My black year: Maggie Anderson at TEDxGrandRapids

I come from a Cuban family I grew up in Miami but I grew up in a predominantly black very poor neighborhood in Miami D called Liberty City from there I went on to Atlanta studied at Emory University and had the honor of being a congressional aide to civil rights hero Congressman John Lewis and after that I went to Chicago and got my MBA and my law degree at the University of Chicago where I also got to learn from another hero of mine taught constitutional law by then professor Barack Obama and now the President of the United States we fell in love while we were in graduate school now that's John and I not the President and I we found great success in corporate America got married by our pretty house and our pretty suburb had our two pretty little girls and we're living out our picture perfect comfortable Cosby life but we analyzed the rest of the black community we saw that things were getting worse and worse for most black people we felt guilty about that we felt bad about that so we gave more to our black church we gave more to the N double AC P and the UNCF wasn't that enough philanthropy is commendable but it must not cause a philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary dr. Martin Luther King said that now what is this economic injustice he was talking about what are these circumstances he was talking about in America in the Asian community the dollar circulates among the communities banks and retailers and professionals for about 28 days before it leads the community in Jewish communities that circulation period is about 19 days in Wasp communities out predominantly white areas if you will the dollar stays 17 days my Hispanic brothers and sisters keep their dollar for about a week and in the black community the community dr. King was slain fighting for we keep our dollar for six hours let me tell you what that means in real life terms that means in Asian communities Asian kids get to see business owners who look like them every day all the time there are Asian banks and insurance companies and grocery stores all over the community and those businesses employ from the community and the families to take care of those businesses and vice versa Asian unemployment in America is at a low four to five percent most Asian Americans over fifty percent are self employed or employed by Asian firms that those circumstances that economic and business growth lead to high educational attainment there's a business and political power low poverty strong businesses low crime in Asian neighborhoods six hours in the black community let me tell you what that means that means that black kids can't see business owners who look like them every day there are no black owned grocery stores and dry cleaners and pharmacies and clothing stores locally owned in the black community so the people there cannot get jobs much less create jobs in the community so black unemployment and places like Detroit Geary and Oakland sometimes forty percent and those circumstances lead to social problems like recidivism high crime high gang and drug activity poverty that's what's going on with those six hours and those disparities cause the same kind of problems in the corporate space sixty percent of the money that is spent with Asian suppliers in corporate America so your asian professional firms Asian products you see on the shelves used to be spent with black owned businesses and the same kind of shift has happened between Hispanic businesses and black owned businesses that's why when you go into a grocery store you'll see whole aisles full of products coming from Asian companies from Hispanic companies so let's go to the grocery store the drugstore and see where the black oriented products are you go there you'll see products like these you'll see spoken WAV and let's jam and smooth and shine and dark and lovely and strength of nature and dark and natural and stay soft for all those products products that only black people buy every day 100% black market all those products are owned by L'Oreal a company out of France all those billions of dollars leave the black community some of that money could come back if L'Oreal had supplier diversity of L'Oreal was doing any business with black owned firms L'Oreal only has black buyers no black suppliers same deal with Hennessy Hennessy Wall Street Journal estimates between 60 to 80 percent of Hennessey's US market comes from the black community that means that Hennessey closes down tomorrow without black consumers billions and billions of dollars going outside of the community Hennessey has no black distributors no black suppliers does not advertise in black owned media or use black owned advertising agencies so bottom line black most of the businesses in black areas are not black owned most of the products catering to black culture don't come from black companies black unemployment is highest among other any group in America black firms are the highest employer of black people so I can give you more Chicago sixty KFC franchises most of them full of black people and black money every day none of them owned by black franchisees I'm just trying to give you this picture of the circumstances of economic injustice dr. King referred to and what I hope we can do is I can get you to understand that if this is the picture of economic and justice he was thinking about can we look at the opportunity or maybe the duty or at least the right to do something about that economic injustice all kind