‘For Black Entrepreneurs, The Racial Wealth Gap Makes Finding Funding Nearly Impossible
In 2016, the Center for Global Policy Solutions reported that due to discriminatory financing practices and a bias towards companies primarily operated by white males, America is losing out on over 1.1 million minority-owned businesses. As a result, the economy is foregoing over nine million potential jobs and $300 billion in collective national income. Four years later, the problem still persists—and then some. People of color have faced economic inequality for hundreds of years in this country, but the recent Black Lives Matter protests have made generation-spanning problems into a hot button issue of our present time. As hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country peacefully protest against systemic racism and police violence—all during the coronavirus pandemic that disproportionately kills Black people—they are turning a spotlight on institutional bias throughout all corners of our society. One area that requires systemic change? Entrepreneurship and the venture capital system that fuels it. Read more at Fast Company.
Latino Entrepreneurs have the same problem. I am the founder of Latino Fashion Week in the US, and it has nearly impossible to get funding for Latino designers and start ups.