"taking Care Of Our Own"

Black networks spring up to help the "best and the brightest" start new firms and lure black customers to black businesses.

 

For most of his working life, Dwayne Wynn has seen his city move forward -- and his own people left behind. But today, Wynn, an insurance systems administrator and owner of an import business, believes that things are changing. Having seen the growing power and affluence of the highly cohesive Cuban business community, Wynn believes Miami's blacks are finally beginning to emulate their Hispanic neighbors by building a strong business network among black entrepreneurs and professionals.

"For years, there's been a void in our community," says Wynn, who now heads The Network Inc., which has 800 members. "This way, we can start to make the connections between ourselves that haven't been made in the past."

There are other such efforts. The American Health and Beauty Aids Institute is made up of 22 minority-owned companies that give research advice to black businesses in an industry that has traditionally had a strong black presence. And in New York City, the Coalition of Black Professional Organizations seeks to create a critical mass of economic clout within the black business community -- its own old-boy network."We know that the ability to cut business deals is based on who you know," says attorney Darrell Gay, chairman of the Coalition. "It's the way it works for the Fortune 500 executives." There are similar groups in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta.

Perhaps one positive sign of change has been the number of black managers and professionals from big corporations showing up at black network meetings and "business card exchanges." Many admit now that they feel their opportunities are limited within the confines of these largely white institutions. Indeed, a recent National Urban League study found that only 13% of black corporate managers feel they have a "high" potential for promotion within their firms.

"The game is rapidly changing, from working within the system at major companies toward ownership and creating enterprises that create wealth, jobs, and real power," says an optimistic Arthur J. Hill, president of Miami's minority-owned Peoples National Bank of Commerce. "The young technocrats are beginning to understand how real wealth is accumulated in this country."

Black enterprise needs entrepreneurs -- that's one problem. It also needs customers. And in New York City, TV commentator Tony Brown is working on that, too. His "Buy Freedom" campaign aims to persuade black consumers to spend their dollars on companies that are black-owned or employ large numbers of black workers. Brown points out that if American blacks were a separate nation, theirs would be the ninth largest economy in the world. If they would shift a fraction of their $200 billion in spending each year to black enterprise, the results, he argues, would be spectacular.

"This is the essence of the American way," argues Brown. "It's worked for the Jews, the Cubans, and the Asians. You can't keep waiting around, blaming white people and racism for all your problems. If you wait around for the last racist to die, you'll be waiting around an awful long time. And I think we've already waited long enough."