting during the COVID-19 response, some will be denied opportunities at the very time when everyone should be allowed to fully engage in addressing the current public health emergency,” stated Point #10 of that 12 Point Strategy.
Also in 2020, an examination of Trump Administration practices regarding African Americans posted by the Brookings Institution noted that 90 percent of the Black owned small businesses that applied for funding with the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) were denied. “If achieving racial equity were actually part of Trump’s agenda, the distribution of resources from the PPP would have explicitly included Black-and-other-minority-owned small businesses and would have allowed them to receive an equitable share,” stated that article.
Trump’s Administration “worked aggressively to turn back the clock on our nation’s civil and human rights progress” the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights stated when it released a lengthy list of that administration’s discriminatory policies and practices.
Many see Trump as a racist, rejecting Trump’s constant refrain that he’s done more for African Americans than any U.S. President except for possibly Abraham Lincoln – the president credited with ending the institution of slavery.
Prominent African American leaders are not exclusive in the belief that Trump is a racist. America’s leading white supremacists support Trump specifically because of their embrace of his racism. Trump does not disavow this support from racists.
“Trump never has anything genuinely positive to say about the Black community, which he sees — just to start down a list — as crime-ridden, dirty, and rodent-infested. Nor does he ever identify any of the groups or individuals in such communities who are working on solutions to the issues they face,” Howard University Professor Clarence Lusane wrote in a July 2024 article.
Philadelphia businessman Calvin Tucker, a lifelong Republican who’s held ranking positions with Pennsylvania’s Republican Party, said he is “surprised to hear” about the lack of contracting for Black businesses at RNC 2024. Tucker said he’s seen minority vendors at past RNC conventions he’s attended but “not many.”
Tucker, an African American, acknowledges he doesn’t know specifics about Milwaukee yet speculated that circumstance with contracting may arise from a “philosophy in the party: Why support those who don’t support me.” Tucker advocates greater participation by African Americans in Republican and Democratic parties to better advance the interests of the Black community.
Tucker, an avid supporter of former President Trump, said he believes Trump would push for more inclusive contracting at RNC 2024 if he was aware of that black-out in Milwaukee. “I don’t know if the issue has bubbled up to him,” Tucker , chair of Pennsylvania’s MAGA Black Movement, said.
Earlier this year, the RNC closed outreach offices in minority communities nationwide. This came shortly after Trump engineered installation of one of his daughter-in-law’s as RNC co-chair.
Milwaukee was one of the cities with large African American populations where Trump tried to disqualify votes cast in the 2020 presidential election based on his fraudulent/fact-less ‘Big Lie’ claims that massive election irregularities in those cities contributed to his loss of the presidency.
Weeks ago, Trump created another ruckus when he publicly bashed Milwaukee as a “horrible” city. That comment ignited ill-will for Trump across Milwaukee.
“When TV station reporters did on-street interviews, a wide cross section of people criticized that comment,” Milwaukee NAACP’s Townsell said.
An important piece Linn and well researched. You really nail the Trump hypocrisy in claiming to be a friend of black people.