The Seattle Medium reports on the Economic Stimulus Town Hall Meeting held recently to bolster collaboration between African American-owned businesses, and to garner more political support for the community.

Event speakers touched on several key subjects, including the need to advocate for African Americans and their businesses, stimulate economic growth, and tap into federal stimulus dollars allocated for the state.

“You have to do things for yourself,” said DeCharlene Williams of the Central Area Chamber of Commerce. “We shoot ourselves in the foot because we don’t know how to work with one another and get along.”

“African Americans get less than one-tenth of one percent of the contracting opportunities in the state,” said former State Rep. Dawn Mason. “We need to let [the politicians] know that it’s not going to be business as usual.”

The town hall concluded that politicians and laws that are not beneficial to the community must be challenged, and that it will ultimately be up to the African American community as a whole to help change the economic climate.

Hustletown readers: Are African-American owned businesses in your community finding ways to collaborate in 2010? Please share your strategies in our comments section below!