Pennsylvania County Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis

The massive spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, pandemic, has revealed economic and racial inequities that the United States has been dealing with for decades; from the disproportionate rate of black people contracting the virus to the economic hardships many of the country’s poorest have been left to face alone.

It is because of these developments that one city in the state of Pennsylvania is leading the charge by declaring another public health crisis that arose as a result of the coronavirus—racism.

According to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Allegheny County has passed a motion of 12-3 to label racism a public health crisis this week. The document was initially drafted following a 2019 report that revealed that Pittsburgh has the worst quality of life for its black residents than in any other city of its size within the country.

In Pittsburgh, the rate of infant mortality among black children is 94% higher than the other cities in the study. Research found that black men within the city also face higher rates of cancer diagnoses and cardiovascular disease.

“This is not just a black issue; this is a humanity issue as we heard in the many statements that came before [the meeting],” said Councilwoman Olivia Bennett who is also the lead sponsor of the bill. However, some are not on board with the new motion such as Republican Sam DeMarco.

“I do have a problem with the language. It seems that they’re calling out whites as a collective and claiming that whites are responsible for this … racial classification scheme and things like that,” he explained. “And I’m sorry, that language, I just can’t support it. To the folks on the right, we believe that white privilege is something that’s just something created by the left to try to create division.”

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African American-Owned Banks Are Making Sure Minority Businesses Are Receiving Stimulus Funds

African American-owned banks are helping small businesses owned by minorities receive a share of funds from the Paycheck Protection Program.

According to We Buy Black, an online market for black-owned products, OneUnited Bank announced the launch of its Small Business Administration’s PPP. The program is offering PPP loans to new and existing customers across the country through its online and mobile banking platform.

After many African American and female business owners complained of being left out of the first round of funds allocated to the PPP, $30 billion in stimulus funds has been allocated to Minority Depository Institutions and Community Development Financial Institutions.

“Most of our customers who filed PPP applications with other institutions during the first round were not funded,” said Teri Williams, president and COO of OneUnited Bank, the largest African American-owned bank in the country. “We’re proud that OneUnited can step up to provide black businesses with better access to stimulus funding.

However, OneUnited is not the only black-owned bank working to make sure black business owners get their share. Industrial Bank in Washington, Citizen’s Trust Bank in Atlanta, Unity National Bank in Houston, all ranked on the BE 100s Banks list, and others, are all active in securing funds for African American businesses.

For African American business owners, this is also a way to ensure that the bank they’re using is dedicated to ensuring they receive PPP funds.

According to the Brookings Institute, a decade of business ownership gains by African American-owned businesses since the 2008 recession is now in jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result of the pandemic, African American minority and women-owned businesses are suffering even more than white-owned businesses, which typically receive better loans through bigger banks.

The first round of PPP funding was a Wild West of first come, first serve, and included many large hotel chains and restaurant franchises receiving funds. Many of them, including Shake Shack and Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse were shamed into returning the money.

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Over 70% of Small Business Owners Expect Coronavirus To Have “Permanent Effects” On How They Run Their Business

Trounced by the colossal blow of the coronavirus, optimism among American small business owners has plummeted to its lowest mark in three years.

A new survey by CNBC and SurveyMonkey revealed that small business confidence has dipped to a record low since the survey began recording the Small Business Index in the second quarter of 2017. The index fell from 61 out of a possible 100 in the first quarter to 48 this quarter.

Just 18% of smaller business owners—less than one in five—report current business conditions are “good,” down from 56% in the first quarter of 2020. At the same time, 43% of small business owners contend that conditions are “bad,” a figure that before had never been above 11%.

On a quarterly basis, CNBC and SurveyMonkey poll more than 2,000 small business owners to help measure the vitality of the U.S. economy along with trying to gain a view from Main Street on jobs, taxes, and other topics.

