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Publisher's Message
T
here are many government programs reportedly designed to benefit minorities, especially small and minority businesses, we should be mindful of who is considered a "minority" in today's political agenda. Ever since the Civil Right Movement of the late 1950s to late 1960s, minority pretty much meant "negro", or a more updated description "African-American". However, in recent years, minority includes an array of racial and ethnic groups, as well as sexual orientation. While we applaud these programs that offer grants, technical assistance and guaranteed government loans for the purpose of economic and infrastructure development ... programs designed to help small and minority Pubisher/Chief Executive Officer businesses ... we also need to discuss access to capital, as well as securing procurement opportunities for "Black" businesses. In Los Angeles, the Black Business Association (BBA), will be hosting its 2015 Procurement Summit on the 15th of October, 2015. Community-minded public and private corporations, as well as various governmental agencies will be on hand to promote procurement opportunities for African American businesses. Also, there will be one-on-one matching, prime and sub-prime contracting opportunities. In November, the BBA will hosts its 2015 Financial Lending Pavilion on November 13th at the Hawthorne Memorial Center. Confirmed participants include the Vermont Slauson Economic Development Center and the Los Angeles District Small Business Administration (SBA). Victor Parker, Los Angeles District Director, is one of the keynote speakers. U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters is a special invited speaker. The Victor purpose of the Pavilion is to increase access Parker, to capital for Black-owned and/or controlled Director, business enterprises. LA/SBA In Washington D.C., our political leaders around the country will be convening for Congressional Black Caucus. One of the majority issues of this year's Caucus is the status of the African American community. As many of our readers will acknowledge the American Dream, as we know it, is out of reach for many African American communities. For many the slogan of obtaining the American Dream has been replaced by "My Black Life Matters". Back in California, on the 4th of November, the BBA is playing a pivotal role in addressing the need for greater diversity in California's $259 billion insurance industry at the California Insurance Diversity Summit in Sacramento. At this Insurance Summit, the BBA will continue its fight to promote diversity and business opportunities, as well as representation in one of the most vital segments of our economy ... financial services. For additional information on these and other events, please contact the BBA offices at 1-323-291-9334. And please visit the BBA at www.bbala.org or www. facebook.com/BlackBusinessAssociation.
Earl “Skip” Cooper, II
Black Business News Group P.O. Box 43159 Los Angeles, CA 90043 USA 323-291-7819 Fax: 323-298-5064
www.blackbusinessnews.net PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Earl “Skip” Cooper, II
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ENTREPRENEUR EDITOR Kim Anthony
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dean Jones Linda Ware Ralph D. Sutton Veronica Hendrix Giavanna Foster LaSandra Stratton
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LAYOUT/TYPESETTING Lion Communications Copyright © 2015 by Black Business News All Rights Reserved. The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.
3 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
About
ABOUT THE BLACK BUSINESS NEWS GROUP… The mission of The Black Business News is to inspire and inform public and private sector industry representatives on the importance of smart small business growth. As a versatile source of socioeconomic development activity news, the publications of the Black Business News Group impart current local, national and international industry and social trends and news affecting small businesses across the United States of America (USA), providing guides to greater access to financial capital, management efficiencies, business education, mentorship opportunities and social media networks. The goals of the Black Business News Group include: •
promoting USA-based black-owned business enterprises to a world wide audience.
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offering business growth enhancing information on education, exhibitioning, international trading, technology, industry trends, and more.
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exploring major public and private sec-e tor contracting methods to educate black-owned and operated enterprises..
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providing an affirmative influence forr emerging entrepreneurs by sharing innovative design and creative cultural content that exposes them to the history of black enterprises and urges them participate in the USA’s future.
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advocating and promoting on behalf of black-owned businesses by promoting the need for expanding an economic foundation that supports an unfettered and self-sustained urban society with USA job creation and economic opportunibl business b i t i where blacks work, live and operate viable enterprises.
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2015-2016 Black Business Association Events
November
Financial Pavilion
October
Procurement Exchange Summit
February
Annual Awards Dinner
March
to
Salute to Black Women Black Business News Group Publications Black Business News
t y,
Black Business News International Black Business News Travel Africa
Contents
Black Business News…September 2015 3 Publisher's Message
Government 8
President Obama Chairs Summit of World
Leaders at UN
10
Pope Francis Visits Washington, DC
43 A True Scholar-Athlete: Venus Williams 44-45 Minority Winemakers Look to Change Industry's Stereotypes Theopolis Vineyards
46 51
F.O.G. Cosmetics Founder Tondalah Stroud BBN Biz Notes
54 5
15
Charles D. King’s Media
H Holding Company 64 USBC Gearing up to Drive 6 Businesto Black Car Dealers B
76 7
KWELITV
Technology T 42 4
What is Periscope and How
C Your Business Use It? Can
72 7
Take a Look!
C CommunityPublic 31 IInterest 80 8
An Invitation From the First
L Lady
82
Stanford U. Tuition Free
Obituary/Memorials Editorials/Perspectives 18 Good for the Planet, the People and Business
Entertainment 24
BBN Show Biz Buzz
Philip Green's Financial Guide for the Black
Man
30 31
Three Ways to Make Your Email Stand Out James Bell First African American to serve
on Apple's Board of Directors
32
Energy Industry Could Be Beneficial for
African Americans
38
10 African Proverbs to Inspire Every
Entrepreneur
40
Helen Burns Jackson, James Mays, William Grier
International 91
American Dancers Teach Technique,
Confidence in South Africa
Business 29
83-86
17-Year-Old Builds $3.5 Million Global
93 97 98 99
What Makes a Business a 'Global Champion' Africa International Business Forum Atlanta Welcome to ADIFF!
Mobile Phones a Boon for Tanzanian Business Women
Columns 104 124 128 130
Shopping Gallery Books to Consider... Calendar Resources
Enterprise
5 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Government
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry talk with President Vladimir Putin of Russia after a bilateral meeting at the United Nations in New York, N.Y. Sept. 28, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama Chairs Summit of World Leaders at UN By Zeina Karam
P
resident Barack Obama pledged all possible tools — military, intelligence and economic — to defeat the Islamic State group, but acknowledged the extremist group has taken root in Syria and Iraq, is resilient and continues to expand. Obama spoke as chairman of a
U.N. gathering of world leaders working to expand the battle against terrorism, a day after he and the leaders of Russia, China and Iran addressed the General Assembly on its 70th anniversary. The fight against terrorism, particularly in Syria, has seized the attention of top officials, but there has been no
overall agreement on how to end the conflict there. "I have repeatedly said that our approach will take time. This is not an easy task," Obama cautioned, while adding that he was "ultimately optimistic" the brutal organization would be defeated because it has nothing to offer but suffering and death. "This is not a conventional battle. This is a long-term campaign — not only against this particular network, but against its ideology," he said. The meeting also heard from the Iraqi leader, who sought more help against IS in his country, and learned from Obama that three more countries were added to the coalition fighting the group.
8 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
President Barack Obama meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi following the Leaders' Summit on Countering ISIL and Countering Violent Extremism, at the United Nations in New York, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) On the central terrorism issue, leaders were dealing with an IS that is attracting fighters from around the world, prompting fears they will return to their home countries to launch attacks. The fight has been complicated by a Russian military buildup in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Monday that Russia could launch airstrikes against the militants in Syria, if sanctioned by the United Nations or requested by Damascus. Obama and Putin are at odds over Russian involvement because Washington has said Assad must be removed from power. Obama and Putin laid out competing visions for Syria during their speeches to the opening meeting of the annual U.N. General Assembly on Monday. Obama reiterated that defeating IS requires "a new (Syrian) leader and an inclusive government that united the Syrian people in the fight against terrorist groups." Reflecting the divide, an official
with the Russian delegation said Moscow would take part in the Obama-led event only by a lower-level official, U.N. Deputy Ambassador Evgeny Zagaynov. Russia on Wednesday will chair its own meeting on countering extremism as this month's U.N. Security Council president. One by one, speakers at Tuesday's meeting spoke of the need to confront the extremism which Jordan's King Abdullah II described as the "greatest collective threat of our time. United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said the U.N.'s most recent data shows a 70% increase in foreign terrorist fighters from over 100 countries to regions in conflict. He said securityfocused counterterrorism measures are crucial but stressed the need to go beyond, including making a special effort to reach young people. "Social media is central. We need to offer a counter-weight to the siren songs that promise adventure, but deliver horror — and that promise
meaning, but create more misery," he said. Iraq's Prime Minister Haider alAbadi listed what he said were his government's successes fighting IS and recent anti-corruption drive. He appealed for the world's help in "drying up the sources of terrorism," including the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq, IS oil smuggling and money transfer networks. More than 60 countries, including Arab nations, are working together and launching military airstrikes in an attempt to wipe out IS, which has taken control of large regions in Iraq and Syria. Obama, in his speech, said Nigeria, Tunisia and Malaysia were the newest members of the U.S.-led international coalition. "We are harnessing all of our tools -- military, intelligence, economic, development and the strength of our communities." http://news.yahoo.com/obamasays-fight-against-islamic-stategroup-time-154608626.html#
9 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Government
Pope Francis Visits Washington, DC By John L. Allen Jr.
B
y any reasonable standard, the Sept. 22-27 visit of Pope Francis to the United States, his first outing to the country in his entire life, has to be judged a massive short-term triumph. The pope wowed crowds everywhere he went, whether it was leading the “Mass on the Grass” outside the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, making a swing through Central Park before 80,000 pumped-up New Yorkers on his way to play Madison Square Garden, or drawing hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic Massgoers to Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The “People’s Pope” received overwhelmingly positive media coverage, and in a badly polarized America already in the throes of
a rancorous 2016 presidential election season, he managed to avoid stirring significant political controversy despite delivering several speeches and gestures rich with political content.
The World Facing what was perhaps the largest gathering of world leaders in history at the United Nations, Francis ticked off a long list of issues that he feels merit concern, including his signature causes: poverty, war and the arms trade, immigrants and refugees, human trafficking, and so on. At one level, Francis helpfully has already established a litmus test for the impact of his message: the UN climate change summit in Paris Nov. 30-Dec. 11, and whether it adopts the “courageous choices” for which the pontiff has called.
Also in the here-and-now, another test for the impact of what Francis said over the past week will be whether European policymakers adopt a generous stance towards the estimated half-million refugees who have arrived on the continent via the Mediterranean Sea this year. Hungary already has built a barrier along its border with Serbia and is currently constructing one along its border with Croatia, in an effort to keep refugees at bay. Francis sees this as exactly the wrong response, which was the sense of his comment aboard the papal plane on Sunday
Malia Obama White
Pope Francis greets Catholi school children. President Obama talks to Pope Francis as the Army Fife and Drum Corps march. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Sasha and Malia arrive to greet Pope Francis during the Welcome Ceremony at Joint Base Andrews. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
a shakes hands with Pope Francis. (Official e House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama introduce Pope Francis to their family pets Bo and Sunny in the Blue Room following the State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Sept. 23, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
c
that “all walls fall down … today, tomorrow, or after 100 years.” Build bridges, not walls, the pontiff said. Going forward, the pontiff’s global impact may be most keenly felt as a peacemaker. “I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly.” www.whitehouse.gov/ blog/2015/09/25/photos-pope-francisvisits-white-house
President Obama speaks to Pope Francis on stage. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Government
White House Grants Mozilla $3.2 Million to Expand Gigabit Cities By Charlie Osborne
M
ozilla has been awarded millions by the US government to expand gigabit networks and smart city solutions in cities. In a blog post, the Mozilla Foundation said the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the group a threeyear, $3.2 million grant to further the research, development and adoption of gigabit Internet technologies. Gigabit Internet offers data transfer speeds of at least 1 Gbps, which equates to 1,000 Mbps. The technology is touted as being up to 250 times faster than standard Internet connections offered by today's Internet service providers. The grant is part of a larger investment initiative from the US government. The White House has set aside $160 million to further gigabit Internet and related technologies in today's cities. The "Smart Cities" initiative
(www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2015/09/14/fact-sheetadministration-announces-new-smartcities-initiative-help) focuses on
leveraging new technologies in order to reduce traffic congestion, lower crime rates, seed economic growth, manage climate change and improve the delivery of city services. As part of the initiative, over $35 million has been awarded -- with a further $10 million in proposed investments -- by the NSF and National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) to companies researching and developing smart city solutions. In total, over 20 US cities are participating in the scheme. Mozilla plans to use the funds to build upon the firm's ongoing partnership with US Ignite, a non-profit focused on gigabit Internet. In particular, Mozilla's Hive communities will be able to expand. The Hives comprise of organizations -- such as startups and non-profits -- as well as community figures who offer students the chance to learn about technology and innovation beyond the traditional classroom through events, learning communities and open-source learning tools. The grant follows earlier funding in 2014 in Chattanooga and Kansas City. Mozilla has worked with 30 partners to develop and pilot a total of 17 gigabit apps including realtime water monitoring systems, 3D learning tools for classrooms and specialized technology for first responder training It is hoped the fresh funding will allow these projects to expand in these locations -- as well as three yet-to-be-determined new cities. Mozilla hopes to prompt demand for gigabit Internet through the
Hive communities, new pilot apps and associated training which take advantage of the rapid speeds of gigabit technologies. There will be $150,000 in grants available during the first year of the program in each city. The company says: "We're empowering local classroom teachers, informal educators, and technologists as co-creators and beta testers of technology at the bleeding edge of the Web. We believe the Web is an invaluable tool for learning and unlocking opportunities and progress. And when people are equipped with a lightning-fast Web, amazing things can happen." www.zdnet.com/article/whitehouse-grants-mozilla-3-2-millionto-expand-gigabit-cities/?tag=nl. e232&s_cid=e232&ttag=e232&ftag =TRE6a12a91 www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2015/09/14/fact-sheetadministration-announces-newsmart-cities-initiative-help
12 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Summit on Worker Voice Labor Day is about more than barbecues and a three-day weekend. It is a day owned by every one of us, to honor our contributions to America's strength and prosperity. Today, we're looking at more than 13 million private-sector jobs created since 2010, and 66 consecutive months of private-sector job growth. That is prosperity that we created together. And it deserves to be recognized. The problem is that far too many Americans still aren't sharing in that prosperity. As we continue to emerge from the depths of the great recession, the challenge before us is to make sure more Americans get a slice of the pie that they helped bake. America, after all, is stronger when more people have more. Last month, I hit the road to meet hardworking Americans standing together to raise their voices. Whether it's making sure an honest day's work earns a fair day's pay, or insisting that no one should have to choose between the job they need and the family they love, Americans across this country are showing that small conversations at the lunch table can lead to big changes at the boardroom table. It starts with a conversation. And you can commit to start one today right here. You can tell us about how you or someone you know stepped up in your workplace to push for a change, whatever your issue may be -- from better wages to workplace fairness to greater equality. And here's what's next: On October 7, we're hosting a Summit on Worker Voice at the White House. The Summit will rally workers, employers, unions, organizers and others to bring attention to both the new, innovative ways that workers are coming together to have a voice in their workplaces, as well as the proven practices -- like collective bargaining -- that have sustained the middle class for generations. As history has shown time and time again, there's no limit to what we can accomplish when we speak up with one voice. We are, after all, stronger together. So add your voice: Say you'll start the conversation (www.whitehouse.gov/campaign/worker-voice#section-start-theconversation?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email499-text1&utm_worker-voice). Happy Labor Day. Thanks, Tom Secretary Tom Perez Department of Labor @LaborSec 13 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
What Happened to the Africans? A Commentary By Representative Karen Bass
L
ike many people around the world, I am heartened by the international response to the Syrian refugee crisis that is gripping world attention. World leaders from Europe to North America are standing up and opening their borders to provide a new life for these people in need. Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission and the highest official of the European Union, has proposed to welcome 160,000 Syrian refugees among E.U. members with every country playing a role. But as world leaders reach out to welcome Syrian refugees, I am asking a basic question: Where are the Africans? Five months ago in mid-April the world was witness to another tragedy. More than 800 Africans from several countries fleeing
terrorism, chaos from near failed states and forced conscription drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when the boat they were traveling in capsized. Although Italian officials worked to save the passengers, they could only save a fraction of the people who were on the boat. In response to this tragedy United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Adrian Edwards remarked this was also a “refugee phenomenon” and said the world needed to come to together for the simple reason that “there has to be some alternative to having to cross the Mediterranean in smugglers boats.” However, world leaders did not come to an international consensus on how to help, even though the number of refugees taking off on boats to cross the Mediterranean to Europe is largely African. However, the focus of both our world leaders and international media outlets has been overwhelmingly on the plight of the Syrian refugees. According to official figures released in June by the United Nations International Organization on Migration more than 47,000 migrants arrived by sea in Italy from January to May 2015. The three largest nationalities arriving in Italy were Eritrean — many who are escaping unpaid conscription in their home country, Somali — where the ongoing conflict there continues to take the lives of civilians and
force many others to leave their homes, and Nigerian — many of whom are escaping the terrorism of Boko Haram. Syrians are the fourth largest nationality of people who have come by boat to Italy. Unfortunately, while the world is focusing both in our media outlets and in public policy on the plight of the Syrians, African refugees seem to be forgotten and largely ignored in media and brushed aside by world leaders. Last week, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament and the British people the country had a “moral responsibility” to help Syrian refugees while announcing the country would welcome up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years. But four months ago as Africans were huddled in overcrowded boats after working their way to Libya, Mr. Cameron’s response was quite different. In lieu of morality, Mr. Cameron made clear that the UK will not accept any of the Africans who were fleeing, saying that any African who was picked up at sea would not necessarily qualify to claim asylum in Britain, but instead would be taken to the nearest European Union country — probably Italy. Because of the Syrian refugee crisis leaders have shown the world what is possible when we come together to help people in need. The moral outcry and international responsibility taken by the European Union to accept the Syrian refugees must be extended to the refugees from African countries making the same perilous journey on the sea risking their life’s escaping terrorism, chaos and war. How many African refugees will each country welcome? http://blogs.rollcall.com/beltway-insiders/ what-happened-to-the-africanscommentary/
