Top Stories
- Robert F Smith said large corporations should use 2% of their income to help minority communities (Forbes)
- Quaker Oats drops racist Aunt Jemima brand (USA Today). J & J will stop selling skin lightening creams (Reuters).
- The history of Black business management (Quartz) — Really good and interesting
- Black history and Bourbon (Forbes) – Recommended
- You Tube accused of discriminating against Black artist (Economic Times of India). – You Tube is accused of racial discrimination by steering ads to different groups and thus cheating Black artists out of ad revenue.
- Chase Bank Chicago made only 8% of all loans in Chicago’s Black Neighborhoods (WBEZ).
- Evanston, Illinois discussed detailed reparations plan including housing policy (Evanston Roundtable) – Evanston is probably further along the reparations path than any municipality in the country.
- Oakland proposes Black owned NFL Franchise (SFGate)
Protest
- Google announces $175 Million dollar fund for Black businesses; promises to diversify leadership (CNBC)
- Walter Williams argues Black people hurt themselves by rioting (Creators)
Coronavirus / Paycheck Protection Program
- COVID-19 widens racial wealth gap, hitting Black businesses especially hard (Free Press)
- San Francisco $1.5 million relief fund for Black owned business (San Francisco Business Times)
- Black Businesses struggle during coronavirus. Black banks help. (LA Times)
- Fifty-Eight Percent (58%) of Black Businesses at risk or distressed because of Covid-19 (NY Fed) – Forty nine percent of Hispanic businesses were also at risk or distressed. About 60% of all at risk or distressed businesses said they would use personal funds to survive. Another 45% said they would go into debt, while 30% said they might close or sell.
- St. Louis businesses use GoFundMe to survive (St. Louis American)
Large Company Activities / Corporate Misbehavior
- Lloyds of London apologized for helping slavery (Insurance Journal) — Lloyds insured slaves as “cargo.”
- Quaker Oats drops racist Aunt Jemima brand (USA Today) (MarketWatch)
- Johnson and Johnson will stop selling skin lightening creams (Reuters). – The creams are primarily sold in Asia and the Middle East. P&G, L’Oréal and Unilever also sell the creams.
- Comerica Bank Launches $1 million dollar Black Capital Access Program (Comerica Bank)
- PNC Commits $1B to Support Economic Empowerment for Blacks (Detroit Business)
- PNC to commit $1 billion to programs to end racism and support black communities (Post Gazette)
- Economic justice as a path to healing systemic racism (Technically) – VC firm starts a socially conscious fund.
Black Business / Interesting Businesses Stories
- First Independence Bank (Detroit) reaches 50 years (Free Press)
- Fayetteville highlights Black businesses (ABC11.com)
- Yelp lets business tag themselves as Black Businesses. You can try it by signing into Yelp->Business Information->Known for
- Yelp and MyBlackReceipt promote Black business (Yelp)
- TruGenomix (MEA Magazine) – A Black veteran owned company with a test for PTSD.
- The history of Black business management (Quartz) – Very good.
- Black run PR firm gives discounts to Black Businesses (LA Patch)
- Essence Communications hopes to raise $100 million dollars for social justice (Business Wire). The initiative is called the “Essence Unstoppable Collective”
- A online panel discussion on: “The future of the Black Economy” was captured on Vimeo. They also had a panel on the future of the LatinX economy. (Vimeo) .
- Walker’s Legacy is sponsoring a “Women in Business Digital Summit” (Walker’s legacy)
- Even the solid waste recycling industry issued a statement on police killings (Resource Recycling)
Discrimination
- Chase vows to do better in Chicago (WBEZ).
- Activist was Chase Bank Chicago to pay reparations for mortgage lending discrimination (WBEZ).
- Chase Bank Chicago made only 8% of all loans in Chicago’s Black Neighborhoods (WBEZ). Definitely looks like redlining. They made only 9% in the Chicago’s Latino hoods.
- You Tube accused of discriminating against Black artist (Economic Times of India). Here is the legal brief with details of how the scheme worked (ClassAction.Org). You Tube announced $100 million dollar funds to support Black artists (Variety). – You Tube is accused of racial discrimination by steering ads to different groups and thus cheating Black artists out of ad revenue.
Reparations / Affirmative Action
- Memphis church leaders call for reparations (Commercial Appeal)
- Current state of reparations (Guardian UK)
- California introduces bill to study reparations (AB 3121)
- University of Michigan and other schools affected by anti-affirmative action sentiment (Financial Times)
- LA Mayor directs city agencies to plan for affirmative action (LA Mayor’s Office)
- Little legal basis for corporate reparations (The Conversation)
- How to calculate reparations (The Economist)
- Evanston, Illinois discussed detailed reparations plan including housing policy (Evanston Roundtable)
Straight up Econ
- Whitewashing Capitalism (Common Dreams) – Discrimination and racism are barely taught in economics but they are fundamental to how US capitalism works.
- Economist silence on racism is a 100 year problem (Newsweek)
- Do Black economist matter (Economic Policy Institute)
- Here is a link to the original “41% drop in Black business” paper that is quoted so often in the press. The paper is called “The impact of covid-19 on small business owners.” Here.
- “19 Black economists to know” (Fortune) – Nice roll call of the current top Black economists. Missing, and rightly so, is Roland G Fryer who was accused of sexual harassment.
- Old (Dec 2019): Center for American Progress announces council on closing the Black-White wealth gap. (CAP) – Hamilton, Louis Gates, Cook, Baradaran, Kendi, Logan, Price , Rothstein. Funny, don’t even need first names any more, except Gates.
- Employment in Black and White: Wage differences (The Real Economy Blog)
- Salary History Bans help Black women (BU School of Law)
Education
- How to talk to students about racism (Chronicle of Higher Education) – There is some push back on the internet as to whether people are qualified to teach the subject.
- Texas approve $100 million college scholarship fund for low-income and diverse students (WTAW)
Tech / Apps
- Goalsetter savings app (UrbanGeekz) (Tech Crunch)
- MyBlackReceipt launches app, website and Black Business List (MyBlackReceipt) – They are also are partnering with yelp (Yelp Blog) to spend $5 million with Black businesses. Yelp report a 35 times increase in people searching for Black business.
- MyBlackReceipt also has Black business list. (Black Business List)
- Ending slavery was a libertarian idea (Cato Insititute) – Just checking if you read this far
Sports
- Oakland proposes Black owned NFL Franchise (SFGate)
Stock Market / Investing
- There is interest in Black owned or Black oriented stocks. Three Black stocks have increased volatility (Benzinga)
- When venture capitalist try and invest in Black Businesses (Harvard Business Review)
Politics / Government / State and Local
- WalletHub ranks states by economic inequality (WalletHub) – Interesting but little depth. More like a web ad. Criteria is good for scorecard.
- Wisconsin’s economy ranked last on racial equality (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Ohio is ranked as one of the worst states for racial economic equality (Columbus Business First)
Atlanta Fed President Bostic gives views on racial inequality (Bloomberg) – The best discussion of his remarks.
- We have a Moral and Economic Imperative to End Racism (Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank) — Atlanta Fed President Bostic says racism is holding back the economy
- Philadelphia could be the first city with Black stimulus package (WHYY)
- Fed Chariman Powell and other make the case for helping the vulnerable (ThinkAdvisors)
Other
- Black land loss has been a problem since Emancipation (The Conversation)
- Black history and Bourbon (Forbes)