By Dominique Alexander
Next Generation Action Network
Dallas is getting a brand new convention center, and who’s influencing public policy once again? The Dallas Citizens Council is, and here is why we can’t allow this to happen.
The plan for the new convention center represents economic growth. Three billion dollars will be poured into the local economy, translating into things like jobs, resources, and access. Developers of color who disproportionately lack representation in this field deserve a percentage of these contracts and don’t stand a chance with the involvement of this organization. We know this because it is an enduring problem. In fact, the biggest issue that we continually face as a diverse city that requires inclusion is the Citizens Council and because of that influence, the city of Dallas has chosen KDC to be the program manager for the 3 billion dollar project.
The Citizens Council has historically been indifferent with regard to the descendants of American chattel slavery that are native to this city and have lived here through black codes, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration.
Indifference, however, is not the biggest obstacle. It is their historical ties to institutional racism and how they still actively stoke those fires to this day. As the unofficial governing body of the big D, the Dallas Citizens Council has successfully pushed Black people into a state of cumulative poverty, the 4th leading cause of death in America. With violent crime being heavily linked to poverty, the 500,000+ families that live and work in Dallas are sick and tired of risking their livelihoods because elitists are mismanaging the direction of the city.
Wealth generation for this community is extremely critical; this makes placing developers of color on the convention center project a city-wide priority, mainly because they are excluded from this market at the local and national levels. Key components of building generational wealth lie within one’s ability to own businesses and property; this is what real estate development is all about. Dallas boasts of more than a few qualified developers who have built relationships south of 30. KDC has not shown any signs of diversity or a track record of inclusivity.
Though the convention center is not the end-all-be-all to the Black condition in Dallas, it stands to stimulate the local economy in ways that will preserve lives and add to the over-all quality of life for this group of people. The time is now for Dallas to make bold steps to combat the racial wealth divide. Black and Brown developers make up only 5% of all developers in the country. Of this 5%, African American developers make up 1%. Both of these communities are being excluded, which shows that this problem is systemic. With several reputable sources like the Washington Post, ABC, and The New York Times, reporting on the challenges faced by Black developers, the data is available. According to a 2023 commissioned report by groveimpact.org, “Out of roughly 112,000 real estate development companies in the United States, about 111,000 of them are white-owned. Those numbers are bad but at the top of the Market, they’re even worse: Of 383 top-tier developers that generate more than $50 million in revenue annually, one is Latino; none is Black”.
Next Generation Action Network is passionate about fighting for the underserved. Since 2014 we have dedicated ourselves completely and wholeheartedly to civil rights, social justice, and human rights locally and nationally. One of our proudest accomplishments has been through the work of our NGAN Excel education department in advocating for South Oak Cliff High School. South Oak Cliff is a predominantly Black high school in the South Oak Cliff area of Dallas that was ravaged by decades of neglect.
In a community that was deteriorating from years of disinvestment, we were able to organize the students and help them to appeal to the school board. Their courage led to the school getting a 62 million dollar renovation.
This level of involvement granted us the leverage to do this for more schools. Neither the Next Generation Action Network nor the many community stakeholders that dared to believe in those children did so just to lay down and give them the same old Dallas to live and compete in.
And we are not saying that the program manager needs to be black, but there are many companies that have built relationships south of 30 and have shown a commitment to diversity and inclusion in their internal company it is hypocritical for us to do business with company that lack that commitment.
We demand that the city council do everything in its power through policy to ensure that minority groups here are able to work and enjoy the fruits of our labor. We are in the fight of our lives as we command this basic respect from the very system that oppresses us. Meanwhile, the bigotry of the Citizens Council as well as our Governor Greg Abbott, is palpable. Greg Abbott recently gutted Diversity And Inclusion throughout the entire state. Contractors of color live in Dallas and therefore deserve to thrive in Dallas. Having access to major contracts is a game changer. We demand inclusion.