14 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Chairperson Vanessa Allen Sutherland U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation
V
anessa Allen Sutherland was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation in March of 2015 and confirmed by the Senate in August of 2015. Prior to her appointment Ms. Sutherland served as the Chief Counsel for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation (PHMSA), whose mission is to protect people and the environment from the risks associated with hazardous materials transportation. Prior to PHMSA, Ms. Sutherland spent seven years at Fortune 25 Philip Morris/Altria Client Services in Richmond, Virginia. She managed technology transactions, procurement matters, data security and privacy, competitive intelligence, U.S. Customs issues, state and federal audits, and issues related to re-
organization, dissolution and spin-off of international entities. Prior to her role at Altria, Ms. Sutherland spent six years in various legal roles at MCI/WorldCom, including Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for its webhosting and outsourcing subsidiary, eventually helping the subsidiary through legal matters that followed WorldCom’s admission of accounting fraud and irregularities and bankruptcy. During that time, Sutherland was profiled in the Legal Times for being a top, senior, minority, in-house lawyer. She also has worked briefly for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Department of Energy - Office of Inspector General and a law firm. In 2012, she was the Recipient of a U.S. Secretary of Transportation Award at the 45th Annual Secretary’s Awards after only a year in her new position, and two Secretary’s awards in 2014. In 2010, she was the only in-house counsel recipient of thirty-one lawyers honored as "Leaders in the Law - 2010" for advancing the law, serving the community and improving the justice system in Virginia. She has been selected as a Fellow in both the Maryland State Bar (2005) and the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (2011). She has been on the board or advisory committees of legal associations such as the Washington Metropolitan – Association of Corporate Counsel, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, Maryland State Bar, and the Virginia Bar Association. Her non-legal contributions include having been the Vice Chairman of the Board for Peter Paul Development Center, whose mission is to help kids 7-18 by building a community of learners by engaging and challenging children, families and seniors in Richmond, Virginia’s East End neighborhood. She has been Vice President, President and a regional chair in Jack and Jill of America, Inc. – James River Chapter, Mid-Atlantic Region, has been top fundraiser annually for the March of Dimes–Central Virginia and has been a member of the fundraising arm of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. After graduating high school at 16, Sutherland went on to obtain a B.A. from Drew University in New Jersey in Political Science and Art History after studying in London, England, to a J.D. and an M.B.A. from American University and a Certified Information Privacy Professional standing from the IAPP. She speaks French and is proficient in Spanish. www.csb.gov/about-the-csb/board-members/cha/
15 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Special Focus
Good for the Planet, the People and Business
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he 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals for the UN Summit is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme
poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure
our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets demonstrate
18 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. It's our time for global action and this just start. 17 Sustainable Development Goals 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all 9. Build resilient infrastructure,
promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts* 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc. asp?symbol=A/69/L.85&Lang=E
New Global Goals for the UN, New Global Innovation Opportunities for Business
L
eaders from 193 nations met in New York for the U.N. General Assembly and adopted the sustainable development goals. The goals are not short on ambition. Beginning with a goal to "end poverty in all its forms everywhere," they cover gender equality, food security, peace, health, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities,
among others. While the scope is impressive, the problem is that governments have already reneged on earlier commitments to the goals' predecessors. With the even heftier price tag for achieving the goals -- $2 trillion-3 trillion a year for 15 years, or 4% of world GDP -- there is a real need for innovative alternatives to close the gaps. This is where the private sector can help close some gaps. Why, you might ask, should the private sector -- with shareholder returns to worry about -- get involved in lofty U.N. initiatives? First, the private sector contributes 60% of global GDP and 90% of the jobs, and may be better positioned to accomplish many of the goals because of better reach and resources. Second, if achieving some of the goals also helps achieve shareholder interests, the U.N. summit could result in a fresh burst of innovation and creative finance. We conducted research at Tufts' Fletcher School, funded by Citi Foundation, to understand why companies would even consider investing in sustainable development. we found four motivating factors: 1. Mitigating business risk from potential disruption of operations, supplies or reputational damage. 2. Adhering to industry norms of transparency, traceability, environmental responsibility and other accepted standards. 3. Winning share in current markets and establishing a beachhead with future customers. 4. Building goodwill with key stakeholders. These issues gain even more currency in the developing world, where much of the future market growth resides. Consider the example of Coca-Cola, with 75% of operating income from overseas see Global Goals on page 20
19 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Special Focus
Global Goals
from page 19
and a heavy reliance on emerging markets. Also, Coke, as a heavy user of both water and plastics, has a giant environmental footprint, which, arguably, is unsustainable. It is not surprising, therefore, that Coke is an active participant in innovating in sustainable development. It
shares its logistics capabilities to distribute medicines and supplies to remote African communities. Its Beyond Water partnership with the World Wildlife Fund works to maintain resilient freshwater systems in 50 countries. Its Project Nurture partnership helps farmers in its supply chain identify new opportunities and improve productivity. It has developed the first-ever recyclable plastic bottle, with plans to make the practice universal by 2020. In other words, there is a plausible business case to be made to invest and innovate in sustainable development -- and Coke is no outlier. Sometimes, the case is easier to explain. The brewer, SABMiller, switched its feedstock from expensive European imports to sorghum, a popular staple crop in arid regions in Africa. This helped cut cost and transportation time to
African consumers, and promoted local farming communities, creating new generations of consumers -and sorghum beer was a hit. In other situations, the business case is less obvious, if not downright counter-intuitive. Patagonia the apparel maker, launched an advertising campaign around Thanksgiving 2011, "Don't buy this jacket" to focus on repairing, reusing and recycling. While the campaign may have had its roots in the company founder's environmental responsibility mission, it attracted new consumers. Annual sales in the following two years grew almost 40%. Establishing the business case, allocating resources and executing on activities that also help achieve the goals is indeed an innovation opportunity. How different is this form of innovation from "traditional" innovation? There are many similarities. Both demand near-term investment and uncertain payoffs over the longer term. Both experience a similar set of organizational obstacles. Our research indicated several of them: difficulties in measuring impact, identifying sustainable funding mechanisms and finding the right organizational home for such projects. There is, however, an important point of difference: "traditional" innovation is an investment in a private good, i.e. it confers benefits to the investing company, while an innovating in sustainable development is an investment in a public good, whereby the wider society, even competitors, can stand to benefit. This can create some disincentives to act, making innovation in sustainable development even more challenging.
So, here is what is likely to happen. The UN is launching the goals with a media blitz and an array of stars from Beyoncé to Usain Bolt encouraging us to play our part in "changing the world." The hard reality is that without business participation and innovation these lofty goals will remain unachievable. Fortunately, it is in the interests of many highly innovative and resourceful companies to step up and participate.
If your company plans to join, there are three next steps: 1. Pick certain goals on which to focus. Translate them into recognizable commercial language to have the internal conversation. Create a home in your organization with resources, access and decision rights. 2. Define and track metrics of impact and allocate resources accordingly. The metrics should track both facets of the "shared value": the business case and the social case. 3. Prepare to step outside your comfort zone. Get involved with suppliers and distributors and nontraditional partners, government agencies, NGOs, and local businesses, to close key gaps. You may have to re-imagine how you utilize your existing assets, e.g. Coke using its logistics infrastructure to distribute medicines. The UN may be onto something -- good for the human condition, but also good for business competitiveness. Act now, if you haven't already. The risk is you could be left behind. By Bhaskar Chakravorti. Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ IBGC_Fletcher www.huffingtonpost.com/bhaskarchakravorti/new-global-goals-forthe_b_8211806.html?utm_hp_ ref=sustainable-development-goals
20 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Let Us Help You Grow Your Business to New Heights. To take your business to the next level, it’s essential that you choose the right financial partner. At East West Bank, we offer all the products and services you expect from a big bank with the high level of personal attention you expect from a local bank. Our bankers have over 40 years of experience helping minority businesses reach their financial goals. We look forward to working closely with you to customize a financial solution tailored to your unique situation. For more information about East West Bank and our solutions for businesses, please call: 1.626.768.6729 www.eastwestbank.com
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Use Your Senses to Spot a Gas Leak To help keep your community safe and secure, use your senses of sight, hearing or smell to alert you to any of the following signs of a natural gas leak. LOOK
WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT A GAS LEAK • Remain calm • Don’t light a match, candle or cigarette • Don’t turn electrical appliances or lights on or off or use any device that could cause a spark • Natural gas leaking from a plastic pipe can create static electricity which can ignite the gas • Immediately evacuate the area, and from a safe location, call 800-427-2200, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; or call 911
© 2014 Southern California Gas Company. All rights reserved.
• A damaged connection to a gas appliance • Dirt or water being blown in the air • Dead or dying vegetation (in an otherwise moist area) over or near gas pipeline areas • A fire or explosion near a pipeline • Exposed pipeline after an earthquake, fire, flood or other disaster
LISTEN • An unusual sound, such as a hissing, whistling or roaring sound near a gas line or appliance
SMELL • The distinctive odor* of natural gas *Some people may not be able to smell the odor because they have a diminished sense of smell, olfactory fatigue (normal, temporary inability to distinguish an odor after prolonged exposure to it) or because the odor is being masked or hidden by other odors that are present, such as cooking, damp, musty or chemical odors. In addition, certain conditions in pipe and soil can cause odor fade – the loss of odorant so that it is not detectable by smell.
BBN Show Biz Buzz By Linda Ware
T
67th Primetime Emmy Awards 2015
he 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2014 until May 31, 2015, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
AWARD WINNERS Viola Davis, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series "How to Get Away With Murder" Uzo Aduba, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series "Orange Is the New Black" Regina King, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie "American Crime" "Bessie" (HBO)
Viola Davis
AWARD NOMINEES Taraji P. Henson, "Empire" Anthony Anderson, "black-ish"
Don Cheadle, "House of Lies" Niecy Nash, "Getting On" Andre Braugher, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" Keegan-Michael Key, "Key & Peele" David Oyelowo, "Nightingale" Queen Latifah, "Bessie" Mo'Nique, "Bessie" Angela Bassett, "American Horror Story: Freak Show" "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central) Cicely Tyson, "How To Get Away With Murder" Khandi Alexander, "Scandal" (?) "Bessie" (Dee Rees, Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois, Horton Foote)
Octavia Butler's Dawn Being Adapted for TV
U
nder his new Bainframe banner, Allen Bain has optioned rights to late-author Octavia E. Butler’s Dawn, the first book in what was known as the Xenogenisis volume, now the Lilith’s Brood collection. I started my company with the mission to develop ‘optimistic’ science fiction for the big and small screen. To inspire a better tomorrow. The sci-fi tale tells of humanity’s last survivors who are saved by an ancient alien race just before the
Uzo Aduba
Regina King
destruction of the earth. They are given the choice of either mating with the aliens to create a new mixed species, or die as the last humans.
24 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
T
he Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has acquired more than 400 photographs from the Eyejammie Hip-Hop Collection, originally compiled by Bill Adler, a pioneering music historian who has written about, advocated for and studied hip-hop since the 1980s. These images will contribute to the museum’s arts and entertainment collection, designed to explore how cultural movements like hiphop influenced the nation. The acquisition will be NMAAHC’s largest contemporary photography collection featured in its Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts (CAAMA), which houses an extensive collection of photographs, films, audio recordings and digital resources by and about African Americans. CAAMA will give visitors access to its vast media collection, produce public programs and present exhibitions to show the sweep of African American history and culture from the 19th century to the present. For more information and to view additional images of the photo collection, please visit Smithsonian’s News Desk website to read the press release.
Octavia Butler Butler was a pioneer of the sci-fi genre. She was the first science fiction writer to win the MacArthur Fellowship, aka the “Genius Grant.” She died in 2006 and was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010.
NMAAHC Acquires Eyejammie Hip-Hop Photo Collection
Rev. Al Sharpton News Program Moves to Sunday Morning
R
ev. Sharpton will resume his broadcasting on MSNBC on Sundays at 8:00 am (ET) starting October 4th. "We want to make sure it is see page 26
25 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
BBN Show Biz Buzz an A-1 show. I'm talking about doing it in a way that is going to surprise everybody."
Aretha Franklin Serenades Pope Francis
T
he Queen of Soul, Aretha Frankin, showered Pope Francis with love and appreciation while serenading His Holiness with her rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ in front of thousands of excited spectators at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia on Sept. 26. Aretha has and always will be a music
on Vogue October Cover and in Star Wars
A
ctress, model and Face of Lancôme Lupita Nyong'o graces the cover of Vogue for October 2015, her second cover for the magazine. Lupita has just spent four months filming a CGI character—a pirate named Maz Kanata—for J. J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opening this December. “We needed a powerful actress to play a powerful character,” the director explains. www.vogue.com/13336021/lupita-nyongooctober-2015-cover
StarTalk on for Season 2
N
eil deGrasse Tyson will resume his host duties for season 2 of his TV talk show StarTalk on Sunday, October 25th. His guests for the first two episodes are President Bill Clinton on the 25th and host of the Nightly Show, Larry Wilmore, on November 1st. Dr. Tyson is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth & Space in New York City. Aretha Franklin and Pope Francis
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/ startalk
legend! Pope Francis was honored in front of a crowd of over 300,000 people at the event hosted by Mark Wahlberg. http://hollywoodlife. com/2015/09/27/aretha-franklinperformance-pope-francisamazing-grace-video
Lupita Nyong'o
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Larry Wilmore on Episode 2 of StarTalk
26 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
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re you a Small Business interested in selling your product or services to Metro or to Prime Contractors that do business with Metro? Would you like to learn how to win contracts as a Prime Contractor through SB Prime, Metro's exciting set-aside initiative? If so, we invite you to come grow with us and learn about Metro Connect. Start now and register for a How to Do Business with Metro Workshop. Metro staff will show you how to take advantage of the vast array of products, services and transportation related opportunities projected over the coming weeks, months and year. As an added bonus, Metro's procurement staff will host informal interviews with firms before the workshop, starting at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 13, 2015 8:30 a.m.: Registration 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.: One-on-One with Contract Administrators and Continental Breakfast 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Program
Metro Headquarters 3rd Floor, Board Room, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Topics: Highway Project Update, Procurement Update, Certification Update, Small Business Prime Update, LA SAFE/511 Next Generation Update To learn more about how Metro Connect's Small and Disadvantaged Business Certifications can help open the door to contracting opportunities with Metro visit Metro Vendor Portal. For further questions, please contact Marisela Villar at VillarM@metro.net or via phone at 213.922.2235.
28 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Philip Green's Financial Guide for the Black Man Follow Phil at www.facebook.com/PhilipGreenChicago
Not Rely on a Job Alone" Make more money in 2015 than any other time in your life....
Residual income... • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Set up a 501(c)(3) tax-free Write a blog..and get paid for it Publish an e-book Affiliate marketing Rental property Network marketing Dividends Interest payments CD's Bonds Stocks Google AdSense Start a podcast
Open an investment account in 2015
I
Am My Brothers Keeper...so we have compiled a list of Your Money & Finance Resources and tools for the black man. by Philip Green
The Black Hedge Fund Group Black Men's Comprehensive Fall 2015 Guide to Having More Money in Your Wallet Invest • Open an investing account at an online brokerage. • Open a Roth IRA • Invest to the full amount in your employer's 401k
Budget • • • • •
Never buy retail Use cash rather than credit Develop a savings budget Save more than you spend Invest in a index mutual fund making at least 10% per year. • Did we mention budget? Know where you money goes
Create a Strategy • Reinvest your dividends with
a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) • Read online Dividends Growth Investors (DGI) • Read Personal Finance (PF) bloggers • Read the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/home-page),
New York Times DealBook (http://dealbook.nytimes.com), The Financial Times (www.ft.com/ home/us), Forbes (www.forbes. com/forbes), Fortune (http:// fortune.com), Bloomberg Markets Magazine (www.bloomberg.com/ markets-magazine)
Question: Phil, I need more money. My job does not pay enough and I am always short before I get my next pay check. Thank you, Gail M. Detroit, MI
Answer: Gail, sorry to hear that. We posted this info at the start of this year: On your Vision Board for 2015, write in big BOLD letters "Residual Income and Passive Income, I will
.........do NOT fail to do this...do this as soon as possible! • Fidelity • e-trade • sharebuilders (https://www. sharebuilder.com/sharebuilder/ Default.aspx) • Charles Schwab • TD Ameritrade • Scottrade • Merrill Lynch MerrillEdge • RForeign Exchange (FX) trading • Barclays • TIAA_CREF • Stock options If you don't know how to invest, take some time and play around with "play money" on TD Ameritrade's ThinkorSwim platform (www.tdameritrade.com/ tools-and-platforms/thinkorswim/ features.page) or Ticker Tape Monthly (www.thetickertape.com/ tools/2012/05/play-money-realexperience-87420).
Think. Plan. Execute. c. 2015, The Black Hedge Fund Group
www.facebook.com/ PhilipGreenChicago/ posts/10153609893628139:0
29 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Three Ways to Make Your Email Stand Out By Sean Gordon for Intelliverse
E
mail is the most used form of communication in the workplace, but it's also easy for the emails you send to be quickly deleted or marked as irrelevant. Salespeople, particularly those who rely on email as their first point of contact with prospects, need to ensure their emails are relevant, appropriate, and able to cut through the noise of a busy inbox. Needless to say, so do marketers. Here are my top tips for crafting an email that will encourage opens, generate interest, and warrant a response.
1. Perfect the subject line A subject line is the gateway into your email. It needs to instantly grab the receiver's attention to ensure your email doesn't end up in the dreaded junk folder. First, keep it short: A recent analysis by MailChimp suggests fewer than 50 characters—but still descriptive. Place the most descriptive words at the beginning of your subject line to give readers a quick snapshot of what your email contains. For salespeople, in particular, putting "Proposal" or "Meeting Request" is a great way to start a subject line. These kinds of words clearly let the recipient know what you're connecting about, so they aren't confused or surprised. Asking a question or including a stat can give recipients a glimpse into the purpose of your email and may entice them to click open. And don't be afraid to get cre-
ative when crafting a subject line. For example, one of my colleagues received a follow-up email with the subject line: "WANTED:" and then his name written after the colon. The email body had a WANTED poster image with his name and face on the image; needless to say, it grabbed my colleague's attention. Still, maintaining a certain level of professionalism is important. Emails are becoming more informal and conversational, but it's difficult to impart tone via email. Worst case scenario for an email you thought was witty or creative: your recipient takes the wrong way.