of folks rally if a white racist shoots an unarmed black teen and then we protest a legal system that would let that killer go three go free now will we rally will we come together if that unarmed black boy gets shot by a black gangbanger and that happens because that black boy lives in a place that is so economically depleted so poor and the people there are so angry and so frustrated that that place has become a war zone overrun by drug activity will you protest for that economic injustice well I conceived of and conducted the empowerment experiment hoping that if we shared this story with you you would do just that and it was tough living like that it was tough and fearful being called a racist a Nazi or the other end word dealing with death threats and hate mail just because I decided for one year to do this experiment to explore the possibility of using my buying power to help my economically deprived community it was humiliating taking CBS News and PBS newshour through the black areas of Chicago trudging through all that economic deprivation and all that social decay every face we see black watching the correspondents and camera crews shake their heads as we go store to store door to door hi we're doing the story on black businesses may we meet your owner blocks and blocks sometimes miles dozens of businesses without engaging a black proprietor it hurt as a black woman to see that and I know I heard some feelings to show that but I really hoped that that year would bring you in and take you there and show you things that you may not want to see but you needed to see and hopefully really wanted to understand I wanted you to see Jordan I met this pretty little girl during that year I would not have met Jordan or gone anywhere near where Jordan lives Bronzeville on the south side of Chicago had it not been for that year Bronzeville is a dilapidated area lots of crime drugs depression still our young Jordan wanted to build a children's clothing store in Bronzeville and she did with her mom and her grandma and her grandfather's life savings they called it Jordan's closets and it was the most beautiful children's chloride store I've ever seen they had on nowadays they would invite little girls from the community for tea parties and book clothes and on Sundays her mom would host for teenagers in the community modeling classes and a Charm School what a gem for Bronzeville or a great place for me to spend my money what a wonderful role model for the kids their Jordans closets is closed another abandoned dream another destroyed dream in an abandoned space and so it is in Bronzeville two-story dream after the story dream abandoned space after abandoned space these are the businesses that I supported during the empowerment experiment all of them are gone I took on this year I did this year because the lack of economic and business power in the black community is the single most salient destructive and self perpetuated problem the black community faces and still the most ignored our buying power our businesses have always empowered and proved our community but now in an integrated society somehow we're supposed to live without all of that somehow we're supposed to survive without the businesses and the buying power in the early 1900's shortly after emancipation believe it or not black businesses the black community had amassed great business power we had black Wall Street's we had hospital systems transportation systems hotel chains grocery stores all kinds of businesses of professionals thrived hundreds of millions of dollars were created and circulated in the black community unemployment was statistically insignificant the unemployment gap between whites and blacks in this country only wide into 1960 at integration after slavery more and more black towns became self-sustaining until integration or until they were burned down by racists vibrant neighborhoods were bombed set on fire then looted these people had their homes and thriving economic thoroughfares burned to the ground because they endeavored to be self-sustaining over 90% of the lynchings of black men that happened during Jim Crow and reconstruction or of business what an awful paradox we had when we were politically disenfranchised we had economic power we took that economic power for granted because we needed to fight for our civil rights now we're politically free but economically insignificant that's a tough trade-off to make Martin Luther King thought about that trade-off Martin Luther King wasn't just fighting for basic human rights he fought for black businesses too in a public address that he gave the day before he died he said this we got to strengthen black institutions I want you to take your money out of the bank's downtown and put your money into Tri State Bank we need to have a bank in you have six or seven insurance companies in Memphis put your insurance there we need to have an insurance in dr. King died asking us to support these businesses and we didn't and they're gone those banks and insurance companies were the backbone of the black community and they're gone now now I'm asking you how does that make you feel black or not as Americans how does that make you feel do you wonder like I do what would have happened had those businesses thrived do you wonder what Detroit would look like now if we had those banks and insurance companies so I ask you what are we going to do about that dr. King wondered what would you do and he didn't know just like I don't know he said this many white