The Current Leadership of the Will County Board Doesn’t Respect Black People
The Current Leadership of the Will County Board Doesn’t Respect Black People
By Silence DoGood -October 16, 2020073Advertisement
The current leadership of the Will County Board thinks it knows what’s best for black people without talking to black people in Will County. “I think it’s disrespectful and outright abhorrent that the current leadership of the Will County Board would even push such an agenda without speaking with black stakeholders in Will County. For white liberals in Will County to write a resolution with such inflammatory rhetoric without consulting black stakeholders like the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce & Industry is a travesty,” said Dr. Cornel Darden Jr., President/CEO of the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce & Industry.Advertisement
Reparations is a touchy and extremely complex issue in the United States of America. The current Will County Board leadership’s position is sketchy on the issue. In the current proposed resolution, it allocates $500 a month per board member, to a board that will meet on a regular basis to discuss the best way to give reparations to black citizens of Will County. This ostensibly is a slush fund for the current leadership of the Will County Board to provide patronage money to their current political cronies. In the first four months of tax collection for recreational marijuana, the county has brought in a little over $24,000. The proposed resolution provides for a little over $56,000 a year to be allocated to pay board members of this reparations Committee.
“I think it’s outright reprehensible. I was outraged when I heard of this resolution from the Will County News. We’ve been consistently advocating for black business issues in this county for years. Many of our clarion calls to end open, hostile, and notorious discrimination have fallen on deaf ears, even with the current leadership of the board,” said Dr. Cornel Darden Jr. President/CEO of the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re the largest Black Chamber of Commerce in the State of Illinois and the current leadership of the Will County Board thinks it can use black people for political gain. The current leadership of the Will County Board does not take black people seriously.” said Dr. Darden.
“As a historian and college professor, I find it God awful that white people would manipulate history to this effect, in the form of a resolution, to score political points and to set up a slush fund for their political cronies, all while pretending that they care about black people. We [the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce and the Will County Black Contractors] still haven’t heard from the current leadership of the Will County Board about minority contracting issues and the disparity study that we’ve advocated for for years.
They have no respect for black businesses in this county and won’t even collaborate with us to get things done. They think they can ignore us and that they don’t have to talk to us. We’ve had to protest and consistently email them and call them out on social media to even get them to consider a disparity study. Now they come with this slush fund?” said Dr. Darden.
The Will County Black Contractors and the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce were responsible for pushing the disparity study agenda reported here in this Herald News article, but neither group was mentioned anywhere in the article. “There would be no disparity study without our efforts. Anyone in the know knows that we’ve been the single voice pushing for these issues and the current leadership tries to ‘blackball us’ and spread rumors about black businesses and our association, yet our membership continues to grow. They can’t ignore us for long.”
“County Board member Jackie Traynere of Bolingbrook told us to ‘pound sand,’ called us ‘bad Muslims,’ and said that she doesn’t want to work with the black chamber unless she can pick our leadership,” said Dr. Darden
According to Dr. Darden, the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce & Industry is calling for an immediate halt to discussions of reparations for black people in Will County until the current leadership begins to actually respect the stakeholders in Will County.
“Ask the County how many liquor licenses they’ve given to black businesses while they pretend to care about reparations. Jumaane Stevens, owner of Right Here Convenience Store and Chamber member needs one right now!”Advertisement
