New York City Small Business Services: Whites Need Not Apply

In a recently published PDF, the government of New York spells out the myriad ways it’s excluding whites from its programs. The smiling mugs of the deputy mayor, and the city commissioner, both black, are shown just under that of the mayor, and they make it abundantly clear that “equity” is just another word for “white-exclusion.”

The deputy mayor, J. Phillip Thompson, writes:

Through the Department of Small Business Services, the City has continued to provide resources, including access to financing, business education, pro bono consulting services, and mentorship, to businesses in low- and moderate-income communities and to businesses owned by minorities, women, and immigrants…

The commissioner, Jonnel C. Doris, writes:

To promote equitable economic growth, we expanded programming through our Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC) initiative, we launched the City’s first Asian American Small Business Taskforce to support Chinatown and Asian owned businesses across the City, and we worked with the Latin American Consulates through the #LatinxNYCSiPodemos coalition to provide business workshops in Spanish, reaching more than 40,000 business owners and leaders. And our Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WE NYC) initiative achieved a critical milestone serving more than 17,000 women

The document goes on to elaborate on the many ways it uses taxpayer dollars to exclude whites:

Under “Pillars of the Small Business Recovery Plan,” the very first pillar is:

promoting equitable economic growth and supporting diverse businesses of the future

“Diverse” as in “non-white.” This becomes increasingly clear, as the document boasts about its various expenditures – and leading the list, by far, is: $1.2 BILLION in COVID-19 contracts awarded to M/WBEs (Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise). Taking second place is “funding opportunities for 10,000 small businesses at $623 million. Many of those small business are also minority owned. Perhaps even most of them.

Without a hint of shame, and highlighted in blue and bold print, the document boasts:

Since March 2020, SBS has delivered 337,000+ services for diverse New Yorkers:

92% of individuals receiving career assistance identify as non-white

53% of individuals receiving career assistance identify as Black or African-American

91% of business owners awarded a grant to reduce their debt burden are non-white

76% of businesses receiving a storefront loan via SBS are minority-owned.

Note that “Black” is capitalized, while “white” is not.

Under the heading “Promoting equitable economic growth and supporting diverse businesses of the future, we find the following:

• Blueprint for Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC)
• BE NYC Startup Intensive
• BE NYC: Access Consulting
• Partnership with Mastercard to support and
highlight Black women-owned businesses
• BE NYC Mentors
• Streamlined path to M/WBE and EBE certification for
LGBT-owned businesses in partnership with the NGLCC
• Employee Ownership hotline
• WE NYC Impact Report
• M/WBE Mentors
• Small Business Mentors NYC

The City of New York is promoting non-white suppliers of personal protective equipment (PPE) as well:

Launched online NYC PPE + Reopening SuppliesMarketplace, where 33% of suppliers are M/WBEs

Under the heading “Promoting equitable economic growth and supporting diverse businesses of the future” we read:

Issued a blueprint for Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC)
In August 2020, we issued Advancing Black Entrepreneurship in NYC – a blueprint for advancing Black entrepreneurship in all five boroughs. Informed by more than 1,500 current and aspiring Black entrepreneurs, business leaders, community leaders and advocates, the report highlighted the challenges Black entrepreneurs face when starting and growing their businesses and offers recommendations in four key areas:

• Provide equitable access to financing
• Strengthen connections within NYC’s Black entrepreneurial community
• Scale Black businesses for long-term success
• Meet the challenges of the economy of tomorrow

We also announced commitments by our inaugural partners to invest with us in solutions in these areas, including: Mastercard, EY, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. nyc.gov/benyc

The next two pages are entirely dedicated to the promotion of black businesses, and I won’t quote all of it here; this post would be too long.

An ubiquitous term in this document is “New Normal,” as if this focus on non-white businesses is something new. Something revolutionary that we’ve never seen before. In reality, this is business as usual; I’ve been writing about it for a decade, as have many others. It’s been going on for longer than many of my readers have been alive.

This PDF is rich in graphics, and I counted about 158 individuals featured, including those in group shots that were recognizable, and not counting incidental people in the background. Of those 158 people, only 7 are clearly white. Most are black.

For reference, New York City is 43% white, 24% black, and about 30% Asian or other. White New Yorkers are 43% of the city in real life – but only just over 4% in this government publication.

What does this mean, and how are we to interpret all this? As far as I’m concerned, it means that the government of New York City has nothing but disdain for its white population, and that if it had the ability to do so, it would reduce the white population of the city by 90%.

Currently, the government lacks such power, but it DOES have the power to funnel billions of tax dollars, generated mostly by its white citizens, into the hands of black organizations. Since whites still comprise 43% of the city, and they continue to vote in the same politicians, we can only conclude that they don’t have a problem with this scenario. The whites of New York City are content being treated like livestock, milked for their tax dollars, but otherwise of no value – except as punching bags for the occasional knock-out game.