2. Keep it short and simple Don't offset your concise subject line with a longwinded email. Visually, a long email can seem overwhelming and may deter the recipient from reading it. To help keep your emails short, use the first two sentences to connect with your recipient and then quickly establish your purpose for writing. Those first few sentences are prime real estate in your email. . Within the first few seconds of reading your email, recipients should have a clear understanding of who you are and why you're reaching out. If you're a salesperson, right from the get go provide a compelling stat or an example of an outcome your product or service has produced for a client. Doing so will help build credibility and capture interest in a few short sentences. After your introduction, you can then go into more detail about your product or service. However, make sure you don't
use email to sell all the great features of your product or service; a phone call or in-person meeting is a more appropriate channel for the actual selling. The purpose of your initial outreach is just to provide a glimpse into some of the useful features your product or service offers in order to hook the recipient into responding and, eventually, having a more in-depth conversation over the phone or in person.
3. End with a specific call to action This is one of the most important tips for writing an email that will elicit a response. Pose specific questions, such as, "Are you free to discuss this further next Tuesday at 2 PM?" Identifying a specific day and time, along with an alternative day and time, makes it easier to schedule something with a recipient, versus going back and forth with each other's schedules. Once you are done drafting your email, it's important to make sure it gets to the right person. Targeting specific people who have the power to make buying decisions is the most effective use of your time— and email. Google and LinkedIn are both great resources for finding the right decision-makers. After you've found the right person and hit "send," an email tracker can help you better understand whether your email was successful by determining its reach and effectiveness. Email trackers (such as Intelliverse) can even tell you the number of times your email was forwarded, the geographic location it was opened, and what devices the email was viewed on. That information can be helpful in determining not only whether your email strategies have been effective but also when and on what channel to follow up with your recipients. www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2015/28525/ three-ways-to-make-your-email-standout?adref=nl092415
30 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
James Bell Appointed as First African American to serve on Apple's Board of Directors
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t Apple's shareholder meeting in March, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. appealed to Tim Cook and his team to re-double their commitment to diversity and inclusion by bringing qualified women and people of color on to their Board of Directors. Apple has done just that, as they announced the appointment of the first African American ever to sit on their board, James Bell. Tim Cook and the entire Apple team - are to be commended, and their proven commitment to minority inclusion on their Board should encourage other companies in Silicon Valley to follow suit. In a previous move, Apple elevated two African Americans - Lisa Jackson (former EPA chief) and Denise Young-Smith to their C-suite, and they have made steady progress - such as Apple's landmark $40M grant to the Thurgood Marshall Fund to expand African American participation at the HBCU's and in STEM fields, and their partnership with Code2040. "We are delighted but not surprised. Tim Cook has made a wise choice. James Bell is eminently qualified. He has the
capacity to serve; he has the experience of running one of the largest companies in the world, Boeing. Our contention has always been that there is no talent deficit, but an opportunity deficit. There is a "right now, shovel ready" pipeline of talent - they can be found, and there are others like James Bell qualified and able to serve." The "march for diversity" is PUSHing forward. Last month, HP's groundbreaking announcement that it would appoint two African Americans to each of the Boards of its two new companies, HP-E (enterprise) and HP (consumer) as they separate in November. While much focus has been placed at the lack of diversity in the tech workforce, diversity and inclusion must start in the boardrooms and C-suites. Rainbow PUSH's research last year showed that there were just three (3) African Americans out of 189 total board members of the 20 companies studied. Since our PUSH, eight (8) African Americans have been appointed to the boards of Silicon Valley tech companies. Apple's move is good news. HP's move is good news. They are
setting the pace and the rest of the industry must now follow suit. www.rainbowpush.org
J
ames Bell, whose career at Boeing included a stint in 2005 as chief executive officer,
gives the world's most valuable company significant expertise in manufacturing. At the time of his retirement, Bell was the highest-ranking executive African American in Boeing history. He was credited with guiding Boeing through turbulent periods. "James brings a wealth of global, financial and industrial experience from his successful career at Boeing," Cook said in a statement Thursday. Bell also sits on the boards of JPMorgan Chase and Dow Chemical. www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/10/01/ apple-names-retired-boeing-cfo-james-bellboard/73143096/
31 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Energy Industry Could Be Beneficial for African Americans By Barrington M. Salmon Special to the AFROCBCF
I
t is expected over the several few years that utility companies across the United States will spend between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion on infrastructure investments. Those investments and the projected growth of the energy industry could potentially translate into jobs and ownership, investment and partnership opportunities for African Americans. But AfricanAmerican industry officials, regulators and entrepreneurs fear that unless there’s a radical shift, Black people will miss out on the myriad opportunities. “A multi-trillion industry is evolving before our eyes and we’re getting peanuts,” said David K. Owens, Executive Vice President of Business Operations, Group and Regulatory Affairs at the Edison Electric Institute. “There are evolving opportunities for highpaying jobs. We have an aging infrastructure … and an aging workforce. The energy industry has 520 million employees. Currently, 9% are near retirement, 14% will retire in five years, and an additional 42% will move out of the industry in the next eight years.” Collette Honorable, a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, agreed. “This is a new never before opportunity for the United States to export natural gas,” she said. “This is a really incredibly dynamic time but I’m concerned about the diversity of employees. Forty percent of the energy sector is eligible for retirement. We need people with IT and cybersecurity experience. We need not just engineers and attorneys,
but human resources, administration and people who can stage after a weather event.“ Honorable and Owens served on a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference with two other colleagues who discussed the new energy economy and the prospects for African Americans to secure a foothold and enhance their presence in that particular space. The renewable energy sector includes solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and energy from the ocean. President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan encourages energy businesses to use more renewable energy, said Charles Rice, president and chief executive officer of Entergy New Orleans, Inc., a $750 million-a-year electric and gas utility. For the first time in history, said Honorable, the United States is producing prodigious amounts of shale natural gas that’s being exported oversees. She and Owens said America is enjoying a natural gas manufacturing renaissance that bucks previous downward trends. Between 2009 and 2014, gas production increased at a rate of 4 percent a year. “There are new techniques to draw natural gas, with about 100 major industrial projects slated to spend $90 [billion] to $100 billion through 2019,” said Owens. “There will be an increase in natural gas demands for the next 25 years.” Gilbert Campbell, founder and CEO of Volt Energy in the District, represents one of a marginal fraction of African Americans who own or have invested in the solar ener-
David K. Owens
Collette Honorable gy business. Volt finances, builds, owns and operates solar assets, but he acknowledged the difficulties of minority entrepreneurs “taking advantage of the new frontier.” “There are challenges. Worldwide in 2015, according to Bloomberg, $270 billion was invested in renewable energy, half of that in solar energy,” he said. “And $38.5 billion was invested in clean energy investments in the U.S. The percentage of African Americans who own assets is less than 1 percent. “The ship hasn’t sailed yet,” he continued, “but we need to get involved before it sails.” All too often, Rice said, minority companies lack the scale, cash
32 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
flow and financing to compete against the power players in the industry, but if a company has a power purchase agreem e n t like Volt Energy does, that Charles Rice can be a gamechanger. All of the pane l i s t s spoke of the importance of exposing young people to science, technology, enGilbert Campbell gineering and mathematics (STEM) education. They stressed the importance of partnering with corporations; greater federal oversight, regulation and enforcement; ensuring that the federal government enforces, and coaxing energy businesses to adhere to minority set-asides of at least 35%. Owens said those interested in closing the energy divide and increasing minority numbers are struggling to catch up. “We’ve got to get better organized,” he said. “We’re pulling together consortiums to produce a powerful voice.” http://afro.com/energy-industry-couldbe-beneficial-for-african-americans
Welcome to More.
Open the door to a hotel you don’t just visit. You own it. Choice Hotels® is committed to achieving more diversity in hospitality with exclusive incentive programs designed to reduce up front costs and provide more support to minority hotel developers. And our commitment doesn’t stop there. Choice Hotels promotes and pursues diversity at all levels, ranging from our workforce to our hotel guests, from our suppliers to entrepreneurs looking to create wealth. Like you. Open the door to hotel ownership opportunities with Choice Hotels. Because you’re not in business for less. You’re in it for more. www.choicehotelsdevelopment.com/#&panel1-2
Faison Wealth & Retirement Regina Faison Wealth Manager/Registered Principal 3070 Bristol Street Suite 500 949-200-8212 714-329-7184 regina@faisonwealth.com www.faisonwealth.com
Protecting Your Loved Ones with Life Insurance How much life insurance do you need? Your life insurance needs will depend on a number of factors, including the size of your family, the nature of your financial obligations, your career stage, and your goals. For example, when you're young, you may not have a great need for life insurance. However, as you take on more responsibilities and your family grows, your need for life insurance increases. Your life insurance needs will depend on a number of factors, including whether you're married, the size of your family, the nature of your financial obligations, your career stage, and your goals.
Here are some questions that can help you start thinking about the amount of life insurance you need: • What immediate financial expenses (e.g., debt repayment, funeral expenses) would your family face upon your death? • How much of your salary is devoted to current expenses and future needs? • How long would your dependents need support if you were to die tomorrow? • How much money would you want to leave for special situations upon your death, such as funding your children's education, gifts to charities, or an inheritance for your children? • What other assets or insurance policies do you have?
Types of life insurance policies The two basic types of life insurance are term life and permanent (cash value) life. Term policies provide life insurance protection for a specific period of time. If you die during the coverage period, your beneficiary receives the policy's death benefit. If you live to the end of the term, the policy simply terminates, unless it automatically renews for a new period. Term policies are typically available for periods of 1 to 30 years and may, in some cases, be renewed until you reach age 95. With guaranteed level term insurance, a popular type, both the premium and the amount of coverage remain level for a specific period of time. Permanent insurance policies offer protection for your entire life, regardless of your health, provided you pay
the premium to keep the policy in force. As you pay your premiums, a portion of each payment is placed in the cash-value account. During the early years of the policy, the cash-value contribution is a large portion of each premium payment. As you get older, and the true cost of your insurance increases, the portion of your premium payment devoted to the cash value decreases. The cash value continues to grow--tax deferred--as long as the policy is in force. You can borrow against the cash value, but unpaid policy loans will reduce the death benefit that your beneficiary will receive. If you surrender the policy before you die (i.e., cancel your coverage), you'll be entitled to receive the cash value, minus any loans and surrender charges. Many different types of cash-value life insurance are available, including: • Whole life: You generally make level (equal) premium payments for life. The death benefit and cash value are predetermined and guaranteed (subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company). Your only action after purchase of the policy is to pay the fixed premium. • Universal life: You may pay premiums at any time, in any amount (subject to certain limits), as long as the policy expenses and the cost of insurance coverage are met. The amount of insurance coverage can be changed, and the cash value will grow at a declared interest rate, which may vary over time. • Indexed universal life: This is a form of universal life insurance with excess interest credited to cash values. But unlike universal life insurance, the amount of interest credited is tied to the performance of an equity index, such as the S&P 500. • Variable life: As with whole life, you pay a level premium for life. However, the death benefit and cash value fluctuate depending on the performance of investments in what are known as subaccounts. A subaccount is a pool of investor September 18, 2015 Page 1 of 2, see disclaimer on final page
34 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
A note about variable life and variable universal life insurance Variable life and variable universal life insurance policies are offered by prospectus, which you can obtain from your financial professional or the insurance company. The prospectus contains detailed information about investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. You should read the prospectus and consider this information carefully before purchasing a variable life or variable universal life insurance policy.
funds professionally managed to pursue a stated investment objective. You select the subaccounts in which the cash value should be invested. • Variable universal life: A combination of universal and variable life. You may pay premiums at any time, in any amount (subject to limits), as long as policy expenses and the cost of insurance coverage are met. The amount of insurance coverage can be changed, and the cash value goes up or down based on the performance of investments in the subaccounts. With so many types of life insurance available, you're sure to find a policy that meets your needs and your budget.
Choosing and changing your beneficiaries When you purchase life insurance, you must name a primary beneficiary to receive the proceeds of your insurance policy. Your beneficiary may be a person, corporation, or other legal entity. You may name multiple beneficiaries and specify what percentage of the net death benefit each is to receive. If you name your minor child as a beneficiary, you should also designate an adult as the child's guardian in your will.
What type of insurance is right for you? Before deciding whether to buy term or permanent life insurance, consider the policy cost and potential savings that may be available. Also keep in mind that your insurance needs will likely change as your family, job, health, and financial picture change, so you'll want to build some flexibility into the decision-making process. In any case, here are some common reasons for buying life insurance and which type of insurance may best fit the need.
Mortgage or long-term debt: For most people, the home is one of the most valuable assets and also the source of the largest debt. An untimely death may remove a primary source of income used to pay the mortgage. Term insurance can replace the lost income by providing life insurance for the length of the mortgage. If you die before the mortgage is paid off, the term life insurance pays your beneficiary an amount sufficient to pay the outstanding mortgage balance owed. Family protection: Your income not only pays for day-to-day expenses, but also provides a source for future costs such as college education expenses and retirement income. Term life insurance of 20 years or longer can take care of immediate cash needs as well as provide income for your survivor's future needs. Another alternative is cash value life insurance, such as universal life or variable life insurance. The cash value accumulation of these policies can be used to fund future income needs for college or retirement, even if you don't die. Small business needs: Small business owners need life insurance to protect their business interest. As a business owner, you need to consider what happens to your business should you die unexpectedly. Life insurance can provide cash needed to buy a deceased partner's or shareholder's interest from his or her estate. Life insurance can also be used to compensate for the unexpected death of a key employee.
Review your coverage Once you purchase a life insurance policy, make sure to periodically review your coverage; over time your needs will change. An insurance agent or financial professional can help you with your review.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES Regina L. Faison Senior Financial Advisor Faison Wealth & Retirement Services C/O Woodbury Financial Services 3070 Bristol Suite 500 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Office Direct -949-200-8212 * Efax - 949-556-9806 * Regina cell - 714-329-7184 Customer Service Email- service@faisonwealth.com Ph# - 949-939-1194 Website - http://faisonwealth.com "Helping businesses and individuals achieve their life goals" Securities, and Investment Advisory Services offered through Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC and Registered Investment Advisor. Woodbury Financial Services P.O. Box 64284*St. Paul, MN 55164*-800-800-2638 Faison Wealth and Retirement Services and Woodbury Financial are not affiliated entities.
Page 2 of 2 Prepared by Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright 2015
35 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
10 African Proverbs to Inspire Every Entrepreneur
From Xhosa to Ashanti, these quotes will inspire By Kevin L. Clark
I
t’s no secret that running a successful enterprise is taxing work. Heck, there are books, seminars, and speakers who populate the world with essential knowledge darts that help millions to create the business they want to have.
time to time, and if these proverbs energize you, we’ve done our job. Which quote will be your motto this week? Check out these 10 African proverbs that every business maven can use for inspiration! • Every misfortune is a blessing. ~African Proverb (Any and every
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• The workk off accumulating l ti references and marketing your company may make it tempting to place your motivation on the shelf and procrastinate. But when times get tough, our hope is that you’ll remember why you started your business in the first place. For inspiration, use these words of wisdom from Twitter’s own African Proverbs (https://mobile.twitter. com/AF_Proverbs). The page, which has been around since early 2011, tweets short, pithy sayings that originate from the continent and throughout the Diaspora. We can all use a little bit of inspiration from
i t k you stumble t bl across is mistake inching you closer to your own greatness) • Do not scare the birds you are going to shoot. ~African Proverb from Madagascar (Always be sure about what you’re doing and with whom you’re doing it) • No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. ~Proverb from Guinea (No obstacle is great enough to stop change or progress from happening) • If there were no elephant in the jungle, the buffalo would be a great animal. ~Ghanaian Proverb (It is not always the one
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who sets their sights on being the largest (or greatest) that ends up being the most useful) It is not always the one who sets their sights on being the largest (or greatest) that ends up being the most useful (Hard work and sacrifice are magical bedfellows that help you along your way to fame) An old story does not open the ear as a new one does. ~Beninese Proverb (Focusing on ideas that have already been conceived allow you (and your audience) to miss out on creating something exciting and new) A man can not sit down alone to plan for prosperity. ~Nigerian Proverb (Prosperity requires a team to do what it takes to reach the top) When a lion roars, he does not catch game. ~Acholi Proverb (Don’t always be so eager (or loud) to share your ideas with the masses) Water that has been begged for does not quench the thirst. ~Soga People of Uganda (Being given something easily leaves one unfulfilled, whereas working for it satisfies the soul) He who tells the truth is never wrong. ~Swahili Proverb (Never lie to yourself, your colleagues, your customers and you’ll never have to defend yourself against negativity) www.blackenterprise.com/career/10african-proverbs-inspirationmotivation-entrepreneurs
38 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
17-Year-Old Builds $3.5 Million Global Enterprise By Alyssa Rachelle
W
hile most teenagers are enjoying their summer vacation by sleeping until noon and catching up on the latest video games, Jaylen D. Bledsoe was at MegaFest (a family – friendly festival founded by the T.D. Jakes Ministries) speaking on the topic of technology and innovation. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, 17-year-old Bledsoe is a nationally recognized teen entrepreneur, investor, motivational speaker and business development consultant. At the age of 12, Bledsoe started his own information technology consulting business called, Bledsoe Technologies, LLC. With only $100, he began marketing his tech services and within two years, he had 150 contractors working for him and a company valued at $3.5 million. Bledsoe’s expertise and success is multifaceted and includes startup businesses, brand and business development, venture capital funding, direct marketing platform
development and implementation, entrepreneurship and increasing revenue streams. His clientele include celebrities Jordin Sparks and Steve Harvey. Thinking about his company’s future, Bledsoe recently rebranded his company from Bledsoe Technologies, LLC to The Jaylen Bledsoe Global Group. Bledsoe had a mentor from the beginning, chain grocery store CEO, Scott Schnuck, who gave him invaluable advice: ‘Take risks, there’s nothing that you can do as a minor that will shoot you down for too long. Because you are young, you can come back up and keep going.” Bledsoe has spoken to more than 25,000 people around the globe and enjoys traveling to motivate young people. “I see greater meaning in knowing that I’ve motivated someone with my story, inspired someone with my words, or impacted someone with my business rather than just enjoying the check that’s offered,”
he told The Huffington Post. “I’ve come to the understanding in my life as I travel the country speaking to youth, hoping to change lives, that the word ‘net-worth’ doesn’t have to apply simply be the equation of, ‘your assets minus your liabilities’.” In 2015, Bledsoe’s passion for inspiring and educating other teens prompted him to create The Young Entrepreneur University – a set of interactive digital programs and camps designed to educate minority students on entrepreneurship. He is planning to take this program to over 10 cities in 2016. To that end, Bledsoe recently posted four principles to live by on his Facebook page: “Dream & Think Big. Control Your Future. Own Self Validation. Don’t Seek Validation.” Words to live by. http://atlantablackstar. com/2015/08/27/17-year-oldbuilds-3-5-million-global-enterprisecompany/
40 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
RIO 2016 OLYMPIC OPPORTUNITIES Stay Current through the Olympic Newsletter: http://www.export.gov/brazil/games/eg_ br_080260.asp Current tenders can be found at: http://portaldesuprimentos.rio2016.com/en/ status/of/the/bids For information on the Games visit http://export.gov/ brazil/games/index. asp www.export.gov/ brazil/games/eg_ br_080260.asp
Black Business Association is joining forces with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and a number of other businesses and community organizations to help promote safe driving through
Sell Your Products & Services on
It Can Wait. http://itcanwait.com 41 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
T
he live-streaming app from the folks behind Twitter has been an instant hit. Here’s how your business can use Periscope’s popularity to expand your online reach and promote your brand to a fresh new audience.
