We are absolutely overloaded with great stories this week: PPP, Black fintech, Janelle Jones, Retiring while Black and Black women in Financial Technology.

Top Stories

• Surviving the Pandemic: Black-Owned Businesses and the Paycheck Protection Program (BGA) – Hey, this is some really good real life reporting on four Black businesses in Chicago. They discuss the small amount of money they received from PPP.
• This Top Biden Economist, Janelle Jones, Has A Plan: Create Jobs, Address Inequality, Ignore Trolls (KNBA) – Janelle Jones is the first Black woman to ever serve as chief economist at the Labor Department.
• Retiring While Black (Consumer Reports)
  
• These 8 Black women are using technology to combat financial inequities (Fortune)
• Many younger Black Americans started investing in the stock market during the pandemic (Marketplace). 30% of Black investors under 40 got into the market for the first time in 2020.
• Fed Is Taking on a Racist Legacy in the Field of Economics (Bloomberg)
  
• School Integration Was Not Always a Good Thing for Black Educational Attainment, Study Finds (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education). 
  
• In Silicon Valley, how one Black-owned transportation business, Mosaic Transportation, pivoted — and survived — during the COVID-19 pandemic (MarketWatch) – Business is just now reaching 20% of pre-pandemic levels.
• Goldman Sachs employs just 49 Black people in top US jobs (CNN)
• OIC of America to honor legacy of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan (Philadelphia Tribune)
• Kansas City businesses haunted by legacy of redlining during the Pandemic (Center for Public Integrity) – PPP loans followed the same, old pattern of discrimination.
• The poor pay proportionately higher taxes in many categories leading to a higher overall effective tax rate for a given level of income. Here is the famous and well-known study from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Who Pay’s – A Distribution Analysis of who pays state and local taxes. If you have time, compare New Jersey and Texas.
• A beach town seized a Black couple’s land in the 1920s. Now their family could get it back (The Guardian).
  
• Black youth unemployment rate of 40% similar to time of Brixton riots, data shows (Guardian)

  Stories

Protest / Social Justice

• Black Worker Centers: Building Workplace Power in the Communities (American Prospect)
• Many younger Black Americans started investing in the stock market during the pandemic (Marketplace). 30% of Black investors under 40 got into the market for the first time in 2020.
• Mastercard Continues Support for Black Women Entrepreneurs (NASDAQ)
• How Black-Owned CBD Companies Like Brown Girl Jane Are Forming Communities Around Cannabis (Forbes)
• Mother-Daughter Entrepreneur Duo Aims To Inspire Black Youth To Cultivate Generational Wealth (News One). 7-year old Anastasia Linkpon and her mother Adriane Mack Bouj Flea Market, selling slime and bath bombs.
• Floyd Killing Forces U.S. Business to Examine Its Record on Race (Bloomberg)
• After Chauvin verdict, business leaders speak out saying fight for racial justice must continue (CNBC)
• Will Smith Movie Pulls Production Out of Georgia Over GOP Voting Law (Wall Street Journal)

Coronavirus / Covid-19 / Paycheck Protection Program

• COVID-19 disproportionately affected minority businesses, entrepreneurs, Kenan Institute finds (WRAL Tech Wire)
• Covid-19’s Personal Finance Toll On Older Entrepreneurs (Forbes)
• Black business owners tell their PPP stories (Austin Weekly)
• Black Businesses Matter, But Will They Get Fair Share Of COVID-19 Aid Money? (Black Press USA)
• Surviving the Pandemic: Black-Owned Businesses and the Paycheck Protection Program (BGA) – Hey, this is some really good real life reporting on four Black businesses in Chicago. They discuss the small amount of money they received from PPP.
• In Silicon Valley, how one Black-owned transportation business, Mosaic Transportation, pivoted — and survived — during the COVID-19 pandemic (MarketWatch) – Business is just now reaching 20% of pre-pandemic levels.
• ‘We need at least one more check.’ The case for a fourth stimulus payment (CNBC)

Jobs / Workers / Unemployment / Gig Economy

• Black Worker Centers: Building Workplace Power in the Communities (American Prospect)
  
• What Amazon can learn from a bruising union victory in Alabama (Bloomberg)
  
• Amazon workers have spoken — are progressives listening? (The Hill)
• Schools look to build a diverse teaching workforce (Grand Rapids Business Journal) – Kalamazoo – 13% of teachers are Black versus 30% of students. Plenty of jobs if you want to teach.

