Executive Summary: A Black Business Plan for America
From Customers to Capitalists
Black America is not a charity case. It is a $2.1 trillion market. Black consumers spend at the scale of one of the world’s 15 largest economies, account for one in every eight dollars at America’s checkout counters, and set the culture the rest of the country buys.
Yet Black Americans own only about 3% of the nation’s employer businesses. We buy one dollar in nine in America’s beauty industry and own about one dollar in forty. Where we don’t own, we pay more, from car loans to credit. And when jobs disappear, as they did this fall, homes and wealth go with them.
That is not a spending problem. It is an ownership problem, and ownership problems are solved with a plan.
The Plan. Built on the framework of Capitalism for All, this plan rests on five pillars:
- Own the shelf.
- Fix the credit plumbing.
- Grow employers, not just entrepreneurs.
- Serve the customers everyone else ignored.
- Protect the workforce while we build.
Each pillar turns existing Black buying power into Black business ownership.
The Prize. This is America’s growth plan, not just Black America’s. Citigroup estimates that racial gaps cost the U.S. economy $16 trillion over 20 years, and that closing them could add $5 trillion to GDP in five years. Every new Black-owned employer is a new taxpayer, a new bank customer and a new paycheck in a community that needs one.
The Ask. Partner with Operation HOPE, Inc. on the 1 Million Black Businesses initiative (1MBB) / open supplier programs to Black-owned brands / invest in credit and financial literacy / champion AI skills for workers in transition. Spread the word on Juanita AI. Encourage all to use these one of a kind resources to empower themselves.
We were the capital. Today we are the market. Tomorrow, if we do this right, we will be the owners.
John Hope Bryant
Founder, Chairman & CEO, Operation HOPE, Inc. | Author, Capitalism for All
John Hope Bryant — founder of Bryant Group Ventures, Operation HOPE, Inc, publisher of the Bryant Journal and author of his 7th book Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America, now a bestseller. Bryant was recently recognized as a member of the Forbes 250 Greatest Living Self Made Americans, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of America itself. Get the book →