Americans of goodwill have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation they have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice dr. King said that now this is what they say about our black here they say that we illuminated the roadblocks faced by black businesses in this racially divided economy that this book will appeal to students of economics and sociology and anyone looking for inspiration to effect positive change in their community how's this for inspiration I did an hour long interview on c-span and I took that time to mention this paper company Southcoast paper that I support when I go to office max I told everyone about the 60 people that have jobs that would not be there otherwise in Birmingham South Carolina had it not been for this black owned Paper Company and had it not been for office max taking a chance on this black owned Paper Company c-span tells me is one of the most popular segments they ran it against the Republican National Convention me against congressman Ryan and people watch me but the good news about that story well the better news about that story is that Office Max and South Coast paper reported that their 800 number and their website were flooded by consumers looking for that paper twice a week I go to I leave my pristine suburb and I go to the west side of Chicago to go to forest cleaners forest cleaners is one of the few black owned businesses owned by a few one of a few black owned businesses in this all-black part of town James Forrest is the owner my kids call him uncle James James has been there for about three years and he just made his first hire and an orphaned teenage boy who has spent a lot of time and juvenile detention and and foster homes but this is a great kid and uncle James knows that so he has taken him in become a father figure to him and is showing him the business the west side of Chicago needs that cleaners those boys need uncle James and I am helping uncle James help those boys by supporting him during those 15 minutes a week I gave a lecture in Boston a woman named Debbie came she bought my book read it wrote me were friends now Debbie asked for website designer I told her about a great business in Philadelphia this kid is a tech genius and he's a great role model for the kids in that community she used his business she loves her site she told all of her friends about this great black owned business that they need to support and they did support him and he got a new corporate client because of Debbie did I mention that my friend Debbie is white you see you don't have to be an activist to do what I do you don't have to you live in a struggling community to empower it we're all connected to this economy so we can all do something about economic injustice your dollar can do just as much as mine as Debbie's to make our economy more fair and more inclusive Mima my mother was just a Cuban farm girl never graduated from high school never learned how to drive but she was one of the most brilliant and the bravest woman I'll ever know in 2008 right before we launched the empowerment experiment my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given three months to live I was going to shut this holding down to be with Lisa and Mima said no you have to do this this would be the most important thing that you'll ever do she is the reason that I'm on this stage today and I wonder now that Mima is gone Mima lived 16 months with pancreatic cancer one of the worst cancers there is and she died in my arms having witnessed her daughter complete the most important thing that she'll ever do Nima died one month after the empowerment experiment and that's wonderful that she got to see her daughter do that but I still wonder five years later did I waste the last year my mother's life fighting for something that's never going to change never be penetrated and because not because the right man has his foot on our necks but because no matter how much media attention we earn no matter how much studies we generate my people just won't come together again and the larger community won't because it's taboo unite to create an integrated economy the larger community won't fight for economic empowerment the way we did for civil and human rights but then Mima will send me folks like debbie like jordan like uncle James and all those great people who went out to by south coast paper and she shows me that it was indeed worth it that was indeed worth it that's the point all of these strangers came together to create an empowered community strangers connected by their sense of community that's my black year it's not the story of an extreme thing that I did for one year it's the story of the little things we all can do every day thank you thank you so much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 525,961

Rating: 4.8933845 out of 5

Keywords: ted x, Economy, TEDxGR, Grand Rapids, TEDxGrandRapids, tedx talk, ted talks, ted talk, TEDx, tedx talks, Chicago, Maggie Anderson, Michigan, ted, tedx

Id: nFBEoIQutSc

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 17 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Afle_mobile]

I truly love this movement. We have great spending power we just have to hold onto it.

edit: A lot of young Black people are getting started online. So though I'd love to see thriving brick and motar businesses in our communities that are Black owned and making the areas look pleasant, I would also like to see more Black owned e-commerce businesses like shopify and etsy.