DARRELL WILLIAMS KEEPS US IN 'LOOP': Website lassos economic, political, social issues

      The site featuring black news and culture with a focus on money and politics was launched by Williams in August of last year. Since then, the site has been host to a bevy of business and political news as well as tips on how to ride the down-slope of the US economic roller coaster.

      “The Loop is an interactive online publication,” Williams described, “but it’s more than a news site, it’s a destination for people to find answers and solutions. We really focus on economic issues, but we focus on social and political issues as well.”

       The story behind the website’s name is pretty simple. In order to convey the producers’ hopes to keep the community informed about important economic and political issues, Williams and co. thought the name conveyed that it’s important to be in the know – to be in the ‘loop.’

      “To be inside the loop is to be informed in the 21st century,” he said, “especially for our community and for people of color in general. It means being informed in a more intelligent way; giving people information that really helps them meet the new challenges. We’re garnering a great deal of interest from people and we’re excited about how other people are excited about what we’re doing.”

      Williams, who spent time in Washington, DC on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and in UCLA’s Economic Dept., told EUR’s Lee Bailey that the mission of the site simple, to inform.

      “We really want to lead the debate and the discussion on economic progress and economic empowerment for African Americans and people of color in general,” he said.

      While the target is the minority communities, Williams said that the information available at the site is certainly the kind of content that would be interesting to everyone.

      “We’re breaking down these complex problems and explaining them to people and explaining how they affect their everyday lives and offering solutions and strategies to deal with it,” he explained. “We certainly focus on the impact that these events have on African Americans and people of color. Mainly because mainstream media has mostly ignored the fact that often times events do have different impacts on different communities.”

      “For example,” he continued, “when you look at the current housing situation; early on when people were talking about this $700 billion bailout, one of the first things that ‘The Loop’ focused on, even before Congress was interested in the idea, was that it really needed to focus on helping people who had distressed situations with their home. A lot of minority communities were being desperately impacted by that. We know that predator lending was rampant, and that has fallen out of the news, but not out of the ‘The Loop’.”

      Williams spoke briefly about the current economic crisis in the US and how the timing of the site was ideal, but he said that the hopes of the site weren’t predicated on the winds of Wall Street.

      “It’s gratuitous for us,” he said. “When we came up with the concept for The Loop two years ago, it was well before the economic crises and well before the election of our new president and his emphasis on things that are more intelligent. Today, smart is cool. So we’re in a position where the information that we were planning to provide just happens to be what many people are most concerned about. It hasn’t changed what we do, but it certainly has elevated the importance of what we do.”

      In addition to providing thought-provoking and useful information to visitors about the housing market, the stock market, the job market, the site takes the initiative to execute a few additional concepts, such as creating a blog called “Working Smart” that focuses on issues in the job market such as dealing with layoffs, avoiding layoffs, and the layoff aftermaths.

      Loop 21 is also partnering with Unity – the umbrella organization for journalists of color throughout the United States for a survey about the 2008 presidential election. Unity is made up of component organizations the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian Journalist Association and the Native American Indian Journalists Association.

      “We approached [Unity] about this and they were eager to participate. We conducted a nationwide survey on this issue of race and the media. We came up with this idea to look at the issue of how race was covered by the mainstream media in the election and what the expectations were going forward with President Obama as the new president. We thought it would be very interesting and enlightening to get the perspective of journalists of color because they come at it from two perspectives: first as professional journalists and as people of color who have had to deal with racial bias in their personal lives. It’s been a great partnership and I think it’s going to be a very interesting survey.”

      And in surveying the current crises, Williams had a few morsels of info to share.

      “There is a set of reasons,” he said of the fault of economic downturn. “One is a lack of proper regulatory oversight and another issue is basically a financial system that innovated much faster than the regulators. The heart of the problem is that stuff.”

      However, Williams said the problem is fixable and shared that he agrees with the economic plan of President Obama and his economic team.

      “It’s not going to be easily fixed and it’s certainly not going to quickly fixed. I think the tax breaks could help stimulate the economy and certainly the spending to create jobs could be helpful. The issue with the stimulus packages is how long it takes for it to work. For instance, the job stimulus policy – those aren’t going to take effect for 9 to 12 months out. But I think it’s just one step of many.”

      “I don’t have a crystal ball,” he continued, “but I do not think we’re at the bottom. We would be fortunate to see a turnaround or a flattening out in the fourth quarter of this year.”

      All the more reason to visit www.theLoop21.com. Check the website for the survey and for information on the National Press Club panel discussion event on February 19.