Business Over Beer

#33. Panel Discussion on Racial Inequality #BlackLivesMatter

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This week on Business Over Beer, we have invited a panel of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners to discuss the issue of racial inequality. Business Over Beer provides a platform for small business owners, entrepreneurs and other passionate professionals to tell their stories, participate in real conversations and to build a community that helps small businesses succeed. Given recent events, we felt compelled to lend some voices to this issue and to stand in solidarity with the members of our community to listen, learn and combat racism and oppression.  

There are so many layers to this issue that impact different segments of our communities, from segregation and integration, to incarceration and voting rights; from education to recruiting and hiring; from access to capital to professional networking. There is obviously no way we could even begin to look at all the angles of this issue much less solve the problem in this discussion.  

Our goal for this panel and discussions going forward is three fold:

  1. Define systemic racism and understand the issue broadly.
  • Create a safe space to have open, public and productive conversations about race.
  • Start developing action items to support racial equality, especially as it relates to the small business community and entrepreneurship.

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    Panelists:

    Katie Augsburger, Future Work Design

    Deena Pierott, iUrban Teen & Black Women in STEM 2.0

    Joe Sanders, Old Town Brewing

    Keith Sconiers, Northwest Advisory Group & The Catalyst Course

    Gregory Walls, Primerica Financial Services

     

    In this episode:

    • Look at all of our systems that we currently have in place with an equity lens and see who is missing from the table. Fixing this issue will require the right people at the table.
  • It's our collective work to dismantle the racist systems.
  • Many systems are so deeply rooted in the oppression of others that we actually have to rebuild them and re-sync them in order for us to actually make important movement.
  • For white people, being anti racist has been seen as benevolent exercise that they do for black and brown folks, it's a kindness. The reality is now that relationships will never be aligned and white people cannot be in an authentic relationships with black people if racism exists. 
  • For kids from mixed race families, it is critical to allow your kids to be who they are, but teach them their rich heritage of all sides of their background; that will help prepare them navigate situation where society tries to determine for them how they show up in the world.
  • When the conversation is controlled by the media and controlled by politics, it becomes more difficult to solve the problem.  
  • You can't pull your boot straps up if you don't have boots.
  • Rioting is the language of the oppressed, if you kill me with impunity and will it listen decade after decade, rioting is a way to get attention.
  • Historically the consequence of racism fell on black people, now the consequence of racism is falling on the racists which is a significant shift
  • The power of the movement today is with the integration of white people walking hand in hand with black people, the people are uniting; Broader societal integration can be just as powerful for positive change.

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    Episode Links:

    Future Work Design

    iUrban Teen

    ...more
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