BRABRACE For Impact™: We Can Actually Do to Create Racial Equity
Due to systemic barriers and structural racism, Black and other diverse founders, lack the levels of relational wealth that contribute to seamless and effective entrepreneurial learning on the journey to wealth-building. Relational wealth is the strength of the relationships within the family and with the communities they live, work, and serve in. For Black entrepreneurs, relational wealth includes the assets and access that come from their relationships with other members of their entrepreneurial ecosystems. For Black leaders and Black professionals, this often shows up in their relationships in corporate America.
Black business owners have been found to have lower levels of social capital and relational wealth than other minority and non-minority groups. Among critical race theorists, there is an anecdotal correlation between the landmark 1896 ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson, which legalized racial segregation between Black and white Americans, and the lower levels of social capital and relational wealth that Black and diverse founders and families face in today’s globalized economy. The vestiges of racial segregation can be most deeply felt in spaces where Black and other minority founders/students/families feel as if they do not belong there—or worse yet, do not feel like they have a right to be there.
Black and minority groups require a deep sense of belonging and self-identity, especially in entrepreneurial spaces, to elevate the levels of entrepreneurial persistence they experience. Without intentional practices, policies, and programs designed to create this sense of belonging and self-identity, entrepreneurship ecosystems will continue to feel impenetrable to Black and other minority entrepreneurs. By centering racial equity in entrepreneurship ecosystems through creating belonging, unpacking systemic barriers to racial access and the historical context of race, entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) establish themselves as measurably inclusive organizations.
BRACE For Impact™ is an evidence-based program designed to create and amplify the work of inclusive entrepreneur support organizations (IESOs). The program is an immersive experience that wraps racial equity in belonging, racial access, and racial context for Black and minority founders and the organizations that support them in their pursuit of economic justice and equality.
Ready to actually begin measuring racial equity in your organization? Click here to learn more about BRACE For Impact™ partnership opportunities with Dr. White