What Building Black Power Could Mean for Workplaces

Time​ Magazine

6 hours ago

By
Ahead of Juneteenth, we spoke with Andre M. Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the recent book, Black Power Scorecard: Measuring the Racial Gap and What We Can Do to Close it.
He told us that the goal of Black Power Scorecard was to 'find out the factors that we must address in order to create vibrant, thriving communities.' In it, he argues that Black power movements seek to 'remove privileges based on race,' a process that would 'advance democracy, benefiting all racial groups.'
We asked him about employers' role in working towards that vision, given the attacks on corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on the federal level. Here are excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
In Black Power Scorecard, you write that 'the concepts, strategies, and objectives of Black power have never been fully encapsulated by [corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)] programs.' Where has DEI fallen short?
I wrote the book before Trump was elected, but I still feel that my position holds up in that the goal of DEI and affirmative action have never been the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. It's always been to have mainstream access to capital markets, mainstream access to higher educational institutions. And in many ways, DEI programs—not the values—are consolation prizes that have been offered in the face of not providing access.
In one of my favorite studies, we scraped all the Yelp data from businesses across the country and found that Black-, Brown-, and Asian-owned firms actually score higher on Yelp than their white counterparts. That research shows empirically what elders used to say all the time, that our ice is just as cold, meaning that our businesses and entrepreneurs are just as worthy of investment.
No one wants to be a consolation prize. No one wants to be a set aside. We don't want workarounds. Communities need investment like everyone else, and so to me, the goal is to create policy both in the public and private sectors that recognize the strength of people and that Black, Brown, and Asian folks are not a set aside. We don't want special programs. We just want mainstream access.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Thich Nhat Han, a Vietnamese philosopher, who used to say, 'When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce.' You look to see if the soil's enriched. You look to see if it's getting proper rain water or sunlight. But when things aren't growing in black communities, we constantly blame the lettuce.
I want for us to recognize that when there's a lack of growth it's because of a lack of investment, but also that we have strength in black communities, but that strength is devalued. And I don't necessarily promote the furtherance of devaluation through policies that aren't truly providing the investments that they deserve. So it's incumbent upon corporate America, upon government, upon American citizens to say, 'Hey, we want policies that work for all of us.'
What should employers be doing instead to realize the goals of Black power, or as you write, 'create environments that maximize human potential?'
When it comes to employers in particular, I do emphasize the role of income. Income is one of the top predictors [of life expectancy in Black communities]. What employers should be mindful of is that pay is a major factor in the quality of life for individuals. No surprises there. When people have adequate pay, they invest in their lives and their communities' lives. We always need to check our pay against cost of living increases because what has happened over the decades is that the cost of living in many markets has outpaced the increase in pay. And if we're not mindful, we can really make it hard on families overall to have a good quality of life.
Another avenue could be workforce housing, which may be difficult in tight housing markets but can be a viable goal to create thriving communities. Because of those tight markets, we have not seen widespread employer-housing benefits, but if firefighters and teachers and other municipal employees can get access to home ownership, it helps stabilize their lives as well as the lives of others in the community.
In the book, I talk a lot about how we must look for collective means to solve these problems. Unionization is one critical institution or practice for employees if their employers are not providing the incomes that encourage longevity. I'm also interested in employee-owned firms and other ways that employees can have a stake in the growth of a business.
Employers shouldn't interfere with employees' efforts to organize and mobilize. That may be hard to hear, but for an employer, it does come with certain tensions that are ultimately healthy in a democracy. You want employees to have some say in how resources are distributed because their work matters and in many cases, they are a primary reason why the business is seeing profits. It only makes sense that there is some kind of mechanism for employers to recognize the contributions of workers.
What are you seeing that gives you hope and keeps you engaged in this kind of work?
When I did the research, it was clear that there are lots of places that are thriving and that we see growth in a lot of areas. What happens at the national level often masks the real growth at the local level. Things are changing at a local level in spite of what's happening at the federal level. I point to the growth in Black-owned employer firms, for instance, or firms with more than one employee. Black people represent about 14% of the population. In 2017, Black-owned firms were about 2.3% of employer firms. That number has actually increased by 50% since 2017.
And that was through the first Trump administration, a pandemic, and then the Biden administration. In spite of everything, we're seeing growth on a local level, and so I'm encouraged by that. Certainly, there are threats that can thwart those advancements, but I know there's strength that has been created during these periods, and we can't lose sight of that growth because it really will mask the innovation, the dignity, the strength of the people who are doing the good work and winning.