By Attorney Tina M. Patterson, Esq
A well-functioning economy, like the parts of the body, requires the wellness of many moving pieces to function as a whole. If you break your foot, your mobility is hampered, just as if unemployment is high, the economy is hampered. If you break your arm, your strength is minimized, just as if the markets crash, the strength of the economy is minimized. And as we all know, if we catch a virus, our entire system can shut down, as it did with covid-19, both physically and economically.
As with health, the key to economic well-being is prevention by incorporating healthy practices. In this way, the system can flow and grow to our desire.
Yet nationally, our economic well-being is still threatened. Of course there are the market issues of debt, inflation, and unemployment, along with political factors that influence market forces, such as wars and elections. Sound familiar?
And one of the most well-known, but subtle economic diseases we live with is unfair practices in the public and private sector. Practices that drive economic oppression, the likes of which we have seen in recent history during the housing market crash of 2008.
However, simply living under these occurrences and accepting the idea of an unwell economy and catching the economic flu every year is not something we have to live with as a way of life.
This is where economic accountability comes into play, and like anything else in life, it must be practiced repeatedly until it is mastered and executed efficiently and automatically.
So then, what is economic accountability?
In my own definition, simply put, it is upholding ethical standards of the economy, including guardrails and procedures to ensure that economic freedoms and rights are respected. This is particularly true when overseeing historic practices that negatively impacted or downright prevented and targeted “minority” groups in this country from gaining significant financial gain, business equity, and wealth. In other words, economic success, and as the title of our conference expresses, Economic Security and Justice for All.
In this digital tech age, where information is spread at a moment’s notice and it is actually easier than ever to thrive economically, too many are still suffering from unjust economic policies and practices from the largest financial powerbrokers in the world, which we have already alluded to:
The Private sector and the public sector- corporate institutions and government.
Corporate and government institutions wield incredible economic and financial power in providing loans, funding, contract opportunities, real estate acquisition, business capital, high income jobs, and more. In fact, the largest employer in the United States is the federal government.
The Department of Labor itself recognizes that as the nation’s largest employer, the federal government must model effective employment policies and practices that advance America’s ideal of equal opportunity for all. It is also the federal government, and by delegation of powers through state government, that is tasked with ensuring that private entities likewise follow policies and practices that protect constitutional rights and uphold the ideal of equal opportunity.
However, as history very much teaches us, equal opportunity has been denied to many, legally and practically, especially to racial minority groups, in particular African Americans. Too often discrimination still occurs, in the same historically targeted groups, and not only to the poor or economically marginalized, but also the middle class and affluent.
For perspective, let’s take a look at just a few categories of economic indicators that significantly impact upward social mobility and progress:
Black homeownership percentage:
While the U.S. homeownership rate increased to 65.5% in 2021, the rate among Black Americans lags significantly (44%), has only increased 0.4% in the last 10 years and is nearly 29 percentage points less than White Americans (72.7%), representing the largest Black-White homeownership rate gap in a decade.
–NAR, National Association of Realtors
Black employer business percentage:
In 2021, Black Americans represented 2.7% of employers yet made up 14.4% of the population. Comparatively, white Americans owned 82% of employer businesses and made up 72.5% of the population, while Asian Americans owned 10.9% of employer business and made up 6.3% of the population. Latino or Hispanic and Native Americans also had disproportionately low shares, representing 6.9% and 0.8% of employer business owners yet 19.1% and 2.6% of the population, respectively. –Brookings Institution
Black loan rates:
The purchase mortgage denial rate for Black homebuyers across the 50 largest U.S. metros is an average of 5.30 percentage points higher than the denial rate for the overall mortgage borrower population.
Black government contract awards:
According to federal contract data in the Fedmine platform, in Fiscal Year 2023, 5,371 Black-owned businesses won $9.99B in federal contracts, which is less than 1.3% of the $774B in total contracts that were awarded in Fiscal Year 2023.
Although minority-owned businesses represent 24% of eligible businesses for federal contract awards, they account for just 3% of all contract awards in fiscal year 2021—a 21-percentage point difference. The story is largely the same for Black business owners, who account for nearly 12% of eligible contract recipients but fewer than 5% of federal contract awardees.
These are the facts, but the good news is that facts can change.
Economic stagnation and oppression are not eternal, fixed truths of marginalized groups, nor is it the truth and only way of any economy. Economic oppression and unfair practices such as discrimination are malignant tumors to economic accountability and stability. With the proper diagnoses, treatment, and aftercare, it can be removed, and well-being can be maintained.
As stated, I presented the foregoing facts to you for perspective. Now I want you to imagine.
Imagine what the economy can look like with more evenly distributed resources. Look right here in Detroit, where we can see the necessary economic focus in the downtown commercial region of the city, but the economic abandonment and desolation in the surrounding neighborhoods. Imagine if the abandoned commercial strips were fully renovated and occupied with local businesses. Imagine if those businesses employed residents right in the community. How much more money would flow and circulate within the city? How much more would home value increase due to the steady flow of income? And in turn, produce a more prosperous city with tax captures and more resources to incentivize and benefit residents.
Every creation starts with imagination. A big problem is that decades and even centuries of oppression have normalized lack, have installed a limiting ceiling for greatness, and perhaps worst of all, have hidden and abused the legal recourses available for economic progress, as well as economic accountability.