What is Periscope? Periscope’s (www.periscope.tv) whole vibe is social streaming. Think of it as an easy way to broadcast live video from a mobile device – i.e. a smartphone or tablet. Anyone with the app can view your live stream, no matter where they are in the world. Another neat feature? Anyone watching your stream can leave comments in real-time. The comments appear on the screen, overlaid on your video, and are visible to everyone who is watching. Effectively user comments become part of the stream – a live conversation around your content that unfurls in realtime. Watchers can also re-stream to their followers. Which means any stream has viral potential.
What type of stuff are people streaming? Anything and everything! From the mundane (footage of a cat sleeping) to the motivational (HBO recently gave the world a tour of Manny Pacquiao’s bedroom). Because the type of content you can stream is limited only by your imagination, Periscope can be used by any type of business. Here are nine ideas for how businesses can use Periscope to win new followers, customers and clients.
1. Q&A sessions Whether it’s a live Q&A with your company founder or interviews with a partner business or celebrity/pioneer in your industry.
2. Live support Getting the same support ticket crop up regularly? Difficult to explain over the phone? Live-stream your support to your existing customers and answer multiple queries in one hit.
3. Live tutorials It doesn’t matter whether it’s a new app feature for your customers, information on how to get the best from your best-selling lawnmower, or training material for your staff. There’s no limit to the possibilities.
4. Live focus groups When it comes to your business, your customers’ opinions matter. Live focus groups allow you to capture them, whether you are looking for input on a new logo or a new service. The juicy insight you gather could prove
What is Periscope and How Can Your Business Use It? By Jeremy Taylor, Constant Contact invaluable – from feeding-in to company shareholders to planning your next marketing campaign.
5. Live product demonstrations Launching a new product? What better way to build anticipation than promoting a live reveal through Periscope?
6. Announce flash sales If you run an online shop, a great way to reward Periscope viewers for engaging with you is to offer viewer-only voucher codes for flash sales.
7. Live tours Some products – such as hotels – require an experiential sell. If a picture says a thousand words, then how much could you say with a live tour of your hotel bedrooms and facilities? Exactly.
8. Take audience behind the scenes You might be surprised at how interested people are in a look behind the curtain of your business. Your restaurant kitchen at peak time. Your manufacturing production line at full tilt. Your zoo’s baby giraffes at feeding time. It’s a great opportunity to get people engaged with the story of your business. And the ephemeral nature of Periscope makes it a great platform for a more informal look at your business.
9. Follow your clients/customers (network) Remember that Periscope is a two-way platform. A conversation. Comments you make on other users’ streams will be displayed to whoever is watching, which is a great way to grab some digital real-estate with insightful, helpful ideas. So follow your clients. Follow people who might be interested in your services. And follow the people who follow you.
Why? What’s the point of all this? What’s the overarching strategy? As with most digital marketing, it’s about engagement. It’s about reaching out to your audience and encouraging a two-way conversation. And it’s about finding new ways to get in front of your audience in imaginative, memorable ways. http://blogs.constantcontact.com/9-ways-yourbusiness-can-use-periscope-uk
42 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
A True Scholar-Athlete: Venus Williams Earns Degree in Business Administration By Lakin Starling
O
n top of 7 Grand Slam singles titles, tennis phenom Venus Williams can add a new achievement to her resume: Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Indiana University East. Williams began her education at IU East in 2011, and completed her last course online this summer. During a trip to the Western Southern Open in August, she was able to travel to the campus for the first time. According to a press release by Indiana University East, Venus said: “One of the main reasons that I chose IU East was because I felt so at home. It was like family, like it was my school, and I was so excited. It’s been an incredible journey,” Williams said. “I’ve learned so much. It was always my dream to have a business degree and I ended up going to art school so many times, but in the back of my head I felt like I needed the tools to be a better leader, to be a better planner, to be better at all of the things I wanted to do in my businesses because I’m so hands-on.” In 2007, Williams received her associate degree in fashion design from the University of Fort Lauderdale, before deciding to go back for a higher degree. After completing the undergraduate program at IU East, Williams stated that she was able to take the lessons and skills she learned in her courses and apply them to her business matters, including a clothing line, EleVen by Venus Williams.
Williams is the first female graduate to earn a degree under the WTA agreement between IU East and the Women’s Tennis Benefits Association (WTBA). The WTA represents over 2,500 professional women athletes that represent over 92 nations. Administrators at IU East sang Williams’ praises as an exceptional student with enthusiasm about learning in all of her courses. IU East Chancellor Kathryn CruzUribe spoke of Williams: “I greatly admire Venus and her dedication to complete her online degree while continuing to play professional tennis, train, and run a business full-time. I can only imagine how challenging this has been, and I know that Venus has been a great role model for the other WTA players enrolled at IU East as well as to students in her classes.”
Congrats! http://newsone.com/3174692/ venus-williams-earns-bachelordegree-in-business-administration/
43 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Minority Winemakers Look to Change Industry's Stereotypes From www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_ id=3&objectid=11508691
B
ertony Faustin didn't set out to be Oregon's first black winemaker. He just wanted to make good wine. But the disbelief that often comes when customers realize a black man owns the winery has worn on him. "People are always surprised. Everybody assumes that ... I am not the winemaker," said the 43-yearold, who four years ago opened Abbey Creek Winery. "The image of the winemaker is an old white guy."
The industry's stereotype, Faustin said, is one of status and racial homogeneity. Photographs in wine publications feature expensive tasting rooms and white families touting well-bred pedigrees. But more African-Americans and other minorities are increasingly making and drinking fine wine, and wine-tasting clubs for AfricanAmericans have proliferated. Experts say the shift comes with its challenges. Last month (August), the Napa Valley Wine Train in California kicked a book club composed mostly of black women off a tasting tour.
The women said it was because of their race; the train spokesman said employees repeatedly asked the women to quiet down. The company later apologized and promised to train employees on cultural diversity and sensitivity. Faustin is making a documentary film about breaking the racial barrier, with the goals of giving more visibility to African-American, Latino, Asian and gay vintners. "The reality is, we've been kept out of the industry for a long time. Civil rights is just 50 years old, and for us to even have opportunities to dine out at established restaurants is fairly new," said Marcia Jones, an African-American who hosts the syndicated weekly radio show "Wine Talk," on which she interviews blacks in the industry. Despite African-Americans' strong historical ties to farming " 14% of the nation's farmers in 1920 " they abandoned the work mostly due to the legacies of slavery and discriminatory policies. Today, just 1% of all farm operators are black, according to the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture. In the wine industry, there are only a few dozen black vintners across the country, about 20 of them in Napa Valley. Theodora Lee founded Theopolis Vineyards in 2003 in California's Mendocino County. The law partner and trial lawyer bottles and markets her wine and is on course to sell about 800 cases this year. "I'm returning to my family's
farming roots," said Lee, whose grandfather was a sharecropper in Texas. "The only difference is, I own the land." Jerry Bias, a Virginia vintner who grew up in inner-city Baltimore and later became a Wall Street trader, was inspired by a wealthy AfricanAmerican businessman to "to take the shackles off of my own thinking and do whatever my dreams call me to do." He planted vines in 2001 and runs Wisdom Oak Winery. He produces about 2,500 cases a year. "Excellence is colorless," he said. The Oregon Wine Board knows of one African-American winemaker: Faustin. He's a winemaker by accident. After moving from New York 15 years ago to be an anesthesia technician, he met his wife and the couple moved to the city's outskirts on her parents' property. With his in-laws' blessing, Faustin took over their vineyard in 2008, found a mentor and enrolled in a viticulture program. Faustin now sells about 800 to 1,000 cases a year directly to customers, and he's sold out of every vintage, he said. His documentary, "Red, White and Black," will feature several people of color and a lesbian couple; their stories, he says, prove that despite financial barriers, firstgeneration minority winemakers can succeed.
44 September2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Theopolis Vineyards From http://officialblackwallstreet.com/ F black-owned-wine-spirit-brands
T
heopolis Vineyards is a small lot vineyard and hand-crafted winery located in California. Trial lawyer and owner Theodora Lee began distributing her wine, including a Petite Sirah and Symphony, in 2014. You can find them online or visit the vineyard in Yorkville, CA. Price Range: $20.00 – $36.00 Purchase: Online (http://theopolisvineyards.com/?page_id=4119)
Welcome to Theopolis Vineyards Theopolis Vineyards is a small lot vineyard and hand-crafted winery located in California’s prestigious Yorkville Highlands of the Anderson Valley. Established in 2003, Wine Critic Robert Parker bestowed upon
wine made from grapes harvested from Theopolis Vineyards a stellar rating of 94-96 points, a spectacular showing for the vintner’s first harvest in 2006. The 2006 Petite Sirah from the Yorkville Highlands is black/purple to the rim, with an exceptional nose of blueberry and blackberry liqueur intermixed with incense and a perfumed spring flower garden note. Huge, rich, and full, this is a great wine with terrific intensity, length, and purity. In addition to bottling the richly intense and flavorful Petite Sirah, Theopolis Vineyards strikes a lighter note by bottling a Symphony, a white wine, which is a crossing of Muscat and Grenache Gris. We hope you will enjoy our wines. http://theopolisvineyards.com
45 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
F.O.G. Cosmetics Founder Tondalah Stroud talks Beauty, Business, and Overcoming Obstacles By TJ Armour
F
.O.G. Cosmetics (www. fogcosmetics.com) founder Tondalah Stroud has been in the beauty industry for over 20 years. In addition to being a powerful educator and public speaker, Stroud is also a celebrity make-up artist who caters to a slew of clients that includes a long list of models, entertainers and political figures among others. Known for her signature brows and lashes, Tondalah has been an educator at places such as Barbizon School, John Robert Powers, International Skin Beauty Academy, Trensz Beauty Academy, Solutions Beauty Academy, and a host of tradeshows and expos. Her company has been featured on WCIU-TV, You & Me This Morning and ABC 7 Chicago’s Heart & Soul. We recently say down with Stroud to discuss the genesis of her F.O.G. cosmetics line, both personal and business obstacles she’s had to deal with, and the upcoming opening of the 520 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago location.
What can you tell us of your background? I have degrees in Marketing and Business, and am a graduate of Pivot Point International for cosmetology and the International Skin and Beauty Academy (ISBA)
licensed in Esthetics. As a former model and Pro Makeup Artist I’ve been blessed to tour the U.S. with a number of premier beauty companies such as Soft Sheen, L’Oreal, Isoplus, Alberto Culver, Carson’s Products to name a few. I have also been the lead makeup artist for numerous fashions shows, plays, film, television, and hair magazines over my 20 plus years in the industry. Recently I’ve undergone a series of treatments for the disease Sarcoidosis, which at one point resulted in temporary blindness, inability to walk, as well as rapid weight gain that took me from a size 2 to size 22. It was devastating, as a young thriving former model and make-up artist, to have my looks change in what seemed like overnight. Through this devastating experience, I recognized that true beauty starts from the inside and have used that since as a platform for teaching women and industry professionals the art of enhancing beauty.
How did you get your start in cosmetics? I started this business after
Tondalah Stroud spending many years working for several cosmetic companies such as Yves St. Laurent , Clinic, LORAC as well as a traveling as a professional makeup artist and model on tour with major hair care companies which is when I realized I had a gift for makeup artistry. At the same time having the opportunity to touch so many women, taught me about some emotional beauty needs. I found that after doing their face they would always say, “wow I wish I could have this look all the time”. I didn’t think I could ever look like this”. I had a desire to help solve some of their problems so they could duplicate what I did at home and feel good about it.
What can you tell us about your line F.O.G. Cosmetics? Everywoman’s desire is to look beautiful in some way. Sometimes we just don’t know how to get
46 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
certain looks we want. Sometimes with being a mom and a wife and everything else in between that women have to balance on a daily basis, we can neglect our makeup routine. The three things I’ve heard most often about makeup routines are: • They don’t know what colors to purchase and many say it is sometimes intimidating to walk up the big cosmetics isles and then coordinate together what they purchased. • They don’t know how to put them on right • They are busy and just don’t have time for a long makeup routine.
eyeshadow quads, and even lip treatment with lipstick base. It also comes in different case designs seasonally from bling to plain black glitter to fit various personalities. The cosmetic products are talc, parabean, oil, and fragrance free and highly pigmented. The shades range from the lightest to the darkest. With our foundations and Hollywood Brows being number one sellers. Not only are our products environmentally friendly and there is not any animal testing. The Cache’s coupled with our great cosmetic product quality makes the makeup purchase, application, and travel so much easier for women.
My goal was to make the makeup selection and use easier for women so they would no longer have a fear of applying, purchasing, and wearing makeup. It is a modular makeup vanity set of compacts that has “Everything for Your Face All in One Place™. This set of 3 compacts holds of over 65 product looks that consists of everything from Hollywood brows, fabulous shades of foundations, powders, bronzers, lip ombres, cheek chisels for highlighting and contouring, cake eyeliners and
What are some of the obstacles you’ve faced as a woman of color in the billion dollar cosmetics industry? As an African-American female business owner in the cosmetics industry we face many challenges. The first is not having the capital needed like the larger brands to really take the business as far as our creativity visualizes as fast as the cosmetic industry demands. It’s very difficult to break through this industry without investors,
proper advertisement, and/or celebrity endorsements. Second, speaking on behalf of our team from our personal experiences, when it is known that the company is African-American owned, there is sometimes an assumption that the products must only be for African-Americans, which is not the case with our brand. These type of obstacles can hinder growth in desired markets therefore more effort is put in to ensure it is known that our products color range is diverse and is not target toward any one nationality.
What’s next for Tondalah Stroud and F.O.G. Cosmetics? The future plans for F.O.G. consist of us growing our brand as we search for investors to help us to take the brand where we desire it to go. As for myself, first and foremost, I see myself completely healed. I will continue to give my visions to the team to develop innovative products that will be selling off store shelves around the world. There is no greater reward than seeing some of those things that were once barriers behind you and others now set as open doors! http://rollingout.com/2015/09/05/fo-g-cosmetics-founder-tondalahstroud-talks-beauty-businessovercoming-obstacles
47 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
BBN Biz Notes By Black Business News Staff
U.S. Travel Assn. Praises Commitment to Facilitating Travel
U
.S. Travel Association President/CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement on U.S. President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s joint communique (www.whitehouse. gov/the-press-office/2015/06/30/ joint-communique-president-barackobama-and-president-dilma-rousseff)
renewing their commitment to expanding visa-free travel to and from Brazil: “We are pleased that President Obama and President Rousseff have renewed their commitment to expanding the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to Brazil and applaud them for setting a timeline to include Brazil in the Global Entry Program. Admitting Brazil to both programs would enhance security, and at the same time generate recordbreaking levels of reciprocal travel and positively impact the economy of both countries. “Brazil represents a crucial t r a v e l market, with both s t r o n g
demand and financial means for international travel. Expanding the VWP to Brazil would add nearly 650,000 new visitors to the U.S., increasing total visitation to more than 3 million in 2015. More international visitors equals more American jobs and immediate economic benefits. Admitting Brazil to the VWP would also improve national security with mandated security enhancements such as individualized pre-screening of travelers, greater information sharing, enhanced partnerships with law enforcement and intelligence services, and more secure passports. “U.S. Travel has long advocated for expansion of the VWP and Global Entry Program to Brazil. While this week’s discussion on expansion of these programs to Brazil is a step in the right direction, we will continue to urge the governments of both countries to take definitive steps in furthering Brazil’s entrance into the VWP and Global Entry Program. Specifically we urge both governments to continue advancing discussions around VWP by meeting regularly
and setting benchmarks for meeting the program requirements.”
JetBlue Promoting Flights to Cuba
J
etBlue offers more flights to the Caribbean than any other airline — so we’re especially proud to offer nonstop charter service to and from Havana, Cuba. Charter flights depart from New York (JFK), Fort Lauderdale, FL and Tampa, FL. The U.S. Department of Treasury requires travel to Cuba to be categorized as one of the following: Family visits, Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations, Humanitarian projects, Support for the Cuban people, Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes, Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials, and Certain authorized export transactions. These JetBlue-operated flights are offered by our charter partners 5x per week. www.jetblue.com/flights/cuba/
51 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
SAVE THE DATE! Join the U.S. Commercial Service and the District Export Council of Southern California for Discover Global Markets: Pacific Rim Consumers, a dynamic 2-day conference focused on consumer markets throughout Asia and the Pacific region. Find out what consumers are buying, and how to sell to them!
Event Dates:
What to expect:
Location:
• • • • •
In-depth market intelligence targeting major consumer markets in the Pacific Rim Country and industry sessions led by industry specialists and executives Practical “how to” sessions on global branding, international marketing, fulfillment, distribution, and protecting your Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Financing for generating maximum revenue and profits “Meet the buyer” sessions and networking with senior business leaders
Private consultations with U.S. commercial diplomats: Opportunity to meet with in-country commercial diplomats and specialists to gain customized market entry advice for your company. Featuring 18+ markets, including: x • • • x x
Australia/New Zealand Burma Canada Central America Chile China
• • • • • •
Colombia Costa Rica Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Mexico
• • • • • •
October 29-30, 2015
Hilton Orange County/ Costa Mesa 3050 Bristol St. Costa Mesa, CA
For more information: Daniel Lew 213-200-7172 Daniel.Lew@trade.gov Jim Mayfield 949-660-8681 Jim.Mayfield@trade.gov
Panama Peru Singapore South Korea Taiwan Thailand
A few of our featured industries, plus a lot more! 9 9 9 9 9
Cosmetics, Beauty & Personal Care Consumer Brands Fashion, Apparel & Accessories Franchising Action Sports/Outdoor Lifestyle
9 9 9 9 9
Entertainment & Digital Media Nutritional Supplements Food, Beverages, Wine Recreational Vehicles, Automotive Travel & Tourism
www.export.gov/DiscoverGlobalMarkets/PacRimConsumers U.S. Department of Commerce
International Trade Administration
U.S. Commercial Service
52 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
BUSINESS FORUM SERIES
2015
PACIFIC RIM CONSUMERS Get valuable exposure among U.S. exporters of products and services at an international business forum organized by the U.S. Commercial Service (the export promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration) and the District Export Council of Southern California.