Inequality / Systemic Racism / Economic Justice / UBI

• Georgia’s voter suppression bill is an assault on our democracy (Brookings)
• A Philanthropic Drive to Aid Black Women Is Gaining Momentum (US News)
• Goldman Sachs employs just 49 Black people in top US jobs (CNN)
• America’s Struggle to Overcome Racial Inequities (US News and World Report) – Good, long article summarizing the issues.
• Taking a systems-thinking approach to anti-Black racism (Phys.org)

  Black Business

Black Business General / Interesting Businesses Stories

• Three Best Friends Form First Black Owned Bread Company in Chicago. (Chicago Defender)
• Business owners of color faced greater challenges getting loans amid pandemic, report finds — even when they were a low credit risk (CBS News)
• Women of color drive new business growth during pandemic (Biz Women)
• Omaha developer’s proposed KC apartments would displace Black-owned Businesses (Kansas City Business Journal)
• Black CEOs uphold American democracy (Bay State Banner)
• Louisiana and Maryland: Two U.S. States Among Many Reporting Racial Bias in COVID-19 Relief Efforts (Triple Pundit)
• Racism and obesity are inextricably linked, says a Harvard doctor – and here’s how she thinks that can change (Boston) — The two most common forms of bias in the United States are race bias, which is by far the most common, followed by weight bias. Report finds more obstacles to starting a new business for people of color
• (WWLP)
  
• Small businesses are less hopeful about their ability to get funding (Yahoo News)
• The Auburn family that owns half of Camp Hill’s empty units seeks to restore them one by one (Outlook)
• Bookstore named after Harriet Tubman celebrates women authors, artists and Activists (Today)

Black Business Specific

• Duke Energy Entrust New Minority Owned Charcuterie Company Graze-Full Eats with 25th Annual African American Network-Carolinas Scholarship Gala (PR Web)
• Sweatpea Technology and mo’pweeze Bakery get $10,000 grants (nj.com)
• Three Minority Business Owners Investing In Charlotte’s Historic West End Community (WCCB) – Charlotte. Rita’s water ice, pizza and a pharmacy.
• In Silicon Valley, how one Black-owned transportation business, Mosaic Transportation, pivoted — and survived — during the COVID-19 pandemic (MarketWatch) – Business is just now reaching 20% of pre-pandemic levels.
• Prosperity Market: Creating a sense of urgency to give Black farmers a platform (KCRW)

  Black Economics

Black Economics

• Breaking Barriers: Economist Cecilia Rouse (Historian Speaks) – Black History Now. Profile of Cecilia Rouse, Chair of Council of Economic Advisors to the President
• Digital Banking Platform for Black and Latinos Partnered with Mastercard (Yahoo Finance)
• This Top Biden Economist, Janelle Jones, Has A Plan: Create Jobs, Address Inequality, Ignore Trolls (KNBA) – Janelle Jones is the first Black woman to ever serve as chief economist at the Labor Department.
• Soul City: A Utopia For Black Capitalism (NPR)
• These 8 Black women are using technology to combat financial inequities (Fortune)
• Many younger Black Americans started investing in the stock market during the pandemic (Marketplace). 30% of Black investors under 40 got into the market for the first time in 2020.
• Here’s How Millennial Wealth Stacks Up Against That Of Prior Generations (NPR). Black Americans’ progress is not being translated in terms of wealth.
• Broadway Financial Completes Merger to Create Largest Black-Owned Bank in the US (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• Fundraising Opportunities For Minorities And Women Of Color (Forbes)
• Black entrepreneurs seek to close racial wealth gap (Business Day)
  
• The student debt crisis is crushing Black Americans. Here’s how loan forgiveness could help (USA Today)
  
