July 5th, 2007
Black in Business, What are we known for?
Chicagoland is the largest metro area I have lived in. It has become a melting pot and although not as diverse as New York we have a lot of ethnic groups. I have gone through life seeing things in terms of black and white. In my world there were 2 America’s, one black and one white. The land of opportunity has become just that for many groups of people. My father was a Iron Ore miner and my mom was a domestic worker. As a young child, all the black families’ head of household worked. The majority was blue collar workers and in many cases the mother also worked. Most house holds had two parents and the families wanted a better life for their kids. As children we did not have to wonder what black folks did for work, it was all-around us.
I have been oblivious to many things but have started to notice things in the business world. This post carries a high risk of stereotyping but here’s goes. I recently notice that many of the diners in town are Greek owned. I noticed many of the Dry cleaners are Korean owned. The Dunkin Donut shops are Asian Indian owned, as is many low priced hotel chains. The lawn care business is heavily owned by Hispanic business people. Much of the home contracting is done by Polish immigrants. Many of these business owners are first generation American business owners.
When you consider the businesses, cooking, cleaning, lawn care, Inn keeper, you know we should be involved. Many of the Jewish owned retailed stores from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s have changed hands and offer other immigrants a chance to live the American dream.
Black America, what are we known for? We own hip hop, and our black rap artist have done well, we have a majority of players in the NBA and NFL. Is it no wonder that our kids want to be a hip hop star or play pro ball. In a visual world, most of the opportunity they see is that of super stars and is unattainable for most. I am sure many black families discussed this topic during the holiday yesterday. I was so glad to post on Brain Richardson owner of click drag solutions because he is providing hope and an example of a black business man. I want to highlight more black success stories. Please let me know of people you know that I could post about. If any one knows, our business niche as black people, please leave your comment. For the future generations, what can we do now to make more young people want to be a business owner?
July 5th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
You are asking some tough questions here, Jim. My sense is that a lot of black young people do not see education as a key to open many doors they need to open. Already you have shown that education is a foundation for many opportunities. With creativity I believe we’ll see many new black entrepreneurs that open businesses that we might not even dream of at present. And, by the way, I am seeing more black leaders in many firms and others leading their own. Keep up this vision, Jim, we all need it.
July 5th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Robyn, thank you for your comment.If your are seeing change for the postive, the people that represent that change are people I want to highlight
July 6th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Jim, I talked about something similiar in my blog. USA Today had an article about how Indian-Americans control 43% of the hotel/motel industry. If Blackstone bought Hilton for $26 billion, it begs the question of what the value of this minority group’s wealth is. Here’s a link to my blog article: http://simmeringblackman.wordpress.com/2007/04/19/they-got-theirs-we-need-to-get-ours/
July 7th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Simmer, it open your eyes to opportunity.It appears to me, many of these Indian Americans, are first generation imports from India. We have been here 400 years.I can wait to read your post
July 10th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
I agree with Robyn, this was a topic in social studies, it says that good education, compared to say pro-sports or the entertainment industry, creates a far higher winner-to-loser ratio but things being what they seem to look like, education does not seem to be an attractive path because of the visibility thing. After all, where’s the glamour in being an accountant or systems analyst?
Among the first generation immigrant entrepreneurs, I think they are the hardest working people in the country because they have nothing to begin with. Also, they may be conversing in close knit communities and try to jump into the business model their peers have success with, I’m sure all these Indian hotel owners have some sort of annual convention and share financial and technical know-how on a proven model they’ve discovered that will help them live a better life in this country.
July 11th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Jody, thanks for the comment, your comment says it all
July 12th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I recently worked as a field technician for a job which required me to visit nearly all of the “convenient” stores in my area for a 200-mile radius. This led me to discover that nearly every single independently-owned store in northern Florida is owned by a person of Indian or Pakistani heritage. I honestly have nothing against them, but I couldn’t help but wonder why black people have never been able to prosper as a group like that.
I’m well aware of the many societal and legal forces that have held us back (and down) for centuries, but it’s hard to comprehend how another peoples can come here and essentially achieve near-immediate success. It’s easy to blame it all on some of the unrealistic hoop dreams that seem to plague our younger generation’s minds, but I don’t think that’s nearly as widespread a problem as it’s being made out to be. And that phenomenon certainly hasn’t been around long enough to account for the past few decades of economic stagnation. We are doing better than we ever have before, but still no success stories comparable to how other races are taking over the hotel and convenience store industries (among others).
July 12th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Kevjohn, thanks you for your comment.I hope we can inspire our children to be business owners.Your comment offers good insight