Yet and still, hope springs eternal. And where there is a will, there must be a way.
This conference is one solution to address these issues before the main economic actors, major corporate and government leaders, and to reach the most key stakeholders- YOU, the audience of voters, consumers, entrepreneurs, business and corporate executives, who can demand and influence changes as education is presented, and enlightenment unfolds.
More good news is that even though such steeped institutions can be so slow to change that it feels impossible, though it isn’t, we have very real and powerful tools to shape progress and ensure accountability. There is a myriad of options so that unfair practices and abuse and misuse of power is held blameless.
Some of the options I am going to name, you may scoff or disregard, because the diseases of corruption and abuse have seeped so deeply into our systems that we laugh at very credible measures of accountability. Bear with me though, because the application of knowledge- wisdom, is more powerful than knowledge alone. Meaning, knowing these options are not enough; we must EFFECTIVELY use what we know to achieve our desired outcomes.
First is the demand (and requirement) for good business.
This means operating in integrity and honesty. As simple as it seems, holding that as a baseline standard is largely overlooked and undervalued. For businesses to thrive, they must serve to earn dollars. The Power of the dollar is in your hand. Withdraw it if it refuses to serve you. This was the power of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that ushered in the Civil Rights Era. The times may have changed, but the principle remains the same.
Engaging institutions and captains of industry.
As confirmed by bank president opening keynote speaker, Gary Torgow, difficulties and challenges still exist in borrowing from banks, confirming a significant understanding that the issue exists, and a bold expression in going on record about the challenges and presenting solutions.
Resolving to correct consumer disputes, rather than excusing poor practices or violations of rights.
Too often, corporate institutions especially, use their resources to defend their actions, rather than correct them. This use of power often intimidates consumers from acting, but it does not excuse poor practices. Furthermore, in the age of public accountability and the value of branding through social media, businesses are in a more precarious position when it comes to protecting the integrity of their brands and cannot afford a tarnished name or sullied reputation.
This makes technology one of the most potent solutions we have, especially through the use of social media.
It is a very powerful ally on our side, one that we use daily, in every corner of the world, instantaneously, even as we speak. It doesn’t seem like it is so potent because like with so many resources available to use, we often underutilize or abuse it, so that we remain ignorant of the power we literally hold in our hands. With ever-emerging technology, as we come to learn more and understand it, be not afraid of it. As fast as it is developing, it can never replace, replicate, or reproduce the power of the human mind and spirit that fuels it and gives it life. As with any tool you acquire, use it for good, and use it to your advantage.
Finally, there is still the legal and political system.
We almost always have recourse in the system of justice and government, but with abuses in the system, we may even skip viewing this as a solution entirely. This is another symptom of economic unwellness- the breach of trust it can create in our own public systems due to multiple abuses. However, allowing our legal and political systems to go unscathed when underperforming and excusing violations of rights is an affront to our ideal of liberty and justice for all. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. eloquently stated in his underrated masterpiece, Where Do We Go From Here:
“The legal structures have in practice proved to be neither structures nor law. The spare and insufficient collection of statutes is not a structure; it is barely a naked framework. Legislation that is evaded, substantially nullified and unenforced is a mockery of law.”
There is power in the public- public assembly, freedom of expression, and petition. This is especially important in this election season. Our civic duty does not end when we cast our ballots. Our previous speakers, Gary Torgow and Karen Weaver, referenced this fact in stating that our vote connects to our values. And our values are eternal, above and beyond a slip of paper where we fill in our bubble for our political selections.
Our votes are our values, and our elected representatives are civil servants that work for us. We often lose sight of that and allow poor and oppressive policies to be passed, perhaps because we believe who is “in power” has the only power. And this is simply just not true, neither do the individuals currently at the center of power remain at the center of power.
We must always act in the now with the future in mind. The founding of the nation was rooted in the collective power of individuals. The Underground Railroad was rooted in the collective power of individuals. The same is true of the Civil Rights Movement. As we usher into the digital age, it is important that we do not lose sight of this collective power to create movements that can change and shape the destiny of a nation.
I alluded to the fact that we often refer to our government officials as those “in power.” This is true to some degree, but not the whole truth.
The greatest power in the universe is the power you hold.
As a practicing attorney who has been victorious in disputes with major business and government institutions, I find that the clients who have emerged successfully in legal battles are those who do not back down from challenges. Those who, with trusted and sound counsel and support, overcome barriers in search of truth and rightness, and use the power available to them to achieve their desired results, while enforcing accountability from those institutions.
So many of the solutions I presented, and this is by no means exhaustive, may seem superfluous and overly simplistic. And maybe even repetitive.
However, repetition is the mother of learning. Like breathing, eating, and sleeping, we must continue these conversations and dialogues until our words become actions that we do by default.
Therefore, I challenge you to think differently, to think that it really doesn’t have to be that complicated after all, at all. And I assure you, that nothing I presented is pure theory, but all practical and tactical, and most importantly, possible.
As I close, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes ever, from President John F. Kennedy:
“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”
Why then, should we begin if the work may never be completed in our lifetime?
Because the future can always be greater if we start NOW.
Editor’s Note: This was a speech that Attorney Tina M. Patterson, Esq., the President and Director of Research at The PuLSE Institute gave at the institute’s 2024 national economic conference.