• Black Americans Are Embracing Stocks and Bitcoin to Make Up for Stolen Time (Bloomberg)
  
• Retiring While Black (Consumer Reports)
  
• More than 20 local banks form unprecedented $100M fund for minority-owned Businesses (Philadelphia Business Journal)
• Fed leaders agree: Economics has a race problem (Yahoo News)
• Economists are ‘lazy’ when it comes to studying the effects of racism, says AFL-CIO chief economist (Market Watch)
• Dr. Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Highlights Racial Disparities in Economics in Department Guest Lecture (Swarthmore Phoenix)

Straight up Econ / The Economy

• Economic dynamism thrives in America’s minority communities (Brookings Institute)
  
• Analysis: A tale of two tapers: This time is different for a Fed focused on jobs (Reuters) – Fed appears to be paying attention to the Black unemployment rate.
  
• The economy is improving — but the pandemic isn’t over yet (Vox)

  General Business

Big Business / Corporate / Business Strategy

• Mastercard Continues Support For Black Women Entrepreneurs (NASDAQ)
• BofA Looks to Link Up Bond Issuers With Minority-Run Banks (Bloomberg)
• More Businesses Are Standing for Justice (New York Times)
• An update on policy, corporate pledges to address systemic racism (Marketplace)
• Corporate Activism: Why Big Business Is Taking A Stand In Partisan Politics (Wbur)
• Brands Address Equity Gap for Black Business Owners and Entrepreneurs (Triple Pundit)
• Target Pledges to Invest $2 Billion in Black-Owned Businesses by 2025. (Chicago Defender)
• Big-business pushback against voting measures gains momentum (StarTribune)
• How marketers can turn societal upheaval into better branding (New Hope)
• How the corporate backlash to Georgia’s new voting law is shaping other fights around the country over access to the polls (Washington Post)
• Amazon Pledges to Promote More Women, Black Employees (Bloomberg)
• Wells Fargo invests unspecified amount in five Black owned banks (Post News Group)
• Pfizer to Place 100 Young Minorities in New Fellowship Program (Bloomberg)

Discrimination

• Black Electrical Worker Kyrin Taylor Says He Found Noose In His Workspace (CBS New York)
• Kansas City businesses haunted by legacy of redlining during the Pandemic (Center for Public Integrity) – PPP loans followed the same, old pattern of discrimination.

Real Estate / Housing / Segregation

• Black millennials increased African American homeownership in 2020, but the road ahead is ‘going to be a challenge,’ experts say (Yahoo) from Business Insider
• Biden proposal includes first major focus on restructuring roadways that divided cities and cut off minority neighborhoods (Thomas Reuters Foundation News)
• Black neighborhoods in Kansas hard hit by property tax sales (ABC News)
• Kansas Center for Economic Growth: Kansans of Color Often Pay More Than Their Fair Share of Taxes (ITEP)
• Anytime someone says the poor don’t pay taxes or or the rich pay the majority of taxes, here is the counter argument. The poor pay proportionately higher taxes in many categories leading to a higher overall effective tax rate for a given level of income.

  Here is the famous and well-known study from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

  Who Pay’s – A Distribution Analysis of who pays state and local taxes

  If you have time, compare New Jersey and Texas.

Reparations / Affirmative Action / Diversity / Inclusion

• In a year of reckoning, slavery reparations bill moves forward in the House (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Reparations for US slave descendants gains momentum (Al Jazeera)
• ABC News makes history with new president (The Ticker) – Kimberly Godwin is the first Black woman to lead a major broadcast network’s news division and the first Black woman and Black president to head ABC News.
• Supplier Diversity Programs Are Failing Black-Owned Businesses (Harvard Business Review)
• Baltimore City Council bills aim to hold contractors accountable, help minority firms compete (Baltimore Business Journal)
• Leaders need to create brave space, not safe space, for diversity and inclusion Conversations (CNBC)
• Fed Is Taking On a Racist Legacy in the Field of Economics (Bloomberg)
  
• The field of economics has a racial-disparity problem, Fed leaders say, and that worries them (Chicago Sun-Times)
  
• A beach town seized a Black couple’s land in the 1920s. Now their family could get it back (The Guardian).
  
