Race still matters if we are to rebuild our economy on a strong and fair foundation. Our elected officials have failed to include racial equity in the stimulus package. This is shortsighted and counterproductive.

Our struggling economy is hitting communities of color the hardest. Housing costs, mortgage foreclosures and job losses are disproportionately affecting them. A recent report on race and opportunity in the New York City area, published by the Center for Social Inclusion (where I work), illustrates the problem.

New York neighborhoods where foreclosure rates top 20 percent are predominantly black and Latino. About 35 percent of these households were eligible for prime loans, yet received subprime rates instead. Isolated from good jobs and schools, people of color typically earn just over half as much as white New Yorkers, and are much more likely to work in unstable service sector jobs with no benefits.

We cannot perpetuate this neglect, in good times and in bad, and still expect a meaningful revival of our economy. Communities of color are a growing and vital element in our economy. According to the Commerce Department, up to 32 percent of total purchasing power may come from minority consumers by 2045, accounting for up to $6.1 trillion of disposable income.

Enabling black, Latino, Asian and Native-American peoples to get loans, become business owners and gain access to products and services could bring powerful new streams of economic growth into the economy as a whole.

Yet despite all the talk of stimulating the economy, neighborhoods that need it the most and that hold the most potential are being relegated to opportunity deserts, devoid of jobs or transit and burdened with underfunded and overcrowded schools.

The economy is like a living animal. If one vital organ fails, it doesn’t matter that the others are working. Communities of color represent a vital organ in our economy. When our government neglects them, it damages the economy’s health.

A stimulus package that does not take race into consideration is likely to perpetuate this neglect.

If banks weren’t offering prime loans to creditworthy people of color in good times, simply telling them to make loans won’t address this irrationality.

If construction jobs weren’t going equally to black men and women of all races before, stimulating construction jobs won’t ensure that communities with the highest unemployment rates also get some of those jobs.

We should demand that construction projects fairly represent who we are. State and local governments should make such fairness goals a part of the bidding process.

And the federal government should collect and make public the data on whether the jobs created by the stimulus program were fairly distributed and whether communities that benefited were amongst those hardest hit by the crisis.

Factoring race into the stimulus program is not only the moral thing to do. It is also the prudent thing to do. Bolstering communities of color is a shrewd investment in our economic future.

Maya Wiley is the director of the Center for Social Inclusion, based in New York City, which recently published the study "One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race." She can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.