The Black Cheese VlogCast Episode 2 -

Black History Month gives us an opportunity to look back, look back at the history of Black civil rights. I mean, it really does give us an opportunity to look back at all of Black history, not just Black history in the North American context. Black history, of course, goes way back beyond civil rights, goes way back beyond enslavement of African peoples here on the North American continent. For my conversation today, I want to focus on the history of Black civil rights activism and advocacy here in North America. It was a passionate and purposeful movement. It achieved a significant shift in the sociopolitical and to some extent the socioeconomic positioning of minorities, African Americans in particular, within the larger North American context. Its calling card is the passion and purpose with which it pursued socio-political equalization. Not to cast any aspersions on the effort and the nobility of the civil rights movement, I do find that it came up quite a bit short in the area of socioeconomic and maybe more so economic entrepreneurial advancement. Black entrepreneurship, if anything, suffered during the civil rights movement. And I dare say, as I posit in my book, as I outline in my book, The Black Cheese, which is all about black entrepreneurship, I dare say that civil rights, the civil rights movement did injury to black entrepreneurship. Well, let me put it this way, to be more exact. The advancements in socio-political positioning of African Americans that came as a result of the civil rights movement, that socio-political repositioning actually hurt black entrepreneurship. It is well documented that prior to civil rights and during civil rights in the early stages, that Black entrepreneurship was booming. That there was something called the Black Wall Street. There were other pockets of prosperous and vibrant Black entrepreneurship pre-civil rights and early civil rights. What happened? What happened? Why has that thriving Black entrepreneurship seemed to die out, seemed to fizzle out? Why was that? Well, there are many reasons, many reasons. Systemic racism, part of it is, in my opinion, and based on some of the research that I did in my book, Part of the reason Black entrepreneurship suffered is because of the sociopolitical advances that African Americans gained as a result of the civil rights movement. We can't lay that at the feet, we can't lay that blame at the feet of civil rights activists and advocates. Back in the '60s and '50s. It is one of those unintended consequences. Part of it has to do with the focus. Where was the economic focus placed? Well, let's take a look at that, right? Because Gavin Wright, the William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History at Stanford His position is that the civil rights movement was an economic success. He wrote an article some time ago in the Journal of Economic History. You know, he thought the civil rights movement was a massive economic success. He cites, for example, that Southern blacks as a group benefited from the movement. A study of the civil rights movement shows that there is, or was, a decisive step forward, decisive advancement in the labor market and relative to black income because of integration. See, one of the thrusts of civil rights was the integration, right? And this integration really showed up most clearly in the labor market. And so, yeah, Southern blacks benefited from the integration, and now they were integrated into the larger labor pool, the labor market. And so some historians see that as a economic success for Black America. But, but, but you got to look deeper, because by integrating Black labor into white industries and white corporate America, white businesses, was actually one of the nails in the coffin of black entrepreneurship for a couple reasons. Here's a couple reasons. One, when blacks were integrated into white corporate America, into white business, to the white labor pool, it was more a boom for white business than it was a boom for Black, for African Americans, individually or corporately, right? And here's why. The historical facts clearly show that integrating Blacks and African Americans into the white labor pool was really a boost to the white business bottom line. That's because they didn't pay Black folks anywhere close to what they paid the white labor pool. They were getting the same work done at a huge discount. And all that meant is, as, as, as they integrated blacks into the white labor pool, it just meant that their bottom line profits boomed because the cost of labor, cost of production, significantly declined. It skewed downward. The more blacks came into white businesses, the lower cost of labor became for white-owned businesses. What did that do? That gave white-owned businesses a significant competitive advantage against black-owned businesses. And so in an indirect way, when the, the civil rights movement achieved this integration in the labor pool and Southern Blacks and Blacks began to get more work in white businesses, yes, it was good. It was a form of economic advancement, but it stopped really short of entrepreneurial advancement, right? And so, yes, we've got to give the civil rights advocates of the past, as we look back on Black history, give them their due, but there is some unfinished business. In fact, that's exactly what Obama referred to it as, unfinished business. You know, he was speaking at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, right? And in that speech, Obama referring to the unfinished work of achieving full economic equalization, he referred to it as the great unfinished business. He talked about the March on Washington was focused on seeking jobs as well as seeking justice. In fact, the March on Washington was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. And see, and that was part of the paradigm misalignment, right, that I believe hurt black entrepreneurship. The emphasis, the economic emphasis was on jobs. And I guess you've got to start somewhere, but I think there should have been an equally parallel pursuit of entrepreneurship equality at the same time the push was on for jobs equality. So the march was entitled March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

