Must Black Businesses Hide Black Ownership To Succeed?

How to Support Black Businesses As Climate Action?

The average salary for a Travel Nurse in Atlanta, GA is $2,080 per week. This is 12% higher than the Georgia average of $1,802.

For most of America’s existence, Black communities were intentionally excluded from business ownership. Even though the legal barriers were removed, Black business owners face many obstacles that White business owners do not.

‍In the capitalist theory of economics, first-mover advantage refers to the benefits gained by the first company to enter a market or introduce a new product or service. Just as being the first player in a game of chess gives you certain advantages, historical factors have put White people in America at an advantage when it comes to wealth accumulation and financial opportunities. When Black-owned businesses were recognized by the American legal structure during the Reconstruction Era (1863-77), the markets were already dominated by White-owned brands with developed infrastructure, supply chains, and customer bases. The White-owned businesses had the first-mover advantage. Systemic racism, foundational in the history of the United States, has created an uneven economic playing field. This has had persistent effects on

Black people’s ability to accumulate wealth and achieve the same degree of financial success as their White counterparts. Many of whom view Black or BIPOC businesses and success as a threat to the existence of the nation. Black-owned businesses stabilize neighborhoods, but their proprietors endure relentless racist roadblocks. In growing his patio-installation company, Chicago native Duane Draughton erased all clues to the public that he, a black man, owned the business. Achieving racial equity in America’s current economic system is a far-reaching goal. Radical-for-our-time policies such as wealth redistribution, increasing financial literacy, and truly equal employment opportunities are difficult to enact in the current structure. Especially as the demographic change speeds up yearly. For millennials in the USA nearly half — 48 percent — are from communities of color. Nearly half of Millennials are racial or ethnic minorities.

According to a 2024 Bank of America newsroom article, 60% of Black or African American Gen Z identify as fully financially independent, which is higher than their non-Black or African American peers (45%). Generation Z (Gen Z) is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in the United States, As of June 2024, the racial and ethnic breakdown of Gen Z is 55% BIPOC!

Generation Z (Gen Z) is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in the United States, with over half of Gen Zers identifying as non-white. According to Hootsuite, 50% of Gen Z identifies as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), which is higher than the 48% of Millennials who identify as BIPOC. Gen Z also identifies as part of the LGBTQ community at higher rates than older generations.

By infusing profitable institutions into underserved communities, community-led projects can be built without needing to rely on outside programs. Empowering communities from within is more impactful than relying on well-intentioned outsiders. Just as growing your own food promotes food sovereignty as a form of self-reliance, supporting Black communities in funding programs for each other aligns with the central ethos of the climate movement: self-sufficiency.

While significant evidence exists regarding the need for access to capital, education, and the market to improve the sustainability of businesses of color, Post Covid research demonstrates the need for an additional component to spur the development of thriving, socially oriented Black-owned business communities. A focus of black support and divestment from major corporate entities that don't support or take for granted the support of BIPOC economies. By embracing a collaborative, group economic focused community-oriented social growth strategy for small Black-owned businesses implemented through enhanced and deliberate cooperative, community-supported market engagement the trillion dollar Black consumer dollars will enable the growth exponentially of marginalized communities that have been the punching bag of mainstream media and predatory policies of banking, credit, policing. home ownership, health access and social justice legislation. Policies that hurt the environment and the ability of communities to thrive.

Empowering communities from within is more impactful than relying on well-intentioned outsiders. Just as growing your own food promotes food sovereignty as a form of self-reliance, supporting Black communities in funding programs and instituting legal policies that support community economic growth by law for each other aligns with the central ethos of the climate movement: Sustainability and self-sufficiency.