Become a Sponsor Now! Event Dates October 29–30, 2015 Location Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa 3050 Bristol Street Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (714) 540-7000
Conference Overview DISCOVER GLOBAL MARKETS: Pacific Rim Consumers participants will gain access to upto-date market intelligence about consumer markets throughout the Pacific Rim region.
For More Information Daniel Lew (213) 200-7172
The program will feature international business leaders, U.S. commercial diplomats, industry specialists, and seasoned export advisors from more than 20 Pacific Rim markets—from Seoul to Santiago!
daniel.lew@trade.gov Jim Mayfield (949) 660-8681
Benefits of Becoming a Sponsor
jim.mayfield@trade.gov
As a sponsor, your organization will receive valuable exposure prior to and during the event. The conference will be promoted heavily nationwide and your organization will be recognized according to your selected level of participation:
export.gov/discoverglobalmarkets
Diamond ($25,000)
Platinum ($15,000)
Gold ($10,000)
Silver ($5,000)
Bronze ($2,500)
Logo on Program Guide, E-mail Promotions, and Website
9
9
9
9
9
Special Recognition at Forums
9
9
9
9
9
List and Contact Information of All Forum Attendees (to be Distributed Immediately Following Event)
9
9
9
9
9
Premium
Premium
Premium
Standard
Standard
10
8
5
3
1
Full-page (color)
½-page (color)
¼-page (color)
¼-page (B&W)
⁄-page (B&W)
Sponsorship Benefits
Promotional Space at Forums Forum Tickets Advertisements in Forum Program Guides Optional Reserved Forum Table (luncheons)
9
9
Seats at Head Table (program/luncheon)
2
1
Digital Media Promotion
9
9
U.S. Commercial Service—Connecting you to global markets.
1407-01-19-06
53 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Charles D. King’s Media Holding Company MACRO Announces Initial Partners by Judy Greenwald
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ACRO, the next generation multi-platform media company founded by former WME Partner/Agent Charles D. King, announced today that it has closed its first round of funding earlier this summer. "I couldn't be more thrilled with this incredible group of partners and investors. Among them, they represent some of the most boundary-pushing, innovative thinkers and leaders in their respective fields of technology, finance and media,” says Charles D. King, CEO & Founder of MACRO. “Most importantly, these individuals ascribe to the global vision of MACRO and understand what a tremendous opportunity awaits us. Their endorsement enables MACRO to create universally themed premium content for the African American, Latino and multicultural market, which has been vastly underserved for too long.” MACRO received a boost from its lead investor Emerson Collective, founded by Laurene Powell Jobs. Emerson Collective supports social entrepreneurs who are innovating ways to create lasting avenues for social and economic mobility. Powell Jobs shapes the vision of the company and their focus on collaborating with partners who harness the entrepreneurial spirit and are determined to disrupt the status quo by accelerating positive change.
King has also secured financing from MNM Creative, a multimedia and entertainment company with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. The firm is dedicated to supporting, producing and financing diversity-driven, multicultural content across all media with its strategic partners in the U.S. and across Asia. Also participating in the round is digital media expert Michael Kassan’s firm Medialink. Medialink is a strategic advisory and business development firm that operates at the intersection of media, marketing, advertising, entertainment, technology and finance. Other notable investors in the company include Wall Street Titan and MACRO advisor, Raymond J. McGuire, Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at Citibank, tech entrepreneur/ investor Justin Yoshimura and Michael Kane, Managing Director of the Los Angeles based private equity firm Caltius Capital. “Charles is uniquely poised to lead what’s sure to become the kind of media company that will launch careers and brands, but more importantly add rich value to our entertainment culture,” said Laurene Powell Jobs. “Charles has an extraordinary set of creative
Charles D. Ki
instincts — he’s demonstrated a remarkable ability to amplify talent, trends, and content to multi-cultural audiences throughout his career.” Corey Martin of Davis, Shapiro, Lewit, Grabel, Leven, Granderson and Blake structured the holding company financing for MACRO alongside co-counsel Irell & Manella and Latham & Watkins. MACRO has already lined up projects from filmmakers Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) and Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) that will be announced at a later date.
54 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
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ABOUT MACRO Launched in 2015, MACRO is an innovative media asset holding company founded by Charles D. King, former long-time partner at William Morris Endeavor (WME). The disruptive entertainment company is focused on premium content creation, distribution and engagement for African American, Latino and multicultural (ALM) audiences. King is the first and only African American to rise from the mailroom to partner in the 116-
year history of WME. His career as an agent spanned over 15 years, during which he was known for his innovative deal making and his strategic planning in developing brands for and around his clients. The executive and management team at MACRO includes Ronald Hohauser as Chief Financial Officer, Poppy Hanks as SVP/Development and Production and Michael Palank as VP/Digital and Business Development. Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix
Agent Charles King Exits WME to Launch Multicultural Media Firm by Natalie Jarvey
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ne of Hollywood's most powerful black agents is making a new start. Charles King is leaving William Morris Endeavor to form MACRO, a startup that will focus on developing content for multicultural audiences. Los Angeles-based MACRO initially will focus on developing and distributing feature films, TV series and digital content targeting AfricanAmerican, Latino and multicultural markets. King, 45, whose clients have included Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, tells The Hollywood Reporter that MACRO's goal is to focus on audiences that have long been underserved by the traditional entertainment industry. "I've been sitting in these rooms for the last 15 years. The studios aren't focused on it; the packagers aren't focused on it," he says. "There's a huge void and a huge opportunity." He points to the lack of capital available to minority-focused filmmakers and says he's looking to change that with MACRO,
which will leverage crowdfunding platforms and co-financing to target films that range from "artistically inclined independents" in the $1 million to $3 million budget range up to $20 million projects. "The one underlying theme is 'premium,' " he says. "I'm looking for artistic integrity." King already has lined up projects from filmmakers Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) and Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow). Brewer notes that it's been difficult to sell his films, which feature predominantly African-American casts, but that King helped open doors for him. "Charles has never been afraid of obstacles," says Brewer. "He puts in the work. I think that's what's going to be exciting about MACRO. He has a vision, but he also knows how to execute it." King, who has helped fund more than a dozen startups as a part-time angel investor, also has ambitions to expand MACRO to include investing in and incubating new technologies and lifestyle
and Raymond J. McGuire, Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at Citibank, serve on the advisory board of the company. MACRO’s headquarters are in the Kilroy Realty Sunset Media Center in the heart of Hollywood. Go to www.macro.ventures for more information. www.businesswire.com/news/ home/20150902005293/en/ Charles-D.-King%E2%80%99sMedia-Holding-Company-MACRO brands. In addition, he is exploring setting up a multichannel network that would curate content for multicultural audiences. He points to Russell Simmons' All Def Digital and Latino-focused MiTu as examples of MCNs making strides in that arena. "There's a need, there's a void," he says. "If you have a cohesive plan that's going to connect the dots between traditional and these new platforms, there is a very robust opportunity for content creators." King has brought on advisors including Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos and Citibank head of corporate and investment banking Raymond McGuire to help him with the company's long-term ambitions. He is also in the process of assembling a team of film, television and digital executives. The first African-American partner at WME, King built a client roster that also included M. Night Shyamalan and Janelle Monae. But King says he's always had an eye for starting his own media firm and now the timing is right. "There is a need for a vehicle like this," he says. "It will make a statement and provide an outlet. I want it to blaze a road for others to follow much like what I've done already in the agency world." www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ agent-charles-king-exits-wme-761010
55 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Have you registered for the U.S.-Africa Business Summit? November 2-5, 2015 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia www.summit.africacncl.org #AfricaBizSummit Why You Should Attend the Summit If you are looking to enter the African market or expand your business on the continent, you won't want to miss the the U.S.-Africa Summit. This November, more than 1,000 private sector and government representatives from Africa, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East will convene with the common goal of networking and expanding their knowledge on investment opportunities. How will the 2015 Summit be different? The 10th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit will be held in Africa for the first time since 2007. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, home of the African Union and growing international business hub, will provide the ideal setting for building new partnerships and expanding your business. What is the best way to take advantage of the networking opportunities? Daily beverage breaks, luncheons and two evening events are included with your registration fee. In addition, we will be launching an app in September which will allow you to find and schedule meetings with potential business partners and investors. Gain Insight from the Experts We have invited experts in agribusiness, energy, finance, health, security, infrastructure, trade facilitation and capacity building, working in diverse African economies, to provide their pragmatic insight on what you need to achieve your business goals. The Corporate Council on Africa 1100 17th Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 835-1115 Fax: (202 835-1117
56 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
FOR
Grandparents Day
OR ANY SPECIAL OCCASION
Business
USBC Gearing up to Drive Business to Black Car Dealers By Jazelle Hunt, NNPA Washington Correspondent
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ccording to IHS, an international industry data company, Black Americans spent an estimated $8.4 billion on
cars in just the first four months of 2015. In the coming year, the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC) (www.usblackchamber.org) is determined to direct that cash toward Black-owned dealerships. “In the Asian community, their dollar stays in their community 28 days before it ever leaves,” said Ron Busby, president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. “In the Hispanic community, their dollar stays 21 days before it ever leaves. But in the Black community, our dollar leaves within six hours. So we don’t have to worry about the majority not supporting us, we’re boycotting our own.” The USBC is a national association of more than 100
African American Chambers of Commerce and small business organizations working toward Black economic empowerment. In signing a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD), the USBC hopes to appeal people in the market for a new car to buy from Black dealers. The agreement will connect Black car dealers to their local Black chamber of commerce, and will encourage the chambers to get the word out. The USBC also has an interactive listing of Black-owned car dealerships included in its online Black business database. “It’s not just about OK go buy a car from Mercedes or BWM but if you want a BMW…here’s where you should go to [make] those purchases,” Busby explained. “The thing we determined is, let’s say you’re in a community and there’s not a Black-owned dealership of your [car] choice. We will contact the Black dealership [nearest you], and he will either meet or beat the price of that local dealership in your community, and ship it to you free of charge.” In addition to making it easy to buy Black when car shopping, the partnership will examine whether automakers are returning the favor of Black patronage by re-investing in Black communities. “We outlined where, which cars
African Americans were spending money. And it was ironic that Toyota was the number one car for African American spending,” Busby said. “Are they spending money with us – that’s where we want to make sure. Are they advertising in our Black newspapers? Are they hiring Black employees? Do we own their dealerships?” The USBC-NAMAD agreement is the fifth year of such agreements for the USBC, which aims to grow Black economic power by driving Black dollars to Black businesses, particularly in industries that already attract many Black customers. In 2013, for example, an MOU with the Congressional Black Caucus lead to a $5 million deposit split between five Black-owned banks around the country. Other past partnerships have targeted Black-owned media, hotels, banks, and more. Black consumers can also foster
MOBILE BLACK BUSINESS DIRECTORY Download the App Add your Business Information Be found by new & old clients
DO IT TODAY! http://aroundthewayapp.com
64 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
these efforts via the USBC mobile app (http://aroundthewayapp. com). Powered by GPS, it allows users to find Black retailers, service providers, and more in their current area, in real time. “The reason that other communities and ethnic groups don’t have many of the same concerns that we have is because they are in control of their own economies. We very seldom in our conversations, talk about an economic agenda, and at the end of the day this is still a capitalistic society,” said Busby. He also pointed out that supporting
Black businesses isn’t merely a noble exercise – it is also a solution to unemployment. Studies show that people of color tend to hire other people of color. Therefore, if the estimated 2.6 million Black-owned businesses in the country had enough profit to hire employees, we could significantly impact the lives of the 1.7 million Black Americans reported as unemployed as of July. Busby explained, “Currently African Americans spend less
than 3% of their net income with Black businesses. If we want to decrease unemployment, or get rid of it all together, all we have to do is allow each one of those small businesses to hire one new employee. That doesn’t take an act of Congress, that doesn’t take changing the budget, that’s just changing our decision of where and how we spend our money.” “Each year we talk about the commitment of ‘Black dollars matter,’ and how to reenergize our community through an economic agenda. Our deal is to bring facts and information to change the mindset, and then show you good examples to correct [habits],” said Busby. “If we know better, we can do better. We always look to someone else to fix our community, and we own a trillion dollars.” http://greenecountydemocrat. com/?p=14782
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n support of OIC's Technology Bridge Program, Bank of the West has donated 500 Steelcase Ergonomic office chairs for lowincome families, students, churches and small businesses. The key is productivity at work or study along with physical comfort. Valued at $791.00 to $2,180.00 are now only $125.00 each as a part of OIC's fund raising efforts. Effective July 13th, the Steelcase Ergonomic Chairs will be made available to the general public. OIC's hours are Monday through Friday, 8am to 4pm. For more information contact Ms. Clark at 323-754-3116. 65 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
66 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
African American Tourism: Inaugural "State Of Black Tourism"
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n September 17, 2015, the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners (www.ncbmp.com), the authority of black meeting professionals in the hospitality industry, will present its inaugural "State of Black Tourism Address" followed by a panel discussion of distinguished leaders. Chairwoman Ana Aponte -Curtis states, "I will address how the economic relevancy, social and political power of African American tourism can affect change in a city." This relevant and timely discussion on Black America's role in the tourism industry, which coincides with the annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference, will be held at Washington's Carnegie Library, located at 801 K Street, NW. Networking will begin at 9:00 a.m.; followed by the Inaugural Address by Chairwoman, Ana Aponte Curtis at 9:45 a.m. and panel discussion at 10:00 a.m. and conclude at 11:30 a.m. The groundbreaking event will feature leaders from key national African American organizations, hospitality industry thought leaders, and elected officials. The program's agenda will highlight the economic power of the African American community, address the correlation between African American
tourism and America's economic development, and examine the potential for organizational and destination partnerships to maximize buying power. Ed Gordon, noted journalist and host of the BET network program Weekly, will moderate the panelist discussion. Panelists to date include: • Mayor, The City of Baltimore and President, U.S. Conference of Mayors, Hon. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake • President, National Black MBA Association Inc., Mr. Jesse Tyson • Executive Director/ SVP of Accreditation and Strategic Initiatives: Destination Marketing Association International; Ms. Valencia Bembry • President/CEO, Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitor Bureau, Mr. Dan Lincoln • Chairwoman, National Newspaper Publishers Association; Ms. Denise Rolark Barnes • Editor-in-Chief, Black Meetings and Tourism, Mr. Solomon Herbert This event is sponsored by NCBMP's partners, Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau, Detroit Metro Convention and
Visitors Bureau and Destination DC. African American travel and tourism is a $40 billion industry. The current buying power of African-Americans is $1 trillion and expected to increase to $1.3 trillion by 2017. These amazing but staggering numbers were shared in the recent the African-American Consumer Report completed by The Nielsen Company. Industry leaders will share their thoughts on the future and the need to leverage strategic partnerships to ensure that African American tourism's value is acknowledged and celebrated. The National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners (NCBMP), founded in 1983, is a non-profit organization dedicated primarily to the training needs of African American meeting planners. The organization is committed to the improvement of the meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and convocations they manage. Members of NCBMP include meeting planners from numerous business, civil rights, church and fraternal organizations. Associate membership is available to individuals who represent hotels, convention bureaus, city government officers, airlines and other suppliers who offer services to the meeting and convention community. Since its founding, NCBMP has made a significant impact in the hospitality community by identifying the sizable purchasing power and impact of the African American convention. www.eturbonews.com/63736/africanamerican-tourism-inaugural-stateblack-tourism-address-a
67 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC)
favorable rates through the federal government. •And the national economy benefits as the small businesses financed by SBICs continue to create jobs and generate tax revenues.
Where can I learn more? Visit the SBIC Program pages ( w w w. s b a . g o v / c o n t e n t / s b i c program-overview-0), including the FAQ, for more information about the SBIC Program. Still have questions? Email askSBIC@sba. gov.
D
id you know that the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program has been helping high-growth small businesses get financing since 1958? That's right – for more than 50 years, SBICs have facilitated the flow of long-term capital to America’s businesses. There are thousands of small business success stories, but here are a few you probably recognize: Costco, Apple and Staples – just to name a few.
funds (the SBICs) that finance small businesses.
How does it work?
What are the perks?
SBA doesn't finance businesses directly. For the SBIC program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) partners with private investors to capitalize professionally-managed investment
•Small businesses can receive equity capital, long-term loans and expert management assistance. •Investment managers can add to their own private investment capital with funds borrowed at
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MOBILE BLACK BUSINESS DIRECTORY
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http://trayvonmartinfoundation.org
Download the App Add your Business Information Be found by new & old clients
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DO IT TODAY! http://aroundthewayapp.com
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68 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
African-American Consumers: The Untold Story By NewsOne Now
outpaces its counterparts in many key categories.
Key findings of the 2015 African-American Consumer Report: • African-American income growth rates outpaced those of non-Hispanic Whites at every annual household income level above $60,000. • Rate of Black high school graduates enrolled in college increased in 2014 to 70.9%, exceeding the rate of all high school graduates in the nation. • By 2060, one out of every six U.S. Blacks will be immigrants.
