Brown, whose company folded a couple of years after the Richmond set-aside program was abandoned, is unconvinced. For him, the Richmond set-aside program made the difference between modest success and failure. His business folded in 1992, throwing seven people out of work. Brown, who recently reopened a small contracting company, is still trying to get back on his feet financially. The problem, he added, is that without a nudge, white contractors are unlikely to subcontract with small, black-owned firms like his.
Statistics leave little doubt that to be white and male in America is to hold an economic ace.
Black men earn 74 cents on the white male's dollar, and black women earn 64 cents. For Asian males, the figure is 99 cents on the dollar, and for Asian females, it's 78 cents. Hispanic males earn 65 cents on the dollar, and Hispanic females earn 54 cents. But according to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, just 11 percent of the managers are black men or women. Fifty-six percent of the managers are white men, and 31 percent are white women.