• Manhattan Beach Took Beachfront Land from a Black Family. L.A. County Has Voted to Give It Back (LA Magazine)
  
• What It Actually Means to Pass Local ‘Reparations’ (Bloomberg)
• It’s Not The Shark—It’s The Water: What Companies Misunderstand About DEI Data (Forbes)
• Why more BAME women in boardrooms makes business sense (Consultancy)
• Supporting BIPOC-owned Businesses Creates Greater Opportunity for All (Sahan Journal)
• How This Founder Is Diversifying Fashion And Media With A Directory Of Vetted Black And Brown Creatives (Forbes)

  Industries and Categories

Sports / Media / Entertainment

• Ryan Coogler says moving the filming of ‘Black Panther 2’ out of Georgia will affect small businesses (The Source). Coogler will find other ways to fight against the Georgia voter suppression law.
• IHeartMedia’s Black Information Network Is Monetizing The Old-School Way: Sponsorships (Ad Exchanger)
• The entertainment industry is one of the least diverse in the US (NY Times) — Hollywood’s Anti-Black Bias Costs It $10 Billion a Year. McKinsey study is here.

Alcohol / Marijuana / CBD / Gambling

• Kentucky entrepreneurs aim to revolutionize the alcohol industry (Spectrum News 1) – Louisville, Kentucky
  
• How Black-Owned CBD Companies Like Brown Girl Jane Are Forming Communities Around Cannabis (Forbes). This story is important for three reasons: One, there has to be a base of retail outlets to support a business like a distributorship. Two, they are backward integrating into a new market, and three, they operating in a market with few, if any, Black businesses.
• Two Entrepreneurs Launch the Newest Black-Owned Organic Tequila Brand Called Los Negros (Black Business)
• With a new round of dispensary licenses on the horizon, cannabis industry advocates turn attention to greater diversity (Columbus Dispatch)
• Black farmers in South Africa protest ‘exclusion’ from marijuana licenses in favour of rich white businesses (Telegraph)
• Black Wine Entrepreneurs Find Passion, Racism And Legacy In The Industry, Study Shows (Forbes)
• Introducing Black Cannabis Magazine, a New Media Venture Launching on 420 (Cision)
• A Cannabis Pro Tells Us Her Hopes for the Medical Marijuana Industry (Motley Fool) – featuring Dr. Chanda Macias
• State cannabis reform is putting social justice front and center (Brookings)

Food / Restaurants

• PepsiCo partners with Black and Hispanic food trucks to launch Mexican soda (Fortune)
• Black chefs, business owners plan to start up their food experience in Toledo (WTOL)
• RangeMe saw surge in searches for minority-owned, women-owned businesses in 2020 (Food Navigator)
• Ghost Kitchens in Austin (Eater) – A look at delivery only restaurants in Austin featuring Cook’s Nook, a Black owned ghost kitchen. Plus a look at some national ghost kitchen brands.

Beauty / Fashion / Retail

• ‘A Labor of Love’: These Black-Owned Skin Care Businesses Originated In Florida (WUFT)
• Philanthropic Fashion: How Brands Are Showing People Are More Than Profit (WWD)
• The Funk Boutique: Celebrating Successful Black Women, Sustainability, and Sneakers (Glow Up)
• Black Enterprise, Tradition And Culture At The Bronner Bros. Hair Show (NPR)

Advertising / Marketing / Promotion / Consumer Behavior

• Payday loan lender target Black and Hispanic consumers (Next City)
• GM vows more money and more opportunity for Black-owned media (Free Press) — Detroit

Banking / Finance / Investing / Venture Capital

• The Funding Gap: How To Address Two Huge Challenges Holding Back Minority-Owned Businesses (Forbes)
  
• White-owned small businesses are twice as likely to get financing as Black- and Latino-owned firms, Fed survey finds (Business Insider)
  
• Black Americans Are Embracing Stocks and Bitcoin to Make Up for Stolen Time (Bloomberg)
  