The latest analysis from the Q2 2020 CNBC/SurveyMonkey survey uncovered key findings:

• Some 72% of all small business owners say the coronavirus outbreak is likely to have permanent effects on the way they operate. Thirty-six percent of those owners report they have cut their own pay, while about one quarter have either laid off or furloughed employees. Some 52% of businesses that laid off or furloughed employees expect to hire all of them back once things return to “normal.” Around 37% plan to hire “some” employees back, while 9% say the jobs are lost forever. The crisis has also bought good prospects, with 7% of small business owners reporting they have pivoted their firms to offer products or services to help fight the pandemic.
• Fifty-two percent of small business owners approve how President Trump is handling his job, down 12 points from 64% in the first quarter.
• Over three quarters of small business owners with five or more employees say they’ve applied for “Payroll Protection” loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Some 20% of the firms received funds, while those with 50 or more employees are more likely than their smaller peers to already have obtained funding.

The SBA program, the Paycheck Protection Program, was launched in April in two phases. The federal government’s roughly $660 billion loan program was intended for businesses with fewer than 500 workers. Firms can use the forgivable loans to help cover payroll and operating costs.

The CNBC/SurveyMonkey data, announced on May 4, consisted of some stunning revelations.

“The totality of the quarter-to-quarter change is unlike anything we’ve ever seen, with every marker of confidence plummeting at once,” Jon Cohen, chief research officer at SurveyMonkey, said in a news release. “Small business owners overwhelmingly see the pandemic as having permanent effects on the way they operate; the buoyant expectations from Q1 have been entirely upended.”

The CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey was conducted via SurveyMonkey’s online platform from April 21-27, 2020, among a national sample of 2,220 self-identified small business owners ages 18 and up.

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Betty Wright, Grammy Award-winning soul singer, dies at 66

Betty Wright, a Grammy Award-winning soul singer, has passed away at the age of 66.

The news of her passing was confirmed by the hitmaker’s niece, according to Heavy.com. Wright, whose music was celebrated for telling stories that were mature and about learning hard lessons, is best known for “Clean Up Woman,” “Tonight is the Night” and “No Pain, No Gain.”

While the cause of her death has yet to made public, singer Chaka Khan had posted to her social media roughly a week ago that Wright was “in need of all your prays.”

Calling all my #PrayWarriors | My beloved sister, Betty Wright @MsBettyWright, is now in need of all your prays.
“Que Sera, Sera | Whatever Will Be, Will Be”
In Jesus Name We Pray for Sister Betty
All My Love Chaka pic.twitter.com/krQcfWFl5r

— 🎼 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖐𝖆 𝕶𝖍𝖆𝖓 💜 (@ChakaKhan) May 2, 2020

READ MORE: Little Richard, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and music icon, dies at 87

Wright was born Bessie Regina Norris on December 21, 1953, in Miami. She began her career as a teenager.

The first of a string of Billboard-charting songs came at age 15 when “Girls Can’t Do What The Guys Do” broke into the Top 40 in 1968. She scored her first gold hit with “Clean Up Woman,” which reached the Top 10 in 1972, before her 18th birthday.

Betty Wright attends the GRAMMY U Conference at Gibson Guitar Showroom on April 7, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by John Parra/WireImage)

She continued with a run of R&B hits throughout the 1970s, including “Tonight is the Night,” “Let Me Be Your Love Maker,” and the Grammy-winning “Where is the Love,” a collaboration with KC and the Sunshine Band.

READ MORE: Andre Harrell, founder of Uptown Records, is dead at 59

After a dry spell through most of the 1980s, Wright closed out the decade with the hit single “No Pain, No Gain.” She remained active for the balance of her career, becoming one of the music industry’s most in-demand vocal coaches for stars like Jennifer Lopez and Angie Stone.

In 2012, she won another Grammy for her collaborative album with The Roots, Betty Wright: The Movie. She was a collaborator and mentor to many hip-hop acts, most from her native Florida, such as Rick Ross, DJ Khaled and Trick Daddy.

The post Betty Wright, Grammy Award-winning soul singer, dies at 66 appeared first on TheGrio.

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