Adidas is purchasing Rebook as I posted earlier this week. It’s a shame that Black athletes didn’t get together on this and purchase Rebook themselves. They (Black Athletes) are still stuck with the slave mentality. Long gone are the days of Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; the out spoken athlete who was not defined by sponsors. Michael Jordan is a prime example; he makes (for example) $400 million with Nike, how much is Nike making off of Jordan? How much is Rebook making off of Allan Iverson, 50 Cent and G-unit, Sean Carter, yada, yada, yada. I’m just amazed and tired of the missed opportunities Blacks have when it comes to making an economic effect on our society.
Black Americans are falling to the waste side when it comes to business development. Asians, Whites and Hispanics are steadily increasing their business formation opportunities, while we’re looking and begging for jobs. The US census press release shows where we as Blacks are falling behind. Might I quickly note and give kudos to our Black Women – Bravo, you have held our communities up since we’ve been in this country and you deserve the utmost respect for the job your doing. So in saying that I should make a correction. Black Women have it right; do for self, my brothers on the other hand “Where ya at?
Here are some quick notes from this report that you can view by clicking here:
Black-Owned Businesses
· There were 1.2 million black-owned businesses in 2002, up 45 percent from 1997. Their receipts were $92.7 billion, up 30 percent from 1997.
· An estimated 94,862 black-owned businesses had paid employees and their receipts totaled $69.8 billion or about $735,586 per firm.
Hispanic-Owned Businesses
· There were 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses in 2002, up 31 percent from 1997. Their receipts were $226.5 billion, up 22 percent from 1997.
· A total of 199,725 Hispanic-owned businesses had paid employees and their receipts totaled $184 billion, or about $921,090 per firm.
Asian-Owned Businesses
· There were 1.1 million Asian-owned businesses in 2002, up 24 percent from 1997. Their receipts were $343.3 billion, up 13 percent from 1997.
· An estimated 319,911 Asian-owned businesses had paid employees and their receipts totaled $307.6 billion, or about $961,379 per firm.
It is time for Blacks to realize there economic potential and begin to focus on building those relationships and networks that will assist up in successful business creation. There are forces in the economic world that hinder some opportunities to individuals – for example; not many blacks know that Citibank only did 5, that’s right count them 5 Black business loans. That’s an outrage, but we as Blacks it’s estimated that if we were a nation unto ourselves would be the 11th richest nation in the world. This should tell you that we already have the resources, however we have to change our mentality which is consumer, consumer, consumer. We need to be building and networking and investing in opportunities that will benefit one another. We need to forget about politics for a second – we went that route and were did it get us? Exactly, nowhere. It’s time to focus on Black business development. We’re quick to mow mow the haves, while we become and stay the have not(s). My feelings, if you can’t beat them join them – Get your fare share of the pie.
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