African-American Social Media Usage • 44% support companies or brands • 44% networking • 29% information about products • 14% tracking news or special events
African-American Media Consumption
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• • • •
lack consumers make up a diverse group of trendsetters, education enthusiasts, media influencers, social activists and content creators. Making gains and upending outdated stereotypes on multiple fronts – from education to income to social media and civic engagement – the AfricanAmerican story continues to evolve as Black consumers leave an indelible footprint on today’s rapidly
changing mainstream. AfricanAmericans are indeed increasingly affluent, influential and culturally diverse – and savvy marketers and businesses are taking notice. – Nielsen The story regarding Black consumers continues to astound corporate America, industry influencers, and marketers as the African-American community flexes its economic muscles and
Television 51 hours Radio 13 hours Computer 8 hours Smartphone 6 hours
To review the Nielsen 2015 African-American Consumer Report, visit Nielsen.com. http://newpittsburghcourieronline. com/2015/09/20/nielsen-unveils2015-african-american-consumerreport http://sites.nielsen.com/ africanamericans/
69 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Renae Bluitt Talks Being a Female Entrepreneur and Supporting Them Written by MCJStaff African American women aren’t only the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, they own 1.3 million businesses and counting. And as black women shatter records in the business sector, self-made businesswoman Renae Bluitt tells the world what it’s like to walk in their shoes. Bluitt has been narrating, highlighting, and celebrating the stories of African American female entrepreneurs with her blog In Her Shoes. Interviewing what she calls “fly female entrepreneurs,” such as Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter; Nzingha Stewart, director of With This Ring; and Claire Sulmers of the Fashion Bomb Daily, Bluitt not only gives black female entrepreneurs a platform, she also teaches and inspires. She’s created a community where veteran and budding female entrepreneurs can connect and support each other in an online marketplace called The Beauties and Brains: Behind the Brands. While Bluitt is uplifting other black female entrepreneurs one post at a time, she’s an entrepreneur herself. Growing up in Indiana, she already had a blueprint of what entrepreneurship looked like because her grandfather and father were entrepreneurs. Before starting her own business, she worked for various companies, including Lifetime Television and Edelman. Now, she’s the founder of Crush Media, a public relations firm that represents beauty brands like Eden Body Works and Vibrant Beauty. Now into her sixth year of
spotlighting gogetters in the African American entrepreneurial community, Bluitt speaks to Black Enterprise and discusses what’s in the works for In Her Shoes Blog, her daily mantras, why passion matters when pursuing your career, and encountering failure. Black Enterprise: Tell me a little bit about Beauties & Brains: Behind the Brand? Bluitt: Last year, for the blog’s fiveyear anniversary, I made [Beauties & Brains: Behind the Brand] a little bigger, and I introduced the very first In Her Shoes marketplace, which brings to life the mission of the blog, which is to celebrate and support women-owned brands. So the marketplace last year was filled with brands that are owned by black women. I wanted to create this opportunity for women to shop and support each other’s brands onsite. Last year, I also gave away the first award to aspiring fly female entrepreneurs after meeting these young girls, all under the age of 11, who started their own nail salon on their stoop. I thought that was awesome and pretty innovative. Not only did we give them an award, we also offered them a oneday internship at Polish Bar. Black Enterprise: You talk a lot
about your passion. You’re very passionate about beauty and entrepreneurship. How important is it to tap into your passion, especially for a living? Bluitt: This is not an easy journey. Each day is different. Your income fluctuates. But the one thing that has to be constant is your love for
what you’re doing. There are going to be some days where you’re going to be faced with some challenges, and if you don’t absolutely love what you do, you will not make it, you will fold. Your passion is what drives you, on the good days and bad days. Black Enterprise: Is entrepreneurship taught or innate? Bluitt: I do not believe one has to be born an entrepreneur to succeed but it certainly helps. I think, innately, we may have tendencies and ways about ourselves that make some of us more likely to succeed as entrepreneurs. But I also think that going to business school, taking on entrepreneurship, or studying under an entrepreneur will give you the skills you need to be successful as one. [For me,] I think it’s a combination of both because of what I saw growing up. Entrepreneurship was normal for
70 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
me. But I’ve also had the opportunity to meet and work with people who are entrepreneurs. Being in PR, a lot of my clients are women-owned brands, and I’m interfacing and working directly with the owner of the brand, day-to-day. That helps me sharpen my own tools when it comes to my business. Black Enterprise: What advice would you give your younger self, when you were first starting out as an entrepreneur? Bluitt: As cliché as it may sound, one very important thing that I would share with my younger self is the importance of making time for what really matters. There will always be work to do because an
entrepreneur’s to-do list is never ending. That said, no matter how “busy” you are, make time to nurture relationships. One reminder of this came recently from my dear friend, the late Brook Stephenson. He was a lover of life, a noted author, and all-around beautiful human being. I knew he was special in my social circle, but it wasn’t until he transitioned that I realized how many lives he truly touched. He followed his dreams, blazed trails, and left his footprint, but he never forgot to make time for loved ones. Black Enterprise: Your seventh year with In Her Shoes is approaching. What’s next for the blog and for you personally?
Bluitt: For the last six years I’ve been focusing my efforts in New York City, but I want to take In Her Shoes experiences to other cities— like Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles—where there are so many more Fly Female Entrepreneurs. I’d like to expand the brand globally. I’ve had people reach out to me from parts of Africa and London asking for this type of content and experience to happen where they live. The goal is to just expand naturally and globally. http://communityjournal.net/ renae-bluitt-talks-being-a-femaleentrepreneur-and-supporting-them
Holiday Retail Season is Here!!! Promote You're Products and Services in the Black Business News Buy Black Section begins on page 104. Quote of Note “Every community is different, with different needs and different approaches. But communities that are making the most progress on these issues have some things in common. They don't look for a single silver bullet; instead they bring together local government and nonprofits and businesses and teachers and parents around a shared goal.”
Barack Obama “Smart Cities” Initiative 71 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business Technology:
Take a Look! by LaSandra Stratton
C
heck out what these firms and organizations have to offer for your personal interests, personal wealth building, and business expansion opportunities.
personal. There is hardly any other technology currently developing as fast as drone technology. However, the increase in drone efficiency also means more opportunities to misuse them for criminal purposes. When your airspace is exposed, no longer are fences, video cameras, and security guards adequate to protect sensitive buildings or personal.
About DroneTracker
www.dedrone.com/en We respect the millions of enthusiastic pilots who use their drones for legitimate purposes or
simply fly them for fun. The D r o n e Tr a c k e r d e t e c t s unmanned aircraft and guards against spying, smuggling, potential terrorist attacks and invasions of personal privacy. Unfortunately drone use for criminal purposes is on the increase. There is hardly any other technology currently developing as fast as drone technology. However, the increase in drone efficiency also means more opportunities to misuse them for criminal purposes. When your airspace is exposed, no longer are fences, video cameras, and security guards adequate to protect sensitive buildings or
The monitored airspace can be viewed in real time on a computer, smartphone or tablet. The intelligent DroneTracker software categorizes every detected drone on the basis of its individual characteristics such as size, silhouette, movement and sound – known as the DroneDNA. A drone that can carry up to 5 kilograms and fly several kilometers can now be bought for less than 1,600 euro – on the Internet, or in any local electrical goods store. Using a GPS control system and autopilot, many of these small aircraft are able to fly programmed routes on their own without a pilot. DroneTracker is equipped with a unique system of interacting sensors. Based on multiple parameters such as noise, shape, and movement patterns, it is unlike any other drone warning system able to reliably detect all types of drones. The built-in camera saves images and videos in HD quality, providing crucial evidence of the threat intrusion.
https://translate.google. com/ The Google Translate app which allows you to speak, snap, write or type with someone who speaks a different language now has a "conversation mode" tool that automatically translates conversations - in person or via phone - between speakers of different languages in real time. Google Translate may be used on mobile and desktop devices, even offline. Translate can help with longer text, difficult pronunciations and uploaded documents in 90 languages. The free app is available through iTunes and the Google Play Store.
www.americanexpress. com/us/small-business
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merican Express Open offers products and services designed to help small businesses grow. Business Charge Cards from OPEN can give you the buying power to make big business purchases without any collateral required. Use them to fund large purchases like: Equipment, Raw Materials, Inventory, and Wholesale Goods; select whether to Earn Points and/
72 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
or get Cash Back; use Tools that can help you streamline, sort and organize Business Card expenses as they happen; take advantage of flexible payment options and pay your bill the way that works for your business; take part in OPEN Forum and get tools and advice for growing your business from industry experts and other business owners; and join the CEO BootCamp program that brings business owners and business experts together to network and learn how to unleash their power and potential. Open. A business charge card that gives you more than credit.
www.thingcharger.com
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hingCHARGER, the awesome new charger for all your things, is a simple box which allows a device to stand on top and charge. All chargers use some power when they are not in use. But thingCHARGERs use
extraordinary new circuitry to all but eliminate this 'vampire' current. The outlets on the front of ThingCharger exactly match the prongs on the back, so you can stack 2 or 3 thingCHARGERs together for a super-convenient charging station.
Tips are neatly stored and never lost - tips are always ready to charge any phone, tablet or reader.
Submitted by LaSandra Stratton, Chief Content Administrator of the Black Business News.
73 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
KWELITV by Luxe Radar
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e are all familiar with Netflix, the streaming system that gives us access to our favorite shows, documentaries, movies, and series via their online platform. We even plan "Netflix binge" days where we cuddle up on our couch with a bowl of ice cream and detach from our reality. We can spend all day and night streaming away. Now there is an alternative created for us. We have to give a round of applause to DeShuna Spencer for creating kweliTV (https://kweli.tv/#/ join), an internet video streaming network specifically for the black consumer. 'Kweli' means truth in Swahili.
"We see as the bridge between a new crop of up and coming black filmmakers and our audience looking for great content," Spencer included in a press release. The video streaming network has launched in beta, and will launch officially later this year. In its beta form, kweliTV will be free for one month and paid premium options will be discounted by half. There will be about 40 films to preview while in the beta form. DeShuna Spencer is a graduate of Jackson State University. She is a social entrepreneur, journalist, and founding publisher of www. emPowermagazine.com. Love seeing Black women pushing the envelope! Luxe Radar (www.luxeradar) will definitely support this platform.
HEY FILMMAKERS!
DeShuna is looking for movies and web shows to cast on kweliTV, interested filmmakers should apply via e-mail at hello@kwelitv.com. www.luxeradar.com/news/deshunaspencer-creates-the-black-netflixcalled-kwelitv
76 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
79 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest
An Invitation From the First Lady By Ken Meyer
Hi everyone -Right now, more than 62 million girls worldwide are out of school. Many of them simply can't afford the school fees, or the nearest school is miles away and they don’t have safe transportation to get there -- or maybe there's a school nearby, but it doesn't have adequate bathroom facilities for girls. And for many girls, the obstacles they face aren't just about resources, but about cultural norms and traditions that deem girls unworthy of an education. That's why recently, along with Girl Rising, we announced a new education campaign called 62 Million Girls -- and we need you to join right now: Share a photo of yourself on
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama launch "Let Girls Learn".
Honorable Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States of America. Twitter or Instagram, and tell the world what you learned in school
Want to get the First Lady's emails directly ? Sign up for em ail updates at: ww w. whitehouse.go v/ email-updates . using #62MillionGirls (http://62milliongirls.com).
Those photos will be posted to Girl Rising's yearbook at 62MillionGirls. com, and you'll help us raise
80 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
awareness about all the girls who aren’t in school and show the power of education to transform their lives. That's why earlier this year, the President and I launched an initiative called Let Girls Learn (https://letgirlslearn.peacecorps.gov). Working with the Peace Corps, businesses and organizations, and
countries across the globe, we're helping adolescent girls worldwide go to school. Now, the 62 Million Girls campaign is working to raise awareness for this cause and for these girls. As I've traveled the world, I have met so many of these girls -- and they are so bright, so determined
and so eager to learn. I see myself in these girls. I see my daughters in these girls. These girls are our girls, and I simply cannot walk away from them. So I'm looking forward to seeing what you learned in school to help us make sure 62 million girls get that chance. Thanks. First Lady Michelle Obama www.whitehouse.gov/ blog/2015/09/27/email-first-ladymichelle-obama-what-did-youlearn-schoo
81 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest
Stanford U. Tuition Free for Families Earning Less than $125,000 per Year By Libby Nelson
I
f a student's parents make less than $125,000 per year, and if they have assets of less than $300,000, excluding retirement accounts, the parents won't be expected to pay anything toward their children's Stanford tuition. Families with incomes lower than $65,000 won't have to contribute to room and board, either. Students themselves will have to pay up to $5,000 each year from summer earnings, savings, and part-time work. There's no rule that parents can't cover their students' required contribution. Stanford is much more generous
toward middle-class and uppermiddle-class students than the federal government is. Most students who get subsidized loans and federal Pell Grants come from families making less than $60,000 per year. But it also enrolls an outsize proportion of wealthy students. In 2010, the university's director of financial aid said the median family income at Stanford was around $125,000. On the other hand, only 14% of entering freshmen got federal Pell Grants in 2012, which typically go to students from families making less than $50,000 per year. Nationally, 41% of undergrads received Pell Grants.
Why other colleges can't do this — but what they can learn Stanford enrolls a high proportion of wealthy students, who pay higher tuition that helps subsidize lowerincome peers. And Stanford is one of the world's richest universities, with an endowment of $21 billion. On the other hand, there's something that every college could emulate about Stanford's policy: it's incredibly simple and straightforward.
Middle-class students know even before they apply to Stanford what they'll have to pay to attend, whether they'll be able to afford it, and how much they'll have to borrow. At most colleges, the amount a family is expected to pay doesn't show up until after students have applied, been accepted, and filled out financial aid paperwork. That's partly because many colleges are stretching their financial aid budgets and don't know what they're dealing with until students have been admitted. But legislators are trying to make federal financial aid, at least, more transparent, by allowing students to use older tax data when filing the FAFSA. That would allow students to find out how much aid they qualify for up to a year before they start college. Researchers have proposed even earlier notification for students from poor families — letting them know as early as eighth grade that they could qualify for a federal Pell grant. Most colleges can't match Stanford's generous financial aid commitment. But they could at least try to duplicate its simplicity. www.vox.com/2015/4/1/8328091/ stanford-tuition-financial-aid
82 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest-Obituary
Helen Burns Jackson Dies at 92.
H
elen Burns Jackson, the mother of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., has died. She was 92. The Rev. Jesse Jackson told The Associated Press his mother died Monday morning, September 7th in her longtime hometown of Helen Burns Jackson with her son Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. during a taping of the Phil Donahue Show. Greenville, S.C. She had been in failing health for some time, he said. "She was an incredible woman blessed with a long life," Jackson said. Jackson described his mother as a talented musician, active member of her church and big inspiration for much of his community activism. Born in 1923, Helen Burns Jackson "lived under very trying circumstances, but she was so determined to make a contribution," her son said. Jackson said his mother had two scholarships to attend college, but when she became pregnant with This April 19, 1988 file photo shows the Rev. Jesse Jackson joining hands him, she chose not to go. She later with his family, from left, wife Jackie, mother Helen, and son Jesse Jr. became a cosmetologist. before a crowd of supporters at New York's Sheraton Centre Hotel. DAVID "She helped a lot of people," BOOKSTAVER, FILE — AP Photo Jackson told The Greenville News a few days before she died. "That's mostly what I remember about Mother is some people home. However, she appeared onstage when he would call and say 'I need my hair to be dressed, but addressed the Democratic National Convention in I don't have any money.' She would say, 'Come on 1988. anyhow.'" Another son, Chuck Jackson, is a singer and Jackson also recalled how his mother would help songwriter. others who couldn't read or write fill out government Burns Jackson also listened to her son's radio paperwork. broadcasts from Chicago and never missed a TV One year when they were too poor to buy Christmas appearance, Jackson told the newspaper. gifts, he said, they came home from a pageant to "She took lots of joy in that," he said. "She always find six bags of groceries on the porch. They learned asked, 'Lord, what have I done to deserve this? What later the groceries came from an illiterate World War I have I done to deserve this?'" veteran whom Burns Jackson had once helped. www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/helenYears later, Burns Jackson watched her son rise to burns-jackson-mother-of-jesse-jackson-dies-at/article_ fame as an activist, primarily from her South Carolina b2901ade-5e47-52d9-ae9c-14d67e744ab2.html 83 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest-Obituary
James Mays Dies at 77; South L.A. Cardiologist and Community Activist By David Colker
P
rominent South Los Angeles cardiologist and community activist Dr. James Mays, who helped found several support organizations, wrote more than 20 books and created a masked superhero character to visit schools and give life lessons, died Aug. 21 at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 77. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), said his companion, Eliza Graham. The illness slowed his pace in recent years, but he kept on working. "He was still going into his office, seeing 25 patients a day, up until three weeks before he died when I drove him to the hospital," Graham said. Mays was formerly head of cardiology at Martin Luther King Jr./ Drew Medical Center. And at one point he had three area medical clinics where he held occasional free or low-cost health events. Probably his best known community program was Adopt-AFamily, founded in 1983, to provide financially struggling families with a team of support professionals. The team of successful African Americans — which included Mays, a dentist, a pharmacist, academic tutors, an accountant and a market owner — strove to get the adopted families off welfare and out of poverty. "This is not a welfare program," said Mays, a firm believer in free enterprise, at a news conference
announcing the program, according to the New York Times. Adopt-A-Family would focus its efforts on children, he said, "in hopes that it will get them started in the right direction so that they may become the future Jesse Jacksons and Ralph Bunches, and not find themselves pointing a gun at somebody in front of a restaurant." The first family chosen for the program was that of Essie and James McNeese, who lived in a three-bedroom house in South L.A. with their 10 children. They impressed Mays when they visited one of his clinics for treatment. "I saw a family with unity that even rich families didn't have — a family that laughed together and obviously cared for each very much." The family, which was featured on "Today" and other national television shows reporting about the program, was able to eventually move to a larger home and several of the children attended college, said Tammie McNeese, a daughter who was a teenager when the family was aided by Adopt-A-Family. In an interview last week, she said the help the family received was vital. But what she remembered most fondly was the accepting nature of successful people on the team, and especially Mays, who opened his oceanfront home in Palos Verdes to the McNeeses. "We would hang out there with his children in the pool, and it was just
like family," said McNeese, who works as a nurse. "He invited us in, and it was like going home." James Arthur Mays was born May 1, 1938, in Pine Bluff, Ark. The family was poor; in a 1984 Los Angeles Times interview he recalled he "would sometimes go home and there would be nothing to eat." He earned his medical degree in 1965 from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. In addition to his medical work, Mays wrote several novels and other books that he self-published, and he appeared many times on cable access shows and other outlets to bring attention to community events in South Los Angeles. In 1980, as head of the Los Angeles branch of Jesse Jackson's national People United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) organization, he invited representatives of the Jewish Defense League to a meeting to "mend our wounds" over comments Jackson had made regarding the
84 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We recognize the historical ties between blacks and Jews, the blood shed by young Jewish men and women in our civil right struggles,"
Mays told the Los Angeles Times. "We feel the Jews have demonstrated through the years that the Jews are our brothers." Mays also cofounded the Promenade of Prominence at Will Rogers County Park in South L.A. The outdoor w a l k w a y honors people who helped the area; the first inductee, in 1988, was then-county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. Another Mays project was a comic book starring an African American superhero named Radian who imparted anti-drug and other
messages to youngsters about real-world problems. "This is not a little Humpty Dumpty book," Mays said in a 1982 L.A. Times interview. He also sent young men dressed in Radian costumes — including masks, capes and boots with large Rs emblazoned on them — to local schools to promote the messages. Mays' nephew, Stephen Broughton, followed his uncle to the University of Arkansas and into the medical profession. In a university publication, Alumni Matters, in 2007, Broughton said, "My uncle James taught me that as physicians, we must do more than fulfill the service of medicine called for in the Hippocratic Oath. "Because we have higher profiles in society, we have a responsibility to be community leaders as well." In addition to Graham, Mays is survived by four sons, all of whom are named James.. http://touch.latimes. com/#section/-1/article/p2p84367401
85 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest-Obituary
William Grier, Dead at 89, Predicted Black Lives Matter with ‘Black Rage’ By Justin Wm. Moyer
T
he film (https://diva.sfsu. edu/collections/sfbatv/ bundles/209379) was shot
almost 50 years ago, but the fraught conversation about race and racism it captured could have been held on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., or Baltimore yesterday. On a late summer day in 1968, two black psychiatrists took a walk with a white reporter on a grimlooking block of San Francisco. As cameras rolled and bystanders waved, the men tried to explain why the racial unrest sweeping America — seen most tragically in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. months before — wasn’t just the result of political groups like the Black Panthers or teenagers behaving badly. “The decision-makers … operate sometimes from not a very sophisticated point of view if, for example, they feel that riots occur because there are too many youngsters on the block in August,” said William Grier — keeping pace with Price M. Cobbs, with whom he co-authored “Black Rage: Two Black Psychiatrists Reveal the Full Dimensions of the Inner Conflicts and the Desperation of Black Life in the United States.” “What we’ve tried to do … is give them a deeper understanding of why there is a racial crisis in this country. That is not a superficial issue. And that it is some 300 years in length.” Grier died last week at 84 in
hospice care in California after battling a brain lesion. But the legacy he and Cobbs built with “Black Rage” is perhaps more relevant than ever. “You can try to come up with another name, call it ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Gregory Grier, Grier’s eldest son, told the Associated Press. “Whatever you want to say, at the end of day, there is black rage. The relevance of what they were saying is really, really on point now.” Grier was born in 1926 in Birmingham, Ala. — the heart of the Jim Crow South. As Corrie Ort, his wife, told the AP, Grier’s father was fired from the post office for race-related reasons, so the family relocated to Detroit. Educated at Howard University and the University of Michigan, he ended up practicing psychiatry in San Francisco in the 1960s. There, after a divorce, he was running a children’s psychiatric clinic when he met Cobbs — one of just a few black psychiatrists in the city. “Bill had an edge,” Cobbs — more frequently in the media than Price — wrote in his memoir in 2006 (www. amazon.com/My-American-Life-RageEntitlement/dp/0743496221/ref=sr_1 _1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441871697&sr=81&keywords=My+American+Life%3 A+From+Rage+to+Entitlement). “He
was direct. He was a clearly the of a people
He didn’t suffer fools. man who understood psychological burden who had been pushed
to the outside, forced to stay there, and given very little room for moving from that exiled state of being.” The idea behind “Black Rage” was simple. As shown by phrases such as “the Negro problem,” African Americans were almost considered an undifferentiated mass at the time. Why not ask them about their struggles in the same way a psychiatrist would analyze a patient? “We began to talk about our patients, and we realized that anger was bubbling up,” Cobbs told NPR in 2006. “We then began to put together a systematic study of our patients, a systematic study of the literature, and incidentally, we talked about the anger within ourselves. And we were then able, through a very big study of the black experience at that time, to put our finger on, oh, this anger is going to erupt and erupt it did.” The results were not encouraging. “All blacks are angry,” Grier and Cobbs wrote. “White Americans seem not to recognize it. They seem to think that all the trouble is caused by only a few ‘extremists.’