• 2021 40 Under 40: Paul Campbell strives to bring equity to venture capital (Minneapolis Business Journal)
• Four minority-owned banks reveal how they’re overcoming Wall Street’s ‘woeful’ lack of diversity to play a bigger role in investment banking right now (Business Insider)
  
• White-owned small businesses are twice as likely to get financing as Black- and Latino-owned firms, Fed survey finds (Business Insider)
  
• Black Lives Matter to Banks, But Not Banking. Large Bank Leaders Reject DEI Audits (Banker & Tradesman)
• Banks resist racial-equity audits, but they shouldn’t (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Real Estate / Finance / Development / Segregation

• Affordable Housing Forever (New York Times)
  
• Black households face the highest home affordability hurdle (National Mortgage News)
• A beach town seized a Black couple’s land in the 1920s. Now their family could get it back (The Guardian).
  
• Manhattan Beach Took Beachfront Land from a Black Family. L.A. County Has Voted to Give It Back (LA Magazine)
  

Technology / Apps / Innovation

• Ping-pong, free food, beer on tap — but no support for Black employees. Tech companies are rushing to create new policies, but are they willing to do the real work? (The Star)
• Some Black tech founders in upstate New York say they feel left out of the growing opportunities that come to the area (Insider)
• 8 charts that show the impact of race and gender on technology careers (World Economic Forum)
• This startup wants to use AI to boost Black-owned businesses, and it’s raising money to do it. (Washington Business Journal)
• These 8 Black women are using technology to combat financial inequities (Fortune)

Science / Math / Statistics / STEM

• Criminal Justice / Police / Corrections / Re-entry
• Boeing Invests $250K In Black-Owned Platform Designed To Combat Recidivism (Newsone)

Cities / Urban Planning / Local Government

• ‘We Don’t Want To Look Like A Segregated Chicago’: Black Chamber Of Commerce
• Looks Into North Side Opportunities (CBS Chicago)
• Where Do We Go from Here? Four Part Series about the Syracuse Surge and Gentrification of the City of Syracuse (Urban Central NY) — Discusses issues around infrastructure construction.

Politics / Government / State and Local

• Ray McGuire Wants to Show He’s Not Just the Wall Street Candidate (New York Times)
• RAY MCGUIRE SAYS HIS ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN MAKES HIM BEST CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR (Black Star News)
• Bipartisan Senate proposal would grant $50 million to minority businesses (The Hill)
• Black Panther sequel will not move filming from Georgia despite election law (WXIA 11 Alive)
• 3 things Biden can do to enforce more equitable infrastructure (Fortune) – Use equality as part of determining which project get done. Involve business run by underrepresented groups. Make sure projects are reviewed by the community.

Taxes / Tax Policy

• Kansas Center for Economic Growth: Kansans of Color Often Pay More Than Their Fair Share of Taxes (ITEP)
• Anytime someone says the poor don’t pay taxes or the rich pay the majority of taxes, here is the counter argument. The poor pay proportionately higher taxes in many categories leading to a higher overall effective tax rate for a given level of income. Here is the famous and well-know study from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Who Pay’s – A Distribution Analysis of who pays state and local taxes. If you have time, compare New Jersey and Texas.

Law / Legal / Non-profits / Philanthropy

• How One Company Worked to Root Out Bias from Performance Reviews (Harvard Business Review)
• Lawmakers seek minority-owned businesses aid (Financial Reg News)

HR / Personnel / Human Capital

• To Build a Diverse Company for the Long Term, Develop Junior Talent (Harvard Business Review)
• 7 steps for business leaders to take after the George Floyd case (HR Executive)

Education / Healthcare

• Is there a Black doctor in the house? Why racial disparity in health care demands our attention now (Fortune). Lack of representation is the cause of race-based health disparities.
  
• Why do Black Americans so often have worse health outcomes than other Americans? (Medical Economics) – More Black doctors and better health insurance would help.
  
