In the infrastructure and engineering industry we talk a lot about “risk mitigation.” But for women and minority-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs or DBEs) in New Orleans, the greatest risk we face isn’t a technical failure, it’s a systemic, stereotypical deficit of trust.
Despite decades of working our asses off to obtain licensure, bonding and a successful track record of performance, a new and destructive rhetoric is threatening to erase that hard work. The weaponization of the term “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) has led to the instantaneous cancellation of our qualifications. When critics spout those three letters, they aren’t engaging in a policy debate; they are triggering a reflexive dismissal of our merit without evidence or due diligence.
The “2% Trap”: A Decades-Long Stagnation
To understand why affirmative action and M/WBE programs exist, one must look at the data, not the politics. The Data Center’s New Orleans Index reveals a sobering “apples-to-apples” comparison of our progress since the late 1990s:
• The Participation Gap: In 1997, minority-owned firms represented 18% of all businesses in the New Orleans metro. By the 2012 census (post-Katrina), that number jumped to nearly 40%. We were showing up, starting firms and entering the arena at record rates.
• The Revenue Wall: Despite our growth in numbers, our share of total business receipts has remained stuck at a staggering 2%.
Just think about that for a minute: 40% of the firms, but only 2% of the money. This is the “equitable deficit.” According to The Data Center, this deficit grew from $39.4 billion in 1997 to nearly $60 billion in the post-Katrina era.
We aren’t asking for a handout, and we never have; we are pointing out a broken market where the “gatekeepers” continue to bypass qualified local talent in favor of a status quo that hasn’t moved the needle in over 30 years. Could you imagine the reaction if this statistic applied to majority-owned firms of any size?
In cities like ours, where infrastructure projects directly impact quality of life, public health and economic mobility, we cannot afford to narrow the field of who gets to participate.
Equity in contracting is not about optics or political correctness; it’s about economics.
It’s about performance, competition and delivering better results for the communities we serve.
A Double Standard of Accountability
Small, disadvantaged businesses are held to a standard of perfection that large, multinational conglomerates are rarely asked to meet.
If our small businesses operated jobs over budget or faced lawsuits and indictments like some multinational firms have in other states, we would be barred from competing. Yet, those same giants are not only welcomed back to the table but somehow capture opportunity time and time again.
This asymmetry is not helpful to our infrastructure projects, our municipal budgets or the taxpayers who support them. When a large firm fails, it’s due to “project challenges.” When a small M/WBE or DBE firm faces a hurdle, the rhetoric shifts to “this is why DEI doesn’t work.” This isn’t risk management; it’s bias masquerading as prudence.
The Business Case for Equity
Closing this gap is the only way to ensure the long-term solvency of our region. Research from the Urban League of Louisiana and the See Change Collective, in their report The Business Case for Racial Equity in New Orleans, makes it clear:
• Economic Growth: Achieving business parity could add $43 billion to the New Orleans region’s economic output by 2050. Local firms hire local people who generate and regenerate money into our own homegrown economies.
• Tax Revenue: Closing the earnings gap would generate an additional $560 million in annual state and local tax revenues. When more people in the city are making money, more people in the city are spending money with other local businesses and attracting more taxpayers to return home.
Every dollar paid to a local M/WBE firm stays in our parishes — fixing our pipes, fixing our streets, fixing our drainage and supporting our schools. A dollar paid to a multinational firm often leaves the state the same day.
Minority- and woman-owned businesses are asking you to consider our qualifications, not our acronyms.
The hardest part of this business isn’t the engineering; it’s getting the gatekeepers to see us as equals. It is time to stop using “DEI” as a pejorative and start using it as a tool for economic survival. We don’t want a “diversity win” — we want the same consideration, the same trust and the same seat at the table that our qualifications have already earned us.
Infrastructure forms the literal foundation of our society. If that foundation is built on a “deficit of trust” and excludes 40% of our business community, it will never be truly stable. It is time to stop viewing our companies through the lens of political triggers and start seeing them through the lens of performance, persistence and the multi-billion-dollar economic boost that genuine equity will bring to New Orleans.
To the city, state and private agencies and entities in charge of building infrastructure and economic development, and to the elected and appointed officials who lead them, it’s time to actually do something different — not just talk about doing something differently:
It is time to move past “participation goals” and start focusing on utilization outcomes.
• Implement Robust Small Business Set-Asides: We must stop funneling all professional services through massive, multiyear “umbrella” contracts that only multinationals can hold. Leadership must utilize set-aside programs for “right-sized” projects—those in the $100k to $50M range — where local small firms have the capacity, the resumes, and the specialized expertise to lead as primes.
• Respect the Professional Resume: There is a toxic, antiquated assumption that M/WBE firms are only suited for “low-skill” tasks like janitorial services or basic construction labor. We are engineers, planners, architects and program managers. Our resumes are built on technical precision and high-level professional services. Gatekeepers must stop looking at our companies through the lens of a “compliance checkbox” and start looking at our actual qualifications.
• Update the Standard: We are often operating on infrastructure standards that haven’t been updated since the 1970s. We cannot build a 21st-century “Smart City” using a 50-year-old playbook that was designed during an era of exclusion.
Iam Christian Tucker is the president, CEO and owner of ILSI Engineering, a New Orleans firm that has specialized in civil, structural and mechanical engineering for more than three decades. She may be reached via email at IamTucker@ILSIEngineering.com.
