Image: AP

Each day it seems, President Obama is answering questions about The Great Recession, whether or not the economy is getting better, and what we’re doing to make that happen. He answered those questions directly for Black Enterprise EIC Derek T. Dingle.

“The African American community ends up being hurt during recessionary times more than the population at large,” the President said during the exclusive interview. “[The] African American unemployment rate is still way too high. You had a credit crunch for small- and medium-sized businesses that disproportionately impacted African American businesses. But part of what we have been able to do is to specifically focus on disadvantaged businesses, disadvantaged communities.”

President Obama also talks about the administration’s support for black entrepreneurs, unemployment in the black community, and the impact of predatory lending.

“I told every single member of my cabinet, ‘I want you to increase transparency, simplify the process, make sure that the goals that we have for small, minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses are prioritized inside your agency, and think about other ways that we can break up these contracts into smaller pieces so that smaller businesses could actually bid for them,’” President Obama added.

The Presidential election is in full swing with fewer than 100 days left until we head to the voting booths. For more from President Obama about these important issues, visit BlackEnterprise.com.