86 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
William Grier They ought to know better. We have talked to many Negroes under the most intimate of circumstances and we know better.” By way of introduction, the doctors discussed the cases of African Americans “not in open rebellion against anyone,” including a painter and the daughter of a land-owning “Negro farm family.” Both, they found, struggled not just because of unique personal circumstance, but because of their race. “They are typical of black Americans,” they wrote, “held tight in a snare, coming more and more to realize that even their inner suffering is due largely to a hostile white majority and, with this realization, gaining a determination to change that hostile society.” “Black Rage” did not have a happy ending. “The tone of the preceding chapters has been mournful, painful, desolate, as we have described the psychological
consequences of white oppression of blacks,” Grier and Cobbs wrote. “The centuries of senseless cruelty and the permeation of the black man’s character, with the conviction of his own hatefulness and inferiority, tell a sorry tale. This dismal tone has been deliberate.” Published the year King was gunned down and parts of the nation rioted, “Black Rage” was a phenomenon. In 1969, ABC produced a show about the book. “There had been nothing like it before, and many of the reviews agreed,” Cobbs wrote in his memoir. “… We felt we had written with an authentic black voice that had authority and credibility. A great deal had been written about similar issues in the black experience. But little of it had the direct immediacy that fuels ‘Black Rage.’” Not everyone agreed. Writing in the New York Times, African American psychologist Kenneth Clark offered a takedown of the book, criticizing its “generalizations,” anonymous case histories and focus on sex. “The authors of ‘Black Rage’ have joined the present fashionable cult of literate black and white flagellants who now believe that America’s racial problem can be clarified and racial justice obtained through a sadomasochistic orgy of black rage and white guilt,” Clark wrote. In a stunning letter to the editor that reads more like a manifesto, Grier and Cobbs — dismayed that “after 62 highly favorable reviews, the 63rd and first critical comment came from a black brother” —
responded. “We wrote a book designed to involve the reader,” they wrote. “We deliberately did not footnote our book, knowing that no social revolution is brought about by footnotes. ‘Black Rage’ is an expression of advocacy psychiatry designed to stir the reader to change.’ Grier and Cobbs signed the letter “yours in the bondage of brotherhood.” The pair wrote another book — “The Jesus Bag,” (www.amazon. com/gp/product/0070247005?ie=UT F8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=007 0247005&linkCode=xm2&tag=thewa spos09-20) in 1971 — that took on
the role of Christianity in the black community. That book too was criticized for its methodology, and did not prove as popular. “As a black person, I respect Cobbs and Grier for embarking on what is, for the most part, an uncharted course,” Douglas Johnson wrote in The Washington Post. “However, we ought to be able to demand of them a more scientific indication of what they, as profession explorers of the mind, see as the outlines of human psychology that are especially black.” Still, from King to Ferguson and beyond, “Black Rage” — and rage about black rage — remains on front pages everyday. And what was once thought militant is now, and perhaps always has been, mainstream. “The militants don’t produce white hostility, they simply expose that which is already there,” Grier said in 1968. www.washingtonpost.com/news/ morning-mix/wp/2015/09/10/howpioneering-psychiatrist-williamgrier-dead-at-89-predicted-blacklives-matter-with-black-rage
87 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
African Stock Exchanges • Bolsa de Valores of Cape Verde - www.bvc.cv (in Portuguese) • Bond Exchange of South Africa - www.bondexchange. co.za • Botswana Stock Exchange www.bse.co.bw • Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres - UEMOA (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) - www.brvm.org • Casablanca Stock Exchange (Morocco) - www.casablancabourse.com/bourseweb/index. aspx • Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (Tanzania) - www. dse.co.tz • Douala Stock Exchange (Cameroon) - www.douala-stockexchange.com/index_us.php • The Egyptian Exchange - www.
• • •
•
•
• • •
egx.com.eg/English/homepage. aspx Ethiopia Commodity Exchange - www.ecx.com.et Ghana Stock Exchange - www. gse.com.gh Johannesburg Stock Exchange (South Africa) - www. jse.co.za/Home.aspx Khartoum Stock Exchange (Sudan, in Arabic) - www.kse. com.sd Libyan Stock Market - www. lsm.ly/_layouts/membership/ login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fEnglis h%2fPages%2fdefault.aspx Lusaka Stock Exchange (Zambia) - www.luse.co.zm Nairobi Stock Exchange (Kenya) - www.luse.co.zm Malawi Stock Exchange - www. mse.co.mw
• Mozambique Stock Exchange (in Portuguese) - www. bolsadevalores.co.mz • Namibian Stock Exchange www.nsx.com.na • Nigerian Stock Exchange www.nse.com.ng/Pages/default. aspx • Stock Exchange of Mauritius www.stockexchangeofmauritius. com • Swaziland Stock Exchange www.ssx.org.sz • Tunisia Stock Exchange - www. bvmt.com.tn • Uganda Securities Exchange www.use.or.ug Read the lastest issue of The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke/media-center/ecommunique/exchange-magazine/ category/50-free-version.html
90 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
American Dancers Teach Technique, Confidence in South Africa Lynsey Chutel, Associated Press
A
day before the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater begin the South African leg of their international tour, the company's dancers taught a master class in Johannesburg's historic Soweto township. The dance company last visited South Africa 17 years ago, soon after the end of apartheid. Several South Africans have won scholarships to the Ailey school in the United States, and young
dancers hope they will be noticed too. Ailey dancer Glenn Sims emphasizes the importance of strength as he leads a class of adults. Some frown as they count each move while others laugh off missteps, then quickly rejoin the line. Their arms reach further as their confidence grows. The modest room has no mirrors so the dancers watch their reflections in windows. At the end of the lesson, they quiz
Sims about life as a professional dancer. The story of Alvin Ailey, an African-American who launched a now globally recognized dance company more than 50 years ago, resonates in South Africa where black dancers are beginning to make their mark. "To have them come is reaffirming," said Mahlatse Kgoale, a wiry 28-year-old with striking hazel eyes, who believed all professional dancers were Russian before he discovered Ailey. "What does the music make you feel?" company dancer Vernard Gilmore asks a beginner class across the hall. The teenagers exchange nervous looks at the start of the high-energy class. By the end, they shriek with laughter as Gilmore shows off the local moves he's learned. Bran-Leigh Challens, 14, and her high school group drove more than two hours from a mining town in North West province to join the class. "It has given me the opportunity to know dance is my future," she said, adding that Ailey is one of her dance heroes. www.businessinsider.com/ap-americandancers-teach-technique-confidence-insouth-africa-2015-9
91 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
Download the Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce App from the
Apple App Store or
Google Play Store Search: "Zambia USA Chamber"
Find links to the chamber website and facebook page, and embassies; access business resources; receive breaking news; view relevant video presentations; communicate via Twitter, smartphone and e-mail.
www.zambiausachamber.org
92 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
What Makes a Business a 'Global Champion' By Elizaveta Naumov
of countries were travel/tourism, software/apps, and consumer goods.
Significant Differences Between Countries Though three out of four European countries translate their websites and have bilingual directors, more than half of North American companies did not translate or have bilingual directors, according to the study. Survey respondents indicated that they target primarily neighboring countries or countries on the same continent when expanding abroad.
Key Takeaways
O
nline businesses have three times more international sales than their brick-andmortar counterparts. Operating online also decreases the time to expand internationally and reduces the need for establishing local offices in each foreign market. The Global Champions Study ( w w w. t e x t m a s t e r. c o m / g l o b a l champions-white) was published by TextMaster based on responses from 724 businesses in a survey conducted between September and November 2014. The survey was distributed online on TextMaster.com, through partner associations in different countries, as well as the market research firm LightSpeed Research. The respondents included managers, directors, vice-presidents, and entrepreneurs from 15 countries and a variety of industries, including the e-commerce, travel, fashion, and marketing sectors.
The Importance of Internal Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Multiculturalism was an important
factor that contributed to a company's international success, according to the study. Companies with bilingual directors had twice as many sales as businesses with directors who only spoke one language. Additionally, companies with workforces made up of more than 10 nationalities had five times higher international business, and businesses with multilingual websites had five times more sales abroad.
Top Three Global Industries The industries that had the most amount of international sales as a portion of their total sales were consumer goods (38%), software/ apps (35%) and fashion/luxury/ textile (34.8%). Not surprisingly, these industries also conduct a majority of their business online. The industries that expanded the fastest abroad were travel/tourism (2 years), software/apps (2.3 years), and Web agency/communication/ PR (2.5 years). The industries that conducted business in the highest amount
As online commerce becomes more accessible and acceptable around the world, traditional brickand-mortar businesses need to look at how to take their operations (at least a part of it) online if they want to compete internationally. Companies that want to effectively address foreign markets also need to make their businesses multilingual to connect with global customers. Doing so presents a big opportunity for US companies that can outrun half of their competitors simply by translating their websites and introducing language learning among their staff. The Global Champions Study showed that language and online operations were the two factors that were leveling the playing field for companies of all types and sizes. By conducting a majority of their business online and localizing their Web content, even young, small businesses can become successful international companies. The full study can be downloaded on TextMaster.com. www.marketingprofs.com/ opinions/2015/28442/whatmakes-a-business-a-globalchampion?adref=nl091415
93 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
CAMEROON PILGRIMAGE 2015-2016 ROOTS AND RECONNECTION AND VALEURS D’AFRIQUE Organized by Dr. Lisa Aubrey, Arizona State University, USA / University of Yaounde I, Cameroon Alain Kenfack, Valeurs d'Afrique, CEO, Villages d'Afrique, Publisher DATES: Saturday, December 26, 2015 to Saturday, January 9, 2016 ESTIMATED COST: $5,000.00 (less if you buy your ticket early) WHAT DOES COST COVER? $5,000.00 covers international round trip air ticket with overnight stop in Paris, local transport in Cameroon, gift bags on arrival; lodging in Cameroon, food up to a daily maximum, water, local organizing fees, entrance fees to events including Pilgrimage to Bimbia, cultural activity fees, photographer's fees and production, group gifts to Cameroonian hosts (you may also supplement the gift if you choose). WHAT DOES COST NOT COVER? Does not cover passport, and visa to Cameroon, immuizations, personal travel not scheduled with the group, alcohol with meals or parties, non-group transport, shopping for personal gifts, personal phone calls, texts, and other communications costs, personal non-group activities. SOME MAJOR FEATURES OF THIS TRIP AND RELATED ACTIVITIES. • Stop in Paris for tour Pagnes and Boubou celebration and gala with the African diaspora in Paris to meet, greet, and reconnect https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pagnes-et-Boubous/300864786594474?fref=ts • New Year's celebration in Cameroon • Bana tribute to Ancestor and Panafricanist Annie Kadji who worked with me to organize stops in Bana on Diaspora pilgrimages • Pilgrimage to the Bimbia Slave Trade Site in Cameroon, which is the first to be located and recognized in the country, and which was declared a national historic and heritage site by the Cameroon government in May 2013. It is related to the almost 200 slave ships that I have located and traced to their disembarkations in the Diaspora, including the USA. We will engage in cultural, education and reconnection activitites in Yaounde, Dschang and Limbe. GENERAL GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS • All airline tickets are to bought indivually for designaed flight dates to Cameroon. Please informa when your ticket is purchased and send your itinerary to: rootsreconnection@gmail.com and contact@valeursdafrique. org • $3,000 (as part of the overall $5,000) Cameroon group travel fee to be sent in specified installments by specified dates for covering all inclusive costs (remember the $2,000 balance is an estimate for your international air ticket) • Non-refundable deposit of $15.00 to be paid as trip commitment fee by August 1, 2015. This will be applied to your group funds to defray group costs. • Humanitarian educational school supplies and scholarship project to be implemented as part of pilgramage. Your second suitcase should be filled with school supplies to be donated to the project. (in turn, this will clear your second suitcase for things you purchase in Cameroon). You may also make a scholarship donation if you choose. For reference visit: www.facebook.com/MelleMel and www. valeursdafrique.org. Volunteers in our travel group will be needed to assist with the project. For familiarization, please go to http:// exposingbimbia.blogspot.fr/p/related-diaspora-projects.html. • Passports should be secured as soon as possible at http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english.html. Each US citizen traveling to Cameroon must send in his/her documents to the Cameroon Embassy in Washington, DC by November 1, 2015 for a visa. • Immunizations, anti-malarials, and corresponding Yellow Card, should be secured by the appropriate medical professionals in time for travel You cannot enter Cameroon with a Yellow Card. • Medial form to be sent out must be filled in its entirety. This is mandatory.
94 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Please pay to: Lisa Aubrey, 1058 Steven Wiltz Road, St. Martinville, LA USA 70582; If your preference is to make a direct deposit into my Chase bank account, please let me know and we will make this possible.
DEADLINES • August 15, 2015---Deadline for payment of nonrefundble commitment fee of $150.00. • September 1, 2015---Deadline for purchase of airline ticket on designated flights/dates through the travel agent of your choice. • October 1, 2015---Deadline for payment of 1st installment of $1,000.00 • November 1, 2015---Deadline for payment of 2nd installment of $1,000.00. • December 1, 2015----Deadline for payment of 3rd installment of $850.00 for US travelers. Please pay by only money orders or certified checks or bank deposits, and keep receipts for your records.
OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES • There will be mandetory telemeetings to prepared for the pilgrimage. There will be approximately 3 group telemeetings between September 15, 2015 and December 1, 2015. Participation is a must and there will be email and Facebook correspondence • Cameroon is a Cash economy. You will not be able to make purchases in Cameroon with credit or debit cards. ATMS are rare and not always dependable. Bring cash! • The Cameeroon currency is called the CFA. For personal purchases, you will exchange currency for CFA in Cameroon (not in US or Europe). The larger the bill you exchange, the better the rate. Please do not bring one dollar bills. Please also try to bring newer bills and crisp bills. Most times older and tattered bills are not accepted. • Group in-country pilgrimate cost of $3,000.00 is based on double occupancy in moderate hotels and guesthouses. Single room occupancy is available, if requested, at a higher rate. this will cost more. lisa_aubrey@hotmail.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdU4PlgnTTI
www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-Worlds-Fair/543396465697684
www.laworldsfair.org 95 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
J
oin The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) on a trade mission to Nigeria, October 11-15, 2015. CCA will participate in the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s (NESG) 21st Summit, and discuss the economic policies of the Buhari Administration with its senior officials. Trade missions play an important role in the business development units of companies involved with international commerce or programs. With good preparation and follow-up, trade missions are great door openers that include private meetings with heads of governments and local business leaders; explore and assess opportunities in real-time; get hands on and up-to-date market information and research. CCA invites you to join the business delegation to Nigeria from October 11-15, 2015. For questions and more information, please contact Biova Kabine at bkabine@africacncl.org or call 202-2633506. MEET AND NETWORK with senior officials in the Buhari Administration that is reforming government policy and operations ATTEND the 21st Nigerian Economic Group Summit DISCUSS the new business environment with leading Nigerian business leaders EXPLORE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES in a more diversified economy: agribusiness, construction, energy, transportation, ICT and infrastructure sectors Pricing & Registration*: $5,000 for CCA Members (per person) $6,000 for Non-CCA Members (per person) (*Trade Mission registration includes registration fee for October 13-15 NESG Summit)
REGISTER: To register and view the trade mission agenda, travel information and country highlights, please visit our trade mission website: www.trade-missions.africacncl.org Deadline for registration and full payment: October 2, 2015. Fees are non-refundable after October 2. Registration fees do not cover airfare or hotel accommodations.
96 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Africa International Business Forum Atlanta Powered by: African Leadership Magazine
Wednesday November 11, 2015 at 9:00 AM WAT -toThursday November 12, 2015 at 4:00 PM WAT The Westin Atlanta Perimeter North 7 Concourse Parkway NW, Atlanta, GA 30328 As several leading African companies and their US counterparts register for the upcoming 3rd US - Africa International Business Forum, billed for 11 - 12 November 2015, at the Westin Perimeter North, Atlanta Georgia, we invite you to take advantage of the early bird opportunity and register TODAY! This forum shall offer unrivaled networking opportunities, buyer-seller meets, oneon-one session with US officials on export import financing opportunities between the US and Africa, exhibitions, presentations from leading US and African business leaders, senior African states and regional government officials and Governors on investment opportunities in their domains, and lots more. To participate at this business forum, please register today at: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ebgmdr1w4fdc0 83c&oseq=&c=20d48d30-cdcc-11e3-8eed-d4ae52806b34&ch=21e6e790-cdcc-11e38f00-d4ae52806b34. For more information on how to participate at this business forum as a panelist, speaker, exhibiting company or sponsor, please contact Simon on +234 902 990 3000 or simon@africanleadership.co.uk. we look forward toseeing you in Atlanta. The Team African Leadership Magazine info@africanleadership.co.uk +234 902 990 3000
97 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
Welcome to ADIFF!
W
elcome to the world of the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF). In our reality, people from diverse races, nationalities and backgrounds come together to enjoy important cinematic works of creativity, intellectual expansion, identity, and equality. In this world there are no boundaries around people because they are embraced in a universal understanding of humanity. This is the element of commonality that weaves through this annual event of images from Africa and the African Diaspora. Today more than at any other time there are more films by black directors, more films on the black experience, and more films with featured black actors enjoyed by all audiences. Notwithstanding, the international Black communities, whether in Europe, Latin America or Africa, continue to play a disproportionately marginal role in the art of cinema. Further, many creative and visionary films lay languid, collecting dust without the light of a screening owing to the lack of distribution outlets that showcase the films of our experience. The images of stereotypes, myths, and deprived cultural experiences continue to be drawn out while talented
people of color proceed to run up against the infamous “numbers” game with respect as to how many directors or films of color can an “already permeated” market absorb. ADIFF’s mission is to present these films to diverse audiences, redesign the Black cinema experience, and strengthen the role of African and African descent directors in contemporary world cinema. In response to this mission, ADIFF features the work of emerging and established filmmakers of color. Most important, ADIFF distinguishes itself through its presentation of outstanding works that shine a different or comprehensive light on African Diaspora life and culture –no matter what the filmmaker’s race or nationality. By placing the spotlight on innovative films that would otherwise be ignored by traditional venues, the Festival offers a unique platform for conveying African Diaspora artistic styles and craft in film. The ADIFF is a bridge between diverse communities looking for works that cannot be found in other festivals and talented and visionary filmmakers and works that are part of Africa and the African Diaspora. The ADIFF is paving the road in the new millennium
98 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
craft, style, and vision in a series of post-screenings conversations the ADIFF features. By marking the methods that underscore the art of cinema, the Festival demystifies the traditionally “elite and exclusive” aura of the filming process. These forums give rise to spontaneous and meaningful interaction between the featured artists and the audience. The ADIFF was created in November, 1993 by the husband and wife team of Reinaldo BarrosoSpech & Diarah N’Daw-Spech on the belief that education is power. He is an educator in foreign languages and Black Literature and she a financial consultant
and university budget manager. They are of the reality that film is the truest medium for creating a fertile ground for education. The future of our communities of color is directly tied to the expansion of our experiences, the depth and breadth of our reach and interaction with other communities and the framework from which our talent can stand front and center. Our vision is to see an informed and talented community coming together to exchange ideas and strategies for improving our respective worlds. Welcome to our future.
College of William and Mary found. Two-thirds of Tanzanians own a phone, but only four in 10 women are phone By Kizito and Makoye owners, according to government data. When 60 female small business sha Masoud used to queue owners were given free mobile for hours to make her monthly phones, their businesses improved, bank loan repayment in the bustling Kariakoo area of the study found. "It was much easier for them to Tanzania's largest city. obtain market information, such as Her life changed when she started banking with her fingers using Tigo real-time prices from neighbouring Pesa, a local application which markets on goods they were enables her to make payments from selling," Philip Roessler, the lead her bank account using her mobile researcher and director of William and Mary's Center for African phone. "I don't have to go to the bank," Development, told the Thomson said the 42-year-old who runs a Reuters Foundation. "Overall this improved their small kiosk selling foodstuffs like competitiveness as traders." rice and cooking oil. The women also used their "I even pay my suppliers by Tigo phones to get cheaper supplies, Pesa." Mobile phone ownership has has to stay in touch with customers, to a significant impact on Tanzanian send and receive payments and for women's businesses and lives, a mobile banking, the study found. "The results were striking," said recent study led by the United States'
researcher Bondy Matthew. Eight out of 10 African women do not have a bank account, according to the U.S.-based charity Women's World Banking, which uses mobile phone technology to increase women's access to financial services. East Africa has some of the continent's most innovative mobile phone applications, ranging from finding markets for farmers and tracking changing weather patterns, to giving mothers healthcare reminders. The William and Mary researchers worked with Kidogo Kidogo (www. kidogokidogo.com), (Little by Little in Swahili), a social enterprise which uses the proceeds from the sale of Tanzanian-designed smartphone cases to provide poor women with free handsets.
by breaking through boundaries that keep our communities from knowing their own stories as well as each others. Moreover, filmmakers, writers, actors, producers, and other Festival artists share valuable moments of insight describing their
Mobile Phones a Boon for Tanzanian Business Women
A
http://nyadiff.org
www.facebook.com/kwelitv#!/ African-Diaspora-Film-FestivalADFF-237052729573/timeline/
http://allafrica.com/ stories/201510061812.html
99 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
Returning to Africa?
African Repatriation is an invaluable online resource for any African national who is thinking about returning to Africa. Our industry articles and specialist editorials provide the latest sector information. Why not find out for yourself and become a part of our growing community today? www.africanrepatriation. com
Career Opportunities in Africa Search and apply online for the latest vacancies in Africa with African Talent. We provide candidates and employers with the tools and resources needed in today’s competitive job market. For employers, we offer numerous options to feature your jobs in Africa and for candidates, reviewing the most recent job vacancies in Africa is a fast, easy process. Uploading your CV is simple and takes just a few moments. www.africantalent.com
100 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Thursday Blues at Uncle Darrow‛s High Noon-2pm Every Thursday
Come by for lunch and relax to blues & jazz from our house band! 2560 S. Lincoln Blvd. Marina del Rey North East corner of Washington & Lincoln
“LA Times Magazine favorite cajun food”
310-306-4862
www.uncledarrows.com 101 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
konya
gi.co.t
z
International
One Africa:
J
Tell the US Government that North Africa is Africa Too!
oin with and support the United Africa Organization’s campaign to petition the U.S. Department of State to include the whole African continent under its Bureau of African Affairs.
Why? The State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, led by Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson, currently excludes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara from its agenda. Instead, the aforementioned countries are grouped with the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, together with Iran, Iraq, Israel and others. This artificial distinction between North Africa and the rest of Africa
negatively impacts US foreign policy relations throughout the entire continent of Africa. We unequivocally reject the argument that North African countries are outside the scope of African affairs. North Africa is geographically and historically part of the African continent, and all fifty-three (53) independent African states, including North African countries, are represented in the African Union (AU). It would be far more productive for the State Department to engage with the entire continent of Africa, including North Africa, under its Bureau of African Affairs. We are one Africa, from the Cape to Cairo, indivisible and bound together! Therefore, no square inch of African
land should be excluded from African affairs.
Sign The Petition!!! Go to www.change.org/petitions/ one-africa-tell-us-state-departmentthat-north-africa-is-part-of-africa and sign the online petition to support this important proposition. Next tell everyone you know to sign.
www.uniteafricans.org
Shopping Gallery
Cultural Interiors West &
Cordially Invited Cultural Interiors West 5573 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90019 Experience our exciting array of products from Cards to Cupcakes, African Masks, Asian Teacups, Healthy Herbal Teas, Gourd Purses, Candles, to Furniture
Artwear Handpainted Handbags, Skirts, Tees, Accessories, Calendars, Wall Hangings & More! http://gbabysworld.blogspot.com Gbabyartwear@hotmail.com or Gbabyart345@gmail.com Find Gbaby Products at the “Collective” http://www.atthecollective.com 280 Elizabeth Street, Atlanta, GA
Hope to see you soon!!! In the meantime visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/CulturalInteriors-West/140688362658236
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Locations: Downtown Culver City: 9537 Culver Blvd. 310-202-5453 City of Compton: 2600 E. Alondra Blvd. 310-638-7871 www.honeyskettle.com Open Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm Friday-Saturday 11am-11pm
108 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
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Baron's Painting & Decorating Service Baron Williams
30 Years of Experience in the Greater Los Angeles Area Specializing in Exterior and Interior Painting, Tiling, Linoleum Flooring, & Wall Paper
"I will paint any one story building or house for $2,500 satisfaction guaranteed."
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Krispy Kruchy Chicken is in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Los Angeles. Krispy Krunchy Chicken is a cajun-style chicken (bone-in and tenders), served fresh, never frozen and fried in zero trans fat oil. Their menu also includes signature dishes of Traditional Wings; Krispy Wings; Cajun Sweet & Sour Wings; Cajun Tenders; Red Beans and Rice; Jambalaya; Boudin Bites (Cajun rice balls); Krispy Shrimp and Honey Butter Biscuits. For additional information, please call Krispy Kruchy at 1-323-293-3332 or visit www. krispykrunchy.com. 110 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
111 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Find us at: https://nubianskin.com and 15 Nordstrom stores in the USA
Empowering Women. Embracing our Colour.
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Open 7 days a week • 11am - 11pm
Parker House Sausage (www.parkerhousesausage.
com) was started by Chicago entrepreneur, Judge H. Parker who came to Chicago from Montgomery County, Tennessee with little more than the conviction that there was a potential market for homemade sausage products prepared according to his mother’s recipes. By 1919 Judge Parker began selling his unique blend of herbs and spices mixed with flavorful, savory sausage from a horse drawn cart on a retail basis. Recognized as one of the oldest family owned businesses in the U.S. In 2014 Parker House expanded its product line to include chicken products including breakfast sausage, hot links, and smoked sausage.
ZIMBABWE GALLERY 1-484-459-6625 zimbabwegallery@yahoo.com www.shonasculpture.com @ZimbabweGallery www.facebook.com/Zimbabwe Gallery
PHIPPS PLAZA 3500 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, GA 30326
GREENBRIAR MALL 2841 Greenbriar Pkwy SW, Atlanta, GA 30331
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We invite you to browse through our store and shop with confidence. Need a dinner idea. Go to the Recipe Page on our website. Thanks for visiting!
The Economic Turn Around in the USA is in Our Hands •Buy Products Made or Assembled in the USA •Hire One New Employee •Eat an Extra Meal Out Each Week •Start/Grow a Business to Generate Wealth & Jobs
Buy Black Save Black Invest Black 117 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Eso Won Books African American Books 4327 Degnan Boulevard Leimert Park, Los Angeles
Give the Gift of Books and Music G Come see our unsurpassed collection of books, music, videos, children’s books, and games!
1-323-294-0324
www.esowonbookstore.com //esowon.booksense.com for Calendar of Events
120 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
New Location Leimert Park Village 3347 W. 43rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90008 1-323-299-6383 www.zambezibazaar.com shop@ zambezibazaar.com
121 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Books to Consider
Books to Consider... Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What it Means to be Black Now by Touré
I
am just old enough to remember when having someone call you black, rather than Negro, was considered a serious slur. Still, when it did occur, my parents taught me, even then, to say “thank you” in response. This turned out to be a highly effective way to disarm the insult and the insulter. In this way, I learned the power of not letting others decide how I would be defined. I did not need James Brown to tell me to be black and proud. Decades later, Americans are still struggling with racial definitions. Is the president black or biracial? Are we Latino or Hispanic? Is the n-word an insult or an affectionate term? What does it mean to be authentically black? And does any of that matter anymore? Didn’t the 2008 election signal that the country that elected its first black president is now post-racial? The readable and entertaining book by pop-culture journalist Touré managed to expand my notion of
Touré what it means to be black in America, and why it matters. With liberal doses of personal experience, Touré demolishes the notion that there is only one way to be racially authentic. He is, after all, a black man who went to prep school, jumps out of planes, interviews rock stars, raises biracial children and pretty much sets out to explode a new black-male stereotype every day. He is well aware of what it means to see someone cross the street as he approaches after sunset, but he resists editors at music magazines who believe he is equipped only to write about rap. “Why’s Blackness validated by a trip to jail,” he writes, “and challenged by a stint at Yale?” Touré very specifically rejects the notion that America is now post-racial. Instead he makes an argument for what he calls post-blackness. America is not (and should not necessarily be) past race, he writes. But black people need to expand their notion of what it means to be black to include a new generation that embraces the “racial ambidexterity” defined by entertainers like Dave Chappelle and politicians like President Obama. “To me it seemed in my generation racial matters were going to be far more nuanced and slippery than they’d been for my parents,” he writes. “For me racism was not always a matter of clearly defined lambs and wolves, but was more of a double-sided gun.” Relying on more than 100 interviews with authors, artists, journalists and academics, Touréis funny, hip and current — imagining at one point what would happen to an angry black man who banged his wingtip shoe on an Oval Office desk. Wonder whom he means? The book covers an important new front in America’s continuing battles over black and white. It turns out there are dozens of shades of gray. That gray is rooted in misunderstanding, misapprehension and misrecognition, too. Toure's work provides unique challenges, but does not seem particularly convinced
124 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
in the end that Americans are prepared to tackle these redefinitions. I can’t say I am, either. But at least now I know what my parents were up to when they told me to thank the insulters. Getting to define oneself can be the ultimate victory. But to fully appreciate that win, we first have to acknowledge the limitations we have placed on ourselves. Gwen Ifill (edited review) www.amazon.com/Whos-Afraid-Post-BlacknessMeans-Black/dp/1439177562
The Presidency in Black and White by April Ryan
I
n The Presidency in Black and White, journalist April Ryan gives readers a compelling and personal behind-the-scenes look at race relations in contemporary America from the epicenter of American power and policy making—the White House, her beat since 1997. On behalf of the American Urban Radio Networks, and through her "Fabric of America" news blog, she delivers her readership and listeners (millions of African Americans and close to 300 radio affiliates) a “unique urban and minority perspective in news.” Her position as a White House Correspondent has afforded her unique insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and attendant political struggles of our nation’s last three presidents. In Bill Clinton, Ryan saw both a savvy politician who did his best to stay above the racial fray in public, and a man privately pained from the wrongs done to AfricanA m e r i c a n s throughout our history, not unlike those with whom he’d grown up in Arkansas. In George W. Bush, a man she respected as a faithful
husband and father, an unprecedented amount of backlash against what was spun and perceived as racism in his policies – particularly those surrounding his administration’s horrendous handling of Hurricane Katrina – from which he never truly recovered, and by which he remained personally haunted for years. And in Barack Obama – a President expected to transcend divisions and raise us above our racial squabbling simply by taking office – a leader who, especially early in his administration, drew his own form of fire from those who noted his surprising absence from various racial issues that presented themselves on the national stage, but upon which he did not seem moved to comment, much less act. With humor, grace, and determination, April shares the highs and lows of her sometimes lonely but rewarding battle to keep questions of race relations in America on the political front burner, and in the President’s ear. She has made this battle her life’s work and will never stop fighting to give a voice to those members of our society who have too long been silenced. www.amazon.com/The-Presidency-Black-WhitePresidents/dp/1442238410
Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide by Joy-Ann Reed
P
resident Barack Obama's speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches should have represented the culmination of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial unity. Yet, in Fracture, MSNBC national correspondent Joy-Ann Reid shows that, despite the progress we have made, we are still a nation divided—as seen recently in headlinemaking tragedies such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and the uprisings in Ferguson and Baltimore. With President
125 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
O b a m a ' s election, Americans expected an open dialogue about race but instead discovered the irony of an African American president who seemed hamstrung w h e n addressing racial matters, leaving many of his supporters disillusioned and his political e n e m i e s sharpening their knives. To understand why that is so, Reid examines the complicated relationship between Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton, and how their varied approaches to the race issue parallel the challenges facing the Democratic party itself: the disparate parts of its base and the whirl of shifting allegiances among its power players—and how this shapes the party and its hopes of retaining the White House. Fracture traces the party's makeup and character regarding race from the civil rights days to the Obama presidency. Filled with key political players such as Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Al Sharpton, it provides historical context while addressing questions arising as we head into the next national election: Will Hillary Clinton's campaign represent an embrace of Obama's legacy or a repudiation of it? How is Hillary Clinton's stand on race both similar to and different from Obama's, or from her husband's? How do minorities view Mrs. Clinton, and will they line up in huge numbers to support her—and what will happen if they don't? Veteran reporter Joy-Ann