A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know with the award winning hyphenated Dr. Nsenga Burton. Dr. Burton, what do we need to know?

Good afternoon. Welcome to Need to Know with Nsenga. I am happy to be here today. I'm unhappy to be talking to you about this particular topic. If you've been watching the news, you have seen that the Federal Appeals Court has blocked the Fearless Fund from issuing grants to only Black women. There has been A movement to disempower people of color in general, black women specifically, and it is, uh, really come to a head. Uh, the fearless fund was founded to give black women entrepreneurs a leg up. Now, you may be looking at the statistics and the statistics are, uh. Amazing and we seem like we're doing black girl magic and all the things right? So we have black women account for 42 percent of all women who opened a business, right? So we're doing that. We're outpacing white women and black men in terms of opening businesses. We're doing that. We represent 36 percent of all black employers. We're doing that. Black women entrepreneurs also have payroll, a large percentage actually paying people. Not only paying the money, paying them taxes, all of the things, um, so that they can enjoy their lives. And once they leave or move on, they can continue to, um, enjoy the fruits of their labor. Um, and then you have all of these things happening compared to, New businesses, right? That are being started by others. 10 percent of white women and 15 percent of white men. So, if you see the numbers of the statistics and these statistics, I got from a study or report from JP Morgan, um, from 2024, these statistics suggest that things are going well, and they are to a certain extent, but what they don't talk about or show is the incredible barriers. And access to entry black women are up against further the types of businesses that they're able to start, or we're able to start often don't have the same types of revenue. For example, the average amount of revenue that a black woman owned business makes is $24,000 dollars per year. So, when you don't have access to capital, when you don't have access, and we're talking about venture capital. When you don't have access to money because of systemic barriers, including racism, sexism, misogyny, discrimination, when you're less likely to be approved for a loan, when you carry more student loan debt than any other group in the country, all of these things are happening. Sometimes you need a leg up. Um, many black women are going into entrepreneurship because of, um, they're tired of corporate America and trying to be liked or treated with dignity and respect or not overworked and undervalued, overworked and underpaid, um, and, you know, just being made the villain, so to speak, uh, in order to support, uh, really poor practices, uh, and business practices. So, black women are taking a chance on themselves and they're starting businesses. So, to get back to the fearless fund, the fearless fund is really, um, one of many, uh, well, I won't say many, but one of several, um, that are really trying to make sure that black women in general, um, and, and that includes Afro Latino, that includes African, that includes Caribbean, what have you, um, black women are getting a shot. At being entrepreneurs and being successful entrepreneurs who can operate at full capacity, they can have staffs. So they're not overworking themselves in their own businesses, which many of us tend to do. They can have retirement and benefits and offer that so they can attract great talent. And so, when you get this type of ruling, and it continues to happen, we saw it at Harvard in terms of admissions. We're now seeing it. They're now telling you. Uh, in America. Okay. So, yeah, you can start a business, but you can't help a particular group of people. Everyone has to have access to it, even though there are systemic disparities that suggest there is a need for this particular fund. They didn't go out here and say, okay, let's be a black supremacist and just say, um, we're only gonna help black women. They looked at the data because it's all data driven. They looked at what is needed in our communities, black women, 72 percent of black families are led by black women. They looked at all of that information, right? And all the education that we're getting, we are the most educated group in the country. We are, which is why we have the most student loans. Right, because we have the least amount of income, capital, housing, all of the things that, you know, other groups have, uh, in, in wonderful numbers, particularly people who are white. They looked at all that data and they say, how can we help make a difference in our community? How can we help impact this community? Particularly when we are disenfranchised and left out. Of these other opportunities, whether it's at the corporate level, whether it is as small owned businesses. I just read an article today where someone, uh, didn't want to sell their house to this young woman, 33 year old woman, uh, in California, cause she was black and said it, you know, wanted to stop the closing. These are the things that happen to black people all the time. That is part of our existence. It is part of our experience. And you know, just because it's not on NBC all the time doesn't mean that it's not happening. So I just wanted to say. That It's a really sad day when we don't look at our historically disenfranchised populations and think about the ways that we can help those who are most deserving. And these are people who have gone to school and educated themselves. These are people who have, uh, and, and, and there's entrepreneurs themselves. These are people who have decided that they want to use their talent to uplift the community, right? You keep talking about, you need to get jobs, you need to take care of your own community, you need to do this, you need to do that. And so when we try to target, and that's all it is, it's not giving anybody a hand out, it's giving somebody a leg up. When we try to target people to help make that happen, they were penalized, demonized, villainized and further disenfranchised. So it won't stop. Um, we will continue to do what we can. I am the former national executive director of an, uh, of, uh, the National Association of multicultural digital entrepreneurs. I'm the former Southeast regional director. Of a, uh, an HBC entrepreneurship institute. So people are still going to be working hard on it. We have Congress people who are working on these initiatives. Biden administration has rolled out coins or funding for entrepreneurs. So there are ways to get to it. But it's just disappointing that if you try every single pathway that is available to you and you are rejected, even though you are qualified and you do have the credentials. That there's still now there's nowhere for you to go in terms of people who are like, they understand you understand you, your community, your culture, and the types of businesses you're trying to build. So that's, that's disappointing, but we won't stop. We'll keep going. So this is a need to know with Nsenga on BEP. Join us next week.