How To Make Lasting Change By Supporting Black Businesses
Now that we're openly discussing systemic racism, we have to openly discuss the impact that has on Black-owned businesses.
I know more than one successful business owner whose face you won't see on their website or any company materials whatsoever because they know that being a Black-owned company will cost them opportunities.
White people, let that sink in.
I'm just sharing some insight into the Black experience in America.
This is the kind of stuff that we have to deal with that you have no idea about.
It is patently unfair, but it is what it is and we deal with it as best we can.
Hopefully, during this season of change, we move towards not having to deal with that kind of thing anymore.
In this article, I provide a long list of Black-owned businesses for you to consider supporting.
Please take a look and share widely.
DeShuna Spencer - Founder, KweliTV
DeShuna woke up one day and decided to take on the impossible task of building her own online streaming service to offer “…an avenue for filmmakers of color to make money off of their work and be celebrated for the work they do.”"
KweliTV has been described as Netflix for Black people, by Black people, starring Black people.
As you can imagine, building an online streaming platform requires funding.
Lots of funding.
If you’re looking for a place to invest in making a lasting change in our society, KweliTV is an excellent place to start.
For generations, the media in all its forms has portrayed Black people as negatively as it possibly could.
It’s not difficult at all to make the connection between hundreds of years of negative characterizations and the police abuse of Black Americans that we’re seeing…abuse that continues even as the world has been protesting for two weeks.
How You Can Support
Tell somebody about KweliTV.
If you’re in a position to provide funding, reach out to DeShuna and start that conversation.
Jazmine Moore - Founder, Green Panther Chef
Chef Jazz learned how to cook with cannabis out of necessity and used it to literally save her own life after being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, as she shares in the interview above.
After hearing Chef Jazz’s story, I knew I had to invest in her success.
After seeing her teach one of her cooking classes in a commercial kitchen, I knew Chef Jazz had something special to share with the world and help a lot of people.
I told Jazz if she could get one of those stainless steel tables that the audience sat at in the commercial kitchen where I saw her teach, we could do a cooking show out of her apartment.
Below are a couple of episodes of Chef Jazz’s cooking show.
There are lots more episodes. Click here to see the rest.
Support Chef Jazz and watch her quickly rise to be one of the preeminent international voices in the multi-billion dollar cannabis industry, where lack of minority ownership is already a problem.
Chef Jazz has the talent, the work ethic, the expertise, and the "why” to be one of the leaders of this industry and create generational wealth for her family.
How You Can Support
All Chef Jazz needs to raise her profile is a studio kitchen, which she can rent, as needed, and funding to pay for video recording sessions.
What you see Chef Jazz doing above is making something happen with the bare minimum.
Imagine what she could do with a proper studio kitchen as her teaching platform.
As far as talent goes, Martha Stewart has nothing on Chef Jazz. As far as opportunity…well that’s another matter entirely.
With some runway to get her show off the ground, Chef Jazz would soon be in a position to fund her show herself and I promise you, she’d have a show that the world would watch.
If that’s a show you would like to see and, more importantly, be a part of bringing to existence, you can contact Chef Jazz or just contact me since I’m the one she’s going to hire to produce it anyway.
Chef Jazz also caters and she does private dinner parties, as well as one-on-one cannabis education for those looking to learn more about how to use the plant for healing. You can just hire her directly for those services.
Muhammad Yungai - Artist
Muhammad is just gifted and brilliant.
I’m not even going to try to describe him because he is one of those people where you can just watch what his two hands produce and know that they’re not operating under Muhammad’s direction…there’s some higher power involved.
You’ll have to watch the interview to understand what I mean.
How You Can Support
The schools that need Muhammad’s gift the most are also the ones that will least likely be able to afford his services.
Reach out to Muhammad to discuss how you can be a part of bringing uplifting art into schools.
Deadra Welcome - Learning Strategist
Leadership development is something that may require additional emphasis in your organization now that teams are working distributed.
And you will very likely need to revise your training protocols to adapt to the new way we do training now.
These are both areas where Deadra can help.
How You Can Support
Reach out to Deadra to discuss any leadership development or training challenges that your organization may be facing to find out what solutions she offers to help your teams operate more effectively.
Sheila Kasasa - Founder, Future First
Sheila is on a mission to teach technology and entrepreneurship to kids and young adults in order to reduce the tech and wealth gap in Washington DC.
How You Can Support
Reach out to Sheila and ask what manner of excellence she’s working on right now that you can be a part of.
Danita Brooks - Owner, English and Sign Language Masters
Danita is the sign language interpreter you’ll need on your team for all those live, virtual events you plan on having going forward.
But, as you’ll hear in her interview, Danita is so much more than a sign language interpreter.
Danita will help you create a culture of inclusion where your deaf employees can maximize their contribution to your organization’s mission.
How You Can Support
Reach out to Danita and hire her to translate.
Or reach out to her to find out how you can best support your deaf employees in the new world of web conferencing that we all live in because I guarantee there’s more to it than you realize.
You may have employees who are now struggling because you don’t know what you don’t know.
Danita can help.
Nikki Lavi - Artist
Nikki is another person where you can just watch the universe channeling itself through her hands.
How You Can Support
Commission Nikki to create some art for your home or office (is there really a difference anymore?).
White CEOs, you have Black executives who facing an additional layer of challenges when it comes to finding a work-appropriate background in their home for web conferencing.
The silent repercussions that can come from having cultural artwork on the wall behind you is just another example of how Black people get penalized just for being Black.
With web conferencing, we’re not even safe from the Black Tax inside our own homes, as is explained in this article from Harvard Business Review.
So consider sponsoring the commission of artwork from Nikki for any of your executives who want to take you up on it. This is definitely not a solution, but it does move the dialogue forward with an acknowledgement of one of the unique challenges that your Black executives face.
Also, whenever it becomes safe for us to congregate again, you can hire Nikki to do live painting at your event.
For now, just check out her website and order a piece or two.
Tami Garcia - Founder, Mully Lingua
Born in the midwest, but of Dominican and Jamaican descent, Tami Garcia felt disconnected from her culture.
When Tami became mom to a little girl from Ethiopia, she knew she didn’t want her daughter to have the same experience.
Check out the interview to see how Tami’s business, Mully Lingua, is making it easy for parents to find language, culture, and heritage activities specific to their child’s needs.
How You Can Support
Mully Lingua is a startup in need of funding.
Mully Lingua is also having to make a hard pivot to online delivery of services, just like many other businesses.
Contact Tami directly to find out how you can best support Mully Lingua.
Erica Roberts - Executive Leadership Coach
Erica is the mentor that your Black female employees may need and cannot find in your organization.
How You Can Support
This is really about you supporting your Black employees better.
Erica can help you do that. Reach out to her to find out how.
Erica also runs a program to help our next generation of Black leaders take that critical first step of entering college.
This may not seem like a big deal, based on your background. But please understand that one of the many byproducts of 400 years of racial oppression is that lots of Black kids who enter college are the first in their family to attend.
That means that all that knowledge about campus life and what to expect and how college works is knowledge that many kids have to set foot on campus without.
College is a scary abstraction for a lot of kids.
Erica’s HBCU Pathways program works to make college less of an abstraction with college tours and mentorship programs to help scholars enter school better equipped.
How You Can Help
Sponsor some kids by covering their HBCU Pathways fees.
Before covid, this was a college campus tour.
You’ll have to reach out to Erica to find out how the program works now and how you can be a sponsor.
Ewunike Akpan - Owner, LOTUS Fitness
Ewunike is a Master Trainer and has been helping people enjoy health and wellness for more than twenty years.
How You Can Support
Ewunike has always offered corporate wellness programs.
You may find that after months in quarantine, your employees need her guidance now more than ever.
Some of your employees may have packed on a “covid 10” and may be working towards a “covid 20,” particularly if they will be working from home permanently.
Reach out to Ewunike to find out what kinds of health and wellness programs she can design to meet the needs of your employees.
Lynette Voss - Owner, Vintage and Charmed
Lynette runs a brick and mortar business, which you know means she’s suffered mightily due to the quarantine.
How You Can Support
Consider engaging Lynette for a virtual style consultation.
Let her help you select some pieces that capture your personality and shop with her remotely.
Berri Wells - Career Transition Coach
Berri is the trainer you need for your organization.
This video is an example of her training for job seekers, but she offers a variety of other training that your organization can benefit from.
How You Can Support
Maybe you do want to consider engaging Berri to teach her career search curriculum.
If your organization has had to do layoffs due to covid, you definitely have a community of people who would benefit from Berri’s training to help them in their job search.
Carrie Ellis - Owner, Celestial Consulting
Your workplace dynamics may not have been great before quarantine and it’s possible they’ve gotten worse.
Or maybe things were fine before (or so you thought) and now you’re starting to see problems.
Carrie can help.
How You Can Support
Reach out to Carrie to discuss how she can help you create a better work environment for your team.
Eugene Poole - Health Insurance Broker
As you’ll see from the interview, Eugene has deep knowledge about the healthcare system that we all can benefit from.
How You Can Support
Share Eugene’s interview with as many people as possible.
Medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy.
It is not a far reach at all to envision a scenario where someone survives being hospitalized for coronavirus only to have their life destroyed by the medical bills.
Contact Eugene directly if you have any questions about health insurance or a medical bill that you do not understand.
Dr. Elisse Barnes - LinkedIn Trainer
Elisse is another trainer you may want to engage in order to support employees that you have laid off or soon will.
Knowing how to use LinkedIn effectively to conduct a job search can be the difference between someone landing on their feet quickly and them languishing on the job market.
How You Can Support
Reach out to Elisse to find out which of her training programs will best serve your organization.
Crystal Richards, PMP - Owner, Mosaic Resource Group
Do you know how you’re going to keep your projects on time and on budget now that your teams are working distributed?
If you cannot confidently answer yes, you really do want to talk to Crystal.
How You Can Support
Share Crystal’s Learning Lab for project managers with any PMs you know or anyone tasked with project management duties, even if they don’t have the job title.
The Mosaic Resource Group Learning Lab is a free resource that Crystal created to help individuals with project management duties be more successful at managing projects.
And, of course, if you’d rather just have Crystal make your life easier and manage your project for you, just reach out to her to discuss your needs.
Supporting Black Businesses
I hope you saw the recurring theme here: investing in business owners like the ones you see on this page is really an investment in your own success.
Working with any of the business owners you see here will leave your business better off than it was before you engaged them.
And if you want to support a Black-owned business, but you have needs that are not met by any of the professionals on this page, all you have to do is reach out to me and I can almost guarantee that I’ll have the person you need in my immediate or extended network.
Check out the video below to see how Park Road Studios can help you use video as a tool for implementing lasting, substantive change with regard to diversity in your organization.
