Black owned businesses and by extension the Black community continue to be negatively affected by the status quo. A lack of access to capital and opportunities to scale their businesses contributes to the persistent grow in the Black-white wealth gap.
CEO Action for Racial Equity is committed to advancing an innovative approach through a racial equity lens that expands beyond the traditional procurement cycle into professional services, centers the Black-owned business experience, and provides tools, resources, leading practices, and networking opportunities to accelerate learning and improve success.
The business community can do more. Find out how.
- 7% of Black Americans’ assets are in business equity, compared to 15% for white Americans.1
- Black Americans make up 13% of the U.S. population, but own less than 2% of small businesses with employees. By contrast, white Americans make up 60% of the U.S. population, but own 82% of small employer firms.2
- White entrepreneurs start their business with $107,000 of capital on average, but the corresponding figure for Black founders is $35,000.3
Listen to our podcast series: Closing the Gap
> A Look Ahead for CEOARE’s Business Diversity Team
> Meet Supplier Diversity Professionals and CEOARE Fellows Chris Stanley and Randy Brown
Additional episodes available here.
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References
1 Dettling, L.J., Hsu, J. W., Jacobs, L., Moore, K.B., Thompson, J.P. (2017, September 27). Recent Trends in Wealth-Holding by Race and Ethnicity: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances. The Federal Reserve.
2 Maxwell et al., (2020, July 31). A Blueprint for Revamping the Minority Business Development Agency. Center for American Progress.
3 Fairlie, R, Robb, A, Robinson D. (2016, December 15). Black and White: Access to Capital among Minority-Owned Startups. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.