In some ways, though, the securing of civil rights, voting rights, the eradication of legalized discrimination, the very significance of these victories may have obscured a second goal of the march. For the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search of some abstract ideal. They were there seeking jobs as well as justice—not just the absence of oppression, but the presence of economic opportunity. For what does it profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can't afford the meal? This idea that one's liberty is linked to one's livelihood; that the pursuit of happiness requires the dignity of work the skills to find work, decent pay, some measure of material security—this idea was not new. And it's along this second dimension of economic opportunity, the chance through honest toil to advance one's station in life, where the goals of 50 years ago have fallen most short. The gap in wealth between races has not lessened, it's grown. This remains our great unfinished business.

There is more work to be done to achieve African American employment levels that are on par with white employment levels, closing that wage gap. But there's also much more, and I believe more important work to be done to achieve entrepreneurial economic equalization. That is what will close the wealth gap. See, wealth gap versus wage gap, I think it's more important work. To close the wealth gap. So, so yeah, so conflating, conflating jobs or push for job equality, integration of Black labor force into the American labor pool, pushing for that was good because it stopped short because there was this equivalency between employment, African American employment in the white labor force, there was an equivalency between that and economic. So jobs are just a part, a small part of economic advancement. Real economic advancement is not just getting a job, but the ability to be entrepreneurially strong enough to create a job. That's where I think there was maybe a misstep in the civil rights movement by focusing on jobs as the sole barometer of economic justice. Now, of course, I'm speaking in broad terms. There were some pockets of, of pursuit for entrepreneurial equalization. By and large, it was mostly focused on socio-political equalization and economic integration vis-à-vis jobs being integrated into the workforce. This push for jobs was also part of the push for income equality. And in fact, it was a worthy, necessary pursuit of income equality because even today, right, there is still an income gap between African Americans and white Americans. So I'm not saying that there should not have been that push for jobs to pursue income equality. What I'm saying is that in addition to that job push, that push for income equality vis-à-vis jobs, there should have been a corresponding parallel path to economic entrepreneurial equalization. But another reason, another reason that the civil rights movement in my opinion, hurt Black entrepreneurship is what I call self-inflicted prejudice. I have an entire chapter in my book.

Join Dr. Murray in episode 3 where he will discuss self-inflicted and self-directed prejudice. This was another major factor that stifled the economic advancement of Black-owned businesses during the civil rights era. Even in 2022, the suffocating effect of self-directed prejudice on Black entrepreneurship is still still in effect in the post-civil rights era. So watch your social media platforms for episode 3.

And so there it is. So again, this is, uh, this is episode number 2. I'm gonna do, uh, 4 or 5 episodes throughout the month of February, like I said, in honor of Black History. And we'll take some hard looks at Black History, civil rights, but more importantly, take take a look at what history can we begin to make today so that tomorrow's Black history would be a legacy that we have left and created for our children and our grandchildren. So thanks for listening. See you in episode number 3.

Remember to grab your copy of The Black Cheese on Amazon.com. It's available in hard copy and Kindle ebook format. Dr. Murray has discounted The Black Cheese until the end of Black History Month, so get your copy now. Do you need an informative and engaging expert speaker? You can book Dr. Murray to speak to your business, university, church, or nonprofit on issues of Black entrepreneurship or Black leadership. Reach out to Dr. Murray through the social media platform where you are viewing this podcast, or you can book Dr. Murray at www.strategicbusinessanalysts.com/bookwaltermurray. See the post or description below to find this link and also the Amazon link to purchase your copy of The Black Cheese. Sa.