• Amid Racial Reckoning, A Push To Diversify College Investment Strategies (WGBH)
• Stride, Inc. Changing the Face of American Education Through Partnership with National Association of Black Male Educators (Valdosta daily Times)
• The biggest HBCUs in America (Chicago Tribune)
• HBCUs: America’s pathway to next generation prosperity (Indianapolis Reporter) – And a link to the website featured in the article.
• National Institute for Inclusive Competitiveness — Interesting. Not completely sure what they do.
• School Integration Was Not Always a Good Thing for Black Educational Attainment, Study Finds (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education). 
  
• The fall and rise of C.S. Brown, the first high school for African Americans in North Carolina (EDNC)
• Slow progress on race hampers business school diversity push (Financial Times) – Duh, how about the cost: $100,000 a year for basic accounting and finance. Where’s the ROI. B-School is for networking for the elite.

Farming / Agriculture / Food Production

• These BIPOC-Owned Washington Farms Deliver CSA Boxes to Seattle (Seattle Met)
• A New Crop: Portraits of Houston’s Black Urban Farmers (Texas Observer)
• Gifts of Love Farm Is Helping BIPOC Farmers Thrive (NBC Connecticut)
• Prosperity Market: Creating a sense of urgency to give Black farmers a platform (KCRW)

  People, Careers and All Other

Career / Professions / Entrepreneurship / Businesses You Can Start

• Winston-Salem native starts his very own soda company (WFMY)

People / Motivation / Leadership / Success Stories / Ideas

• Mother-Daughter Entrepreneur Duo Aims To Inspire Black Youth To Cultivate Generational Wealth (News One). 7-year old Anastasia Linkpon and her mother Adriane Mack BoujFleaMarket, selling slime and bath bombs.
• How Jamie Foxx Is Paving The Way For The Next Generation Of Black Entrepreneurs (Forbes)
• She Gamed Groupon to Make $300,000 Doing Massage Therapy. Now She Runs a
• Million-Dollar Business Helping Black Spa Owners Do the Same. (Entrepreneur)
• Orvin Kimbrough, chairman and CEO of Midwest BankCentre, write about his success (St. Louis American)

Good News

• No good news this week. I love writing that.

Caribbean / Africa / International

• Black youth unemployment rate of 40% similar to time of Brixton riots, data shows (Guardian)
• Why more BAME women in boardrooms makes business sense (Consultancy UK)
• Black Business Network – UK
• Why some African Americans are moving to Africa (Black Economics UK)
• Young black workers are three times as likely to be jobless as whites with more than 40 per cent unemployed – as high as time of Brixton riots (Daily Mail) – UK
• The federal budget took steps toward racial justice — but activists say more must be done (CBC) – Canada. Here is the Canadian unemployment report for July 2020: Here. The Black Canadian unemployment rate was 16.8% which is similar to the US rate.

Travel / History

• Deeds banning Blacks. Red-lined maps. What students dug up on Ridgewood’s housing legacy (North Jersey)
• The earliest wealthy Black Americans (Afro) ‘Can’t lose our history’: Exhibit honors Black, immigrant legacy of Charleston street (The State)
• Great Migration Creates Ties Between Mississippi, Illinois (US News)
• The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration (Smithsonian) – Isabel Wilkerson
• Remembering Black Wall Street (Afro-American)
• OIC of America to honor legacy of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan (Philadelphia Tribune)

Classic / Old stories but good stories

• The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration (Smithsonian) – Isabel Wilkerson

Conservative / Alternative

• Black-owned businesses struggling at George Floyd Square, plead for help (NY Post)
• An African-American professor on the case for black patriotism (NY Post)

Opinion

• Racism destroyed a thriving neighborhood in my hometown. Now the fix is in sight (Kake)
• How we close the racial wealth gap (AMNY)
• Minnesota Is One of the Best Places to Live in America. Unless You’re Black. The state’s reputation belies some of the country’s largest racial disparities. (NY Times) – Lind of interesting; even progressive states contribute to racial problems.

Other

• The American justice system finally worked. Does White America understand just how often it doesn’t? (Washington Post)
• After Chauvin verdict, business leaders speak out saying fight for racial justice must continue (CNBC)
  
• Black Business Warehouse – Companies can search for Black business partners in Washington and Oregon.
• Link Black Business Network – UK
• Link Urban One