I recently attended my alma matter’s, Babsons College, Black Affinity Conference. While in attendance I spoke on a panel. The topic of the panel was Our Cities in Our Hands: Shaping Our Legacy Through Economic Development. We discussed the wealth inequality between black and white communities in the United States. We talked about the fact that the black community was projected to have 1.1trillion dollars in buying power by the end of last year, yet that same community has control over only 1.75 percent of our country’s wealth. The same country’s wealth which is built on the foundation of free slave labor.

Those of us who are interested in the “revitalization” of Detroit in particular have the opportunity to change the historical narrative of this country. We, and by we I mean and and everyone who believes in equality and justice, can support black communities in gaining economic power to close the wealth inequality gap. I’ll leave you with this powerful Ted Talk video that was shown to us before our panel began. Although it begs the question, Why don’t Black people support black businesses?, I would like to amend it slightly and ask the question why don’t all of us support black businesses? I remain hopeful that one day we will live in the type of world the radical Dr. Martin Luther King envisioned–one in which we do not “overlook the economic injustices that makes philanthropy necessary.”