'We have a large community problem': Black business leaders meet with Rep. Ruben Gallego

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego and about a dozen Black business leaders perched in cushioned barbershop chairs on Monday to discuss challenges facing Arizona’s Black community.

The listening session, part of Gallego’s ongoing campaign for U.S. Senate, was held at Natural Impressions Barbershop in Phoenix, where Gallego, D-Ariz., regularly gets his hair cut.

The hourlong conversation touched on topics from African-American representation on corporate boards, to discriminatory behavior by credit unions, to Republican-led school curricula that downplay the role of racism and slavery in U.S. history.

Eventually the conversation settled on the influx of federal cash arriving in Arizona. Fuelled by President Joe Biden’s manufacturing-focused legislation, Arizona is awash in federal money to upgrade its aging infrastructure and build out green technologies, and it is seeing some of the largest private investments ever in state history for microchip manufacturing.

Roy Tatem Jr., a consultant and former head of the East Valley NAACP, said he fears the Black community is not positioned to benefit from those investments.

"We’re fighting so hard, and behind in this economy," Tatem said. “So when emerging economies appear, many people are not even in position to take advantage … because we’re struggling in the current one."

Others pointed out the need for education and talent pipelines to avert homelessness and poverty. Another asked whether any of the infrastructure contracts would go towards Black businesses.

State Rep. Quantá Crews, D-Phoenix, seconded the concern about the emerging semiconductor manufacturing economy, saying she has been seeking information about the jobs the industry will create in Arizona.

“I appreciate your work, and Senator (Mark) Kelly’s work to bring that in, and (U.S. Rep.) Greg Stanton’s work to bring it in. But if it’s not accessible, then that’s where the issue is,” Crews said. “I see it all around, and I hear the talk all around. But if you can’t get through the door, it might as well not be there.”

As they are nationwide, racial wealth disparities are steep in Arizona, where white residents of the state are twice as likely to be homeowners compared with Black residents, and significantly less likely to live below the poverty line. Displacement of historically Black neighborhoods and discrimination in federal relief programs have contributed to yawning inequalities in housing, the cornerstone of wealth-building.

Those disparities extend to entrepreneurship. The Brookings Institution, a think tank, found in 2022 that there were around 1,000 Black-owned businesses in the Phoenix area. If that number were proportional to the Valley’s Black population, there would be around 6,000.

The event drew a contrast with Gallego’s Republican Senate rival Kari Lake, who has opposed race and diversity curricula in schools and has flirted with racist conspiracy theories on the campaign trail. Over the weekend, Lake criticized the playing of the song “Lift Every Voice,” a song often referred to as "the Black National Anthem," in addition to the U.S.’ national anthem at the Super Bowl.

"I'm STILL not standing for this divisive garbage. One nation. One anthem," Lake said Sunday on the social media platform X.

Lake’s name was mentioned only once during the roundtable, when Howard Bell, a former consultant and real estate investor, criticized the GOP.

“They’re circling the wagon, so that they can hold onto their goodies, and keep their toys for themselves. We need to open that up. We can’t be led astray by these false notions about a large border problem. We have a large community problem,” Bell said.

Despite the event’s cheerful mood toward Gallego and criticism of Republican initiatives, polling suggests that Black voters’ support for Biden has fallen at a faster clip than the general public, and that Democrats’ lead over Republicans among that group is falling.

Responding to the flurry of feedback, Gallego suggested a conference between Black-owned contractors and the general contractors tasked with implementing the Infrastructure Law, and touted his support for the Child Tax Credit, which caused child poverty to fall dramatically, particularly among Black children, when it was first expanded during the pandemic. And he recalled the whiplash he felt going from a working-class family in Chicago to studying at Harvard University as an undergraduate.

“They’re all connected. They get you your first business, they get you your first loan,” Gallego said of his Harvard peers. “This is the world that we have to compete in.”

Laura Gersony covers national politics for the Arizona Republic. Contact her at lgersony@gannett.com or 480-372-0389.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Senate race: Ruben Gallego talks to Black leaders in Phoenix