Need To Know With Dr. Nsenga Burton-Fearless Fund

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A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton, what do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good afternoon.

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Welcome to Need to Know with Nsenga.

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I am happy to be here today.

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I'm unhappy to be talking to

you about this particular topic.

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If you've been watching the news, you

have seen that the Federal Appeals

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Court has blocked the Fearless Fund

from issuing grants to only Black women.

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There has been A movement to

disempower people of color in

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general, black women specifically,

and it is, uh, really come to a head.

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Uh, the fearless fund was founded to

give black women entrepreneurs a leg up.

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Now, you may be looking at the

statistics and the statistics are, uh.

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Amazing and we seem like we're doing

black girl magic and all the things right?

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So we have black women account

for 42 percent of all women

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who opened a business, right?

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So we're doing that.

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We're outpacing white women and black

men in terms of opening businesses.

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We're doing that.

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We represent 36 percent

of all black employers.

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We're doing that.

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Black women entrepreneurs also

have payroll, a large percentage

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actually paying people.

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Not only paying the money, paying

them taxes, all of the things, um,

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so that they can enjoy their lives.

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And once they leave or move

on, they can continue to, um,

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enjoy the fruits of their labor.

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Um, and then you have all of

these things happening compared

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to, New businesses, right?

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That are being started by others.

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10 percent of white women

and 15 percent of white men.

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So, if you see the numbers of the

statistics and these statistics, I got

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from a study or report from JP Morgan, um,

from: 2024

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things are going well, and they are to a

certain extent, but what they don't talk

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about or show is the incredible barriers.

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And access to entry black women

are up against further the types

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of businesses that they're able to

start, or we're able to start often

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don't have the same types of revenue.

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For example, the average amount of

revenue that a black woman owned business

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makes is $24,000 dollars per year.

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So, when you don't have access to

capital, when you don't have access,

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and we're talking about venture capital.

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When you don't have access to money

because of systemic barriers, including

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racism, sexism, misogyny, discrimination,

when you're less likely to be approved for

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a loan, when you carry more student loan

debt than any other group in the country,

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all of these things are happening.

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Sometimes you need a leg up.

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Um, many black women are going into

entrepreneurship because of, um, they're

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tired of corporate America and trying

to be liked or treated with dignity

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and respect or not overworked and

undervalued, overworked and underpaid,

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um, and, you know, just being made

the villain, so to speak, uh, in

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order to support, uh, really poor

practices, uh, and business practices.

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So, black women are taking

a chance on themselves and

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they're starting businesses.

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So, to get back to the fearless fund,

the fearless fund is really, um, one

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of many, uh, well, I won't say many,

but one of several, um, that are really

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trying to make sure that black women

in general, um, and, and that includes

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Afro Latino, that includes African,

that includes Caribbean, what have you,

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um, black women are getting a shot.

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At being entrepreneurs and being

successful entrepreneurs who can operate

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at full capacity, they can have staffs.

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So they're not overworking

themselves in their own businesses,

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which many of us tend to do.

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They can have retirement and

benefits and offer that so

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they can attract great talent.

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And so, when you get this type of ruling,

and it continues to happen, we saw

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it at Harvard in terms of admissions.

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We're now seeing it.

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They're now telling you.

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Uh, in America.

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Okay.

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So, yeah, you can start a

business, but you can't help

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a particular group of people.

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Everyone has to have access to

it, even though there are systemic

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disparities that suggest there is

a need for this particular fund.

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They didn't go out here and say, okay,

let's be a black supremacist and just say,

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um, we're only gonna help black women.

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They looked at the data

because it's all data driven.

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They looked at what is needed in our

communities, black women, 72 percent of

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black families are led by black women.

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They looked at all of

that information, right?

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And all the education that

we're getting, we are the most

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educated group in the country.

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We are, which is why we

have the most student loans.

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Right, because we have the least amount

of income, capital, housing, all of

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the things that, you know, other groups

have, uh, in, in wonderful numbers,

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particularly people who are white.

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They looked at all that data and

they say, how can we help make

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a difference in our community?

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How can we help impact this community?

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Particularly when we are

disenfranchised and left out.

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Of these other opportunities, whether

it's at the corporate level, whether

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it is as small owned businesses.

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I just read an article today where

someone, uh, didn't want to sell

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their house to this young woman, 33

year old woman, uh, in California,

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cause she was black and said it, you

know, wanted to stop the closing.

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These are the things that happen

to black people all the time.

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That is part of our existence.

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It is part of our experience.

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And you know, just because it's

not on NBC all the time doesn't

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mean that it's not happening.

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So I just wanted to say.

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That It's a really sad day when we don't

look at our historically disenfranchised

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populations and think about the ways that

we can help those who are most deserving.

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And these are people who have gone

to school and educated themselves.

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These are people who have, uh, and, and,

and there's entrepreneurs themselves.

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These are people who have decided

that they want to use their talent

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to uplift the community, right?

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You keep talking about, you need

to get jobs, you need to take care

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of your own community, you need

to do this, you need to do that.

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And so when we try to target, and that's

all it is, it's not giving anybody a

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hand out, it's giving somebody a leg up.

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When we try to target people to

help make that happen, they were

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penalized, demonized, villainized

and further disenfranchised.

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So it won't stop.

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Um, we will continue to do what we can.

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I am the former national executive

director of an, uh, of, uh,

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the National Association of

multicultural digital entrepreneurs.

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I'm the former Southeast

regional director.

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Of a, uh, an HBC

entrepreneurship institute.

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So people are still going

to be working hard on it.

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We have Congress people who are

working on these initiatives.

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Biden administration has rolled out

coins or funding for entrepreneurs.

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So there are ways to get to it.

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But it's just disappointing that if

you try every single pathway that

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is available to you and you are

rejected, even though you are qualified

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and you do have the credentials.

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That there's still now there's nowhere for

you to go in terms of people who are like,

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they understand you understand you, your

community, your culture, and the types

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of businesses you're trying to build.

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So that's, that's disappointing,

but we won't stop.

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We'll keep going.

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So this is a need to

know with Nsenga on BEP.

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Join us next week.