MINORITY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ESTABLISHMENT

We are now 15 years into a new century and the problems Black people experienced in the 20th century have not only carried over to the current century but, in certain ways has gotten worse. The fact that there is a disparity in wealth between the average Black family and white families has existed since the beginning of the country. The size of difference is far worse in operating black businesses. In a recent Survey of Black Owned Businesses conducted by the University of Texas for the Texas Association of African American Chambers of Commerce (TAAACC), the average yearly sales for Black Owned Businesses was $60,000 compared with an average of $1.2 million for all other businesses.
In a state where $Billions of dollars of public money is spent yearly, actually $Trillions over the past 30 years, why is there such disparity? A thinking person would figure that through Government opportunities alone, the average income for Black businesses would be higher, but, for many reasons, it is not.

For anyone who is not familiar with the discriminatory policies sanctioned by states after the Civil War, which was the law of the land, African Americans were denied equal access, and in many cases no access at all, to the core of the American economy. They were excluded from admissions to top educational institutions to the simplest ability to compete in business world.

These policies denied generations of black people access to the basics of the U. S. economy. What was available to them was a segregated market which functioned on a minimum amount of public money. Of that allocation of taxpayer money, such as books for schools, public housing and school building construction, most went to non-black firms.

Very few black people were allowed to serve in public offices or as judges or on school boards where they could have learned community building skills. Black attorneys, physicians and engineers were few and far between at that time which directly accounts for under representation in those professions today. Black Americans not only were limited in their access to the banking system, but also denied jobs in the industry.

The great depression in the 1920's and World War II in the early 1940's transitioned the government as the greatest source of wealth creation in the country at the time. Limitations and restrictions imposed on African Americans benefited white individuals and companies which gave them a massive business building advantage over others seeking to provide products and services to the American government.

De-segregation in Texas took hold in the early 1970's. One of the spinoff's was the integration of the public workforce. Changes in policies opened the door for black Americans to be aggressively hired into the government workforce and companies whose business came from the public as a whole such as the telephone company or the electricity industry. Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) rules were instituted along the same time, though not as aggressively as hiring.

HUB business are defined as businesses with majority women or minority ownership (51% or more). Much of the economic success under HUB regulations went to women owned businesses which is true to this day. The desire to award contracts to black businesses was not remotely connected to the will to actually do so.

Barriers imposed by discrimination seems to exist to this day. Black businesses, on average, don't have experienced leadership, are not as well organized, and their operations, in many cases, reflect those business realities. Where would these skills have come from? Being locked out of the American political and economic system for generations insured that large numbers of black businesses would not be able to meet federal business standards.

It will take years and generations to gain any level of parity between the haves and have not's, both in households and in business. In the job market, blacks have historically been last hired and first fired and still are. In the business world, the longer it takes to honestly examine the problem, the longer it will take to find a solutions that works.

The Minority Business Councils were designed to be the go between for the corporate world and minority contractors and supplies, but has turned into more of a choke point to limit the participation in wealth building opportunities. They appear to represent the needs of prime contractors and women businesses more than the disparity between industry and black businesses.

What is missing is a whole scale attention to building basic business building skills. Call it education if you want. Their many more black Americans graduating from business schools, even prestigious business schools, but few have the inherited will to go into business for themselves, because such behavior is not instilled in their historical memory. Most have not developed the skills necessary for negotiating with those who hold business opportunities. Minority businesses have now developed the ability to ask the questions successful business people have learned to ask.

The first step in fixing the problem is having honest and intense discussions which are necessary for developing an all encompassing strategy that will help in getting a fair share of the billions of  dollars of actual cash that can be deposited by black businesses. Successful black businesses  cannot walk away after they have won, it is important for them to share their success! As quickly as they have tasted short term success, it can and will be taken away in the long term.