This week we have some interesting research from Ellora Derenoncourt. She studied the great migration of Blacks from the south to the north. Her research discovered that, while Blacks doubled their wages, White backlash against the migrants prevented upward mobility especially for Black men.
Top Stories
- Rolling Up the Welcome Mat at the Door to the Promised Land: The Economic History of the Great Migration and Its Aftermath (Dollars & Sense) – White backlashed crushed Black men’s chance at upward mobility. (More links in “Black Economics” section)
- Should Black Northerners Move Back to the South? (New York Times)
- Powell’s Dashboard Shows How Far U.S. Economy Has to Go on Jobs (Bloomberg) – Nice to see the fed is watching Black unemployment, low wages and non-collage workers.
- Treasury to Invest $9 Billion in Minority Communities (New York Times)
- Mass incarceration is causing Black communities to lose billions in earnings (The Grio). It is estimated that formerly incarceration Black people lose out on more than $1.6 billion per year.
- Why I’m suing McDonald’s for discrimination along with 76 other Black former franchisees (Business Insider)
- Student Debt and the Disregard for the Black Middle Class (Bloomberg)
- Black-Owned Vegan Meat Company Strikes $300K Deal With Mark Cuban (The Beet)
All Stories
Coronavirus / Covid-19 / Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
- House Passes $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill, How Soon Will The Black Community Receive A Check? (Forbes)
- Treasury to Invest $9 Billion in Minority Communities (New York Times)
- ‘What are you supposed to do?’ Black restaurant owners discuss surviving Covid-19 (Boston Business Journal)
Jobs / Workers / Unemployment / Gig Economy
- Powell’s Dashboard Shows How Far U.S. Economy Has to Go on Jobs (Bloomberg) – Nice to see the fed is watching Black unemployment, low wages and non-collage workers.
- Based On Historical Trends, The 2021 ‘Shecession’ Might Give Rise To Female Entrepreneurship (Forbes)
- White House downplays surprising February jobs gain, warns US far from recovery (The Hill)
- Lt. Gov. Molly Gray: Vermont women are in economic crisis, and the FAMILY Act is a solution (Bennington Banner) — Out of the 140,000 jobs that the U.S. economy lost in December, all were lost by women, particularly Black and Latina women.
- Five takeaways from the February jobs report (East Oregonian)
- Biden’s Stimulus Is the Dawn of a New Economic Era (Foreign Policy)
- Jump in hiring fuels optimism for US economic recovery, though Black employment lags (The Grio)
- Black and Hispanic women aren’t sharing in the job market recovery (CNBC)
- Study: 95 years needed for Black workers to reach talent parity (Benefits Pro)
Inequality / Systemic Racism / Economic Justice
- Mass incarceration is causing Black communities to lose billions in earnings (The Grio). It is estimated that formerly incarceration Black people lose out on more than $1.6 billion per year.
- Black and Latino directors largely missing from Illinois corporate boards, diversity report finds (Pantagraph)
- Black women are missing in the UK’s top 1% (LSE) — UK-born Black women are the most under-represented in the top percentile of incomes.
- Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over businesses (Washington Post)
- New stimulus proposals look like a guaranteed income experiment. Early results show whether it will work (CNBC)
Black Business
Black Business General / Interesting Businesses Stories
- Black and Mobile: A delivery service for Black-owned restaurants (Fast Casual)
- Rebound: Keeping Lemonade Dreams From Turning Sour (NBC Bay Area)
- From A 29-Year-Old Record-Label Founder To An Ed-Tech Entrepreneur: 10 Standout Black Small Business Owners From The Next 1000 (Forbes)
- She wanted to open a joyful plant shop. It’s now a refuge for the pandemic-weary (Los Angeles Times) – Shawna Christian’s flower shop especially popular with a younger generation of girls.
- Black-Owned Vegan Meat Company Strikes $300K Deal With Mark Cuban (The Beet)
- Named To Honor Black Wall Street, 1921 Business Incubator Brings Co-Working Space, Startup Support To Far South Side (Block Club Chicago)
- Black-owned construction firm thrives under fifth generation leadership (Philadelphia Tribune)
- Black business owners must overcome obstacles to have a chance at building wealth (ABC News) — Once thriving centers of Black-owned businesses are seeing a revival.
- Black business leaders in Columbus see progress, want more inclusion in business sector (The Columbus Dispatch)
Black Business Specific
- This Black-owned tea brand has seen a boom in sales because of ‘Bridgerton,’ its owner says (CNN) – Netflix series gives tea brand a boost
- Fire Damages Jones’ Bar-B-Q, a Historic Black-Owned Business (New York Times) – Online fundraiser launched to help business damaged by fire.
Big Business / Corporate
- Amazon Workers’ Union Drive Reaches Far Beyond Alabama (New York Times)
- Google’s approach to historically Black schools helps explain why there are few Black engineers in Big Tech (Washington Post) – Damn right.
- Companies declared ‘Black lives matter’ last year, and now they’re being asked to prove it (Market Watch)
- PayPal (PYPL) Offers Support to Black Community With Tie-Ups (Nasdaq)
- U.S. Bank Launches New Approach to Build Wealth and Create Access for Diverse Communities (Tennessee Tribune)
Discrimination
- Race discrimination lawsuit says Amazon “de-levels” employees of color (CBS News)
- US agency probes Facebook for ‘systemic’ racial bias in hiring, promotions (Business Today)
- Why I’m suing McDonald’s for discrimination along with 76 other Black former franchisees (Business Insider)
- Labor Nominee Faces Scrutiny Over Boston’s Contracting Practices (Wall Street Journal)
- Small Business Contract Discrimination (Investopedia) — Procurement and access to financing are two barriers that minority owners face
- A Black manager at Amazon Web Services is suing her own employer, alleging management fostered ‘shocking racial insensitivity’ and left her vulnerable to sexual assault (Insider)
Reparations / Affirmative Action / Diversity / Inclusion
- America’s ‘anti-affirmative action’ industry (Al Jezeera) – Affirmative action support (Prop 16) failed in California in November, 2021
- ‘There Is a Bigger Role’: A C.E.O. Pushes Diversity (New York Times) — Tim Ryan, the senior partner at PwC, has spent the past five years trying to make his company a model inclusive workplace, and advocating for more diversity in the rest of corporate America.
- Resources for BIPOC-owned natural products businesses (New Hope) — In an effort to bridge the success gap between white and minority-owned businesses, a number of groups are stepping forward to offer capital, networking and other resources for BIPOC business owners.
- State’s novel relief fund for Black Oregonians provided help to thousands even as it faced legal challenge: ‘It saved my life’ (The Oregonian) – Very important case in Oregon. Can they target relief to African-Americans.
- Meet the woman on a mission to have retailers commit 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands (CBS News)
Economics
Black Economics
- Rolling Up the Welcome Mat at the Door to the Promised Land: The Economic History of the Great Migration and Its Aftermath (Dollars & Sense)
- For Black History Month: The Economics of the Great Migration. An interview with Ellora Derenencourt. (Dollars and Sense) – Northern cities failed Black people. While Black people who move north doubled their wages, they found prejudice and White flight.
- Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration (Harvard University) – The actual paper and slides. You have to read the slides.
To summarize, the White backlash to the Great Migration resulted in White flight, segregated neighborhoods, unfunded school and reduced economic opportunity. Reduced opportunity led to higher crime. Black men were the worst affected. About 30% of the Black – White wealth gap can be explained by the Great Migration backlash. Wow.
- ‘The Rosa Parks of Wall Street’ (New York Times) — Remembering Vernon Jordan, the civil rights leader turned corporate power broker.
- The U.S. Needs a Third Reconstruction — and Business Should Lead It (Harvard Business Review) — The stage is set for a New Reconstruction led by corporate America.
- Lack of disaggregated data clouds economic recovery for Black communities (Yahoo Finance)
- I reported on Soul City in the 1970s. (Charlotte News Observer)
Straight up Econ / The Economy
- Jump in hiring fuels optimism for US economic recovery (Alpena News)
- Biden Presses Economic Aid Plan, Rejecting Inflation Fears (New York Times)
Co-Ops / Employee Owned / Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa)
- Reggie Webb Empowers Black Entrepreneurs Through Nonprofit (Spectrum Inland Empire)
Industry Stories
Sports / Media / Entertainment
- Magic Johnson: ‘People want to see America change’ (ABC)
- The Most Influential African American Sports Executives In The SF Bay Area (Oakland News Now) – a huge list of current and former sports executives. If you want to start a sports management career, I would contact someone on the list.
Alcohol / Marijuana / CBD / Gambling
- Keeping Black Wine Professionals Up Front And Center (Forbes) – Growth opportunity.
- Black Wine Professionals Website is here.
- Black vintners getting broader support in making industry more diverse (Press Democrat)
- South Jersey couple, rum enthusiasts, opens brand-new distillery (WPVI)
Beauty / Fashion / Retail
- Black Images and the Politics of Beauty (JSTOR Daily) — How Black-owned charm schools and modeling agencies challenged stereotypes of African American women after World War II.
Finance / Investing / Venture Capital
- The Black business funding gap (The Logic)
Real Estate / Finance / Development / Housing / Segregation
- What does child opportunity look like in your metro? (DiversityDataForKids.org)
- Gaps in Black and white home ownership transcend a booming market and threaten to leave some behind (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)
- Georgia’s Dekalb County is Building a Black Wall Street Market to Boost Black and Brown Businesses (AfroTech)
Cities / Urban Planning / Local Government
- Data shows inequities span cradle to grave for local Black residents (Dayton Daily News)
- What does child opportunity look like in your metro? (DiversityDataForKids.org)
- As Aurora deals with uptick in violent crime, activist alliance members say they are working to provide solutions (Chicago Tribune)
Politics / Government / State and Local
Where Jill Biden drops by for a cup of coffee can make quite a statement (Washington Post)
- Fight for the Harriet Tubman $20 Bill Victorious. The Biden Administration announced it will take swift action to place Tubman’s image on the bill. (The Good Men Project)
Education / Healthcare
- Student Debt and the Disregard for the Black Middle Class (Bloomberg CityLab) — By ignoring racial wealth disparities in solutions to the student debt crisis, Joe Biden is abdicating his commitment to address discrimination.
- Louisiana’s HBCUs Have a Lasting Impact (Big Easy Magazine)
Farming / Agriculture / Food
- A food historian is using TikTok to try to make Black Food Fridays the next Taco Tuesday (Insider)
- How to develop the next generation of Black agriculturalist (Enid News)
- Black farmers see possibilities in agricultural roots, but historical inequities pose hurdles (Daily Journal)
- Black-owned soft serve ice cream truck Sweet Mama’s (re)opens in Tampa this weekend (Creative Loafing)
Other
- First Black owned gun shop opens in Indianapolis IN (WTHR)
- How outdoor brands can widen their appeal (Vogue Business) – Extra White outdoor brands are trying to promote diversity.
People and Careers
People / Motivation / Leadership / Success Stories / Ideas
- The Elite 100: A Tribute To Black Women Executives (Diversity Woman) – Interesting list of corporate executives
- Ed Baine is Dominion Energy’s first Black president (WTVR) – Richmond
- Reggie Webb Empowers Black Entrepreneurs Through Nonprofit (Spectrum Inland Empire)
- Kevin Cohee explains how Black people can build wealth to last for generations to come. (BET)
All Other
Travel / History
- Jackson Ward Collective serves Richmond’s Black entrepreneurs, partners with VCU students (Commonwealth Times) — Three Black female entrepreneurs are working to reclaim wealth for Richmond’s Black community through the Jackson Ward Collective.
- John H. Johnson: Changing Publishing – and History (This is Capitalism) – Weird, pro-capitalism website with biographies.
- How Philadelphia’s Black churches overcame disease, depression and civil strife (Generocity) – Surviving the 1930s-economic crisis.
- Greenwood: Rebirth (TulsaPeople) – Long story about some of the people and businesses affected by the Tulsa Massacre in 1921.
Classic / Old stories but good stories
- Black Coder For Hire: Can Unemployed Programmer Justin Webb Find A Job In Silicon Valley Before Christmas? (International Business Times)
Conservative / Alternative
- NY Fed Study Finds Biden-Harris ‘Equity’ Proposal Would Make Racial Inequality Worse (FEE)
Opinion
- Hiring for Diversity Puts New Cities in the Limelight (Bloomberg)
- N.J.’s economic recovery must include Black-owned business | Opinion (NJ)
- How the tech community can hire more people of color and help erase the digital divide | Opinion (Sun Sentinel)
Other
- Should Black Northerners Move Back to the South? (New York Times)
