Laws, covenants, rules and regulations for me and not for thee

by Eddie R. Dillard

The following presentation was made to the Young Black Contractors Association’s Third Quarter Roundtable at the invitation of Drexall Johnson, president and CEO. The event was held at the Doubletree Civic Center Plaza in Carson, California, in Los Angeles County’s South Bay on July 29: 

First let me thank Drexall Johnson for giving me the opportunity to share some observations with you as it relates to the current condition of Blacks in the American economy. For the record, I am the former president and CEO of the Oakland-based Oakland Black Board of Trade and Commerce.

America since its founding has designed laws, covenants, rules and regulations that exclude Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, Chinese and all other people of color from economic participation in the economic system in this country.

Martin Luther King said, “America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” That check is still no good today. Let me give you one of a thousand examples of that condition as it exists today. 

The construction industry has over the past 200 years designed methods and systems to place barriers to entry for people of color in general and Black people in particular. The primary barrier in construction is trade unions. Trade unions have forced public officials to adopt policies, procedures and programs which have prohibited the participation of Blacks, thus allowing whites the privilege of feeding their families and leaving Blacks to sit at the table when all the food is gone.

The construction industry has over the past 200 years designed methods and systems to place barriers to entry for people of color in general and Black people in particular.

Look at the state of California. Lawmakers have designed policies under the California  Division of Apprenticeship Standards. The certification process has blocked Blacks from learning the skills to participate in the construction industry. There is a reason we have only one state approved apprenticeship program in the entire state. Through the vision and leadership of Brother Abdul Hammed, National Black Contractors Association, that program is located in San Diego. Blacks owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.

Laws, covenants, rules and regulations for me and not for thee …

The new tool for exclusion in the construction industry in the 21^st century is the Project Labor Agreements, commonly known as PLAs. PLAs are pacts with governmental agencies – cities, counties, school districts and special districts – to use only workers who are trade union members as workers on publicly funded projects. This effectively locks out Black workers and Black contractors, who are 90 percent non-union contractors and non-union members. In essence, the effect of this discriminatory tool is to use taxpayers’ dollars to deny Black taxpayers the right to work and earn a living for their families.

Laws, covenants, rules and regulations for me and not for thee …

Construction trade unions use their union dues to finance the campaigns of politicians who promote the exclusion of Black contractors. You cannot support bigoted institutionalized racism without condoning bigotry.

Construction trade unions use their union dues to finance the campaigns of politicians who promote the exclusion of Black contractors.

Another example is the failure of our elected officials and Black clergy to speak out against blatant racist policies. It is not by chance that some school boards are banning books that tell the truth about America’s bigoted past – banning Critical Race Theory in the education curriculum to limit the education of the real history of the American experience. 

Now the reversal of civil rights has manifested its ugly head as we see the repeal of Roe v. Wade and the assault on LGBTQ rights and the continuous attack on voting rights and affirmative action. America was built on the foundation of affirmative action for White people.

George Bush the second was admitted to Yale Law School with a C average because his father used his legacy appointment rights to admit his son. The recent scandals in college admissions reveal that cheating is a basic element of white privilege.

Laws, covenants, rules and regulations for me and not for thee …

America has had its knee on our necks long before George Floyd. Let me stop here and thank you for letting me share some of my observations of the environment we share.

Eddie Dillard is a freelance writer whose work has been published in the Oakland Tribune, the SF Bay View, the Oakland Post, the Globe newspaper and the Daily Californian. He can be reached at eddie.dillard2020@gmail.com.