Page 2 of 4
This is not good because when a company goes public the ownership link to a community is usually broken. A dozen thousandaires who keep ownership of their businesses local are far more important to the community's well being than one millionaire.
Unless an enterprise is anchored to the community through dispersed ownership, its owners are likely – once successful – to move to the suburbs (or, if they are successful, locate offshore in Mexico, India, etc). When that happens, of course, the economic multiplier and tax payments no longer benefit the community.
On the other hand, businesses owned by community residents, can become long-term assets for local development. Unlike their global competitors with no ties to place, who tend to flee when labor and environmental standards rise.
One of the few National Football League teams that has not tried to extort a new stadium or other bribes from the community by threatening to move if its demands were not met is the Green Bay Packers – a community-owned nonprofit.Given the effect of business ownership on the Black community and the widening wealth gap between Black and White Americans, it’s time to invest in our future and prepare our youth for careers as entrepreneurs. This article discusses the need for and lessons learned from youth entrepreneurship education for Black youth.
Middle and high school Black students, especially those who find themselves struggling academically, too often complain that school seems irrelevant to both their present and future lives. The lack of understanding these students have about the workings of the market—and their place in it—systematically denies them opportunities for pursuing their dreams. Consequently, without dreams to pursue, many Black youth have little reason to invest in education and their own development.
Previous research has revealed that Black youth have the highest entrepreneurial expectations amongst Asian, Hispanic and White youth. However, research also shows that Black youth do not have access to enough entrepreneurial programs to convert their desire into achievement. Thus, there is need to create more entrepreneurial programs for Black youth with relevant vision, goals and objectives.
A 1999 study by the Office of Advocacy in the U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that between 1987 and 1997, the number of minority-owned businesses more than doubled. The revenues and number of employees nearly quadrupled.
Much of this growth, however, came from recently arrived Asian and Hispanic immigrants. Moreover, Asians produced more than half of the half billion dollars in revenue minority businesses generated in 1997.
To help counter this trend, youth entrepreneurial programs have sprung up that train youth in Black communities. Here are some examples:
- The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) teaches the fundamentals of business to more than 4,000 low-income kids a year. Its business model is typical of all the youth entrepreneurial programs.
- The NAACP recently launched its $1 million Reginald F. Lewis Youth Entrepreneurial Institute, which helps young entrepreneurs write and implement business plans.
- Under the slogan, "It's dough money, not dope money," Champs Cookies Youth Entrepreneurship Society trains 60 African-American children a year how to manufacture and market their edible products in the nation's capital.
On the surface, these programs seem highly beneficial, but after a closer look, questions arise about the lessons being taught.
WHAT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE CONSIDERED?
Are Black youth taught to produce items genuinely needed by the
community, or Pet Rocks and Saturday Night Specials? The business
product used by NFTE throughout its materials is T-shirt
silk-screening. The only important product consideration, according to
NFTE, is that the product "must satisfy a need of the consumer," not
the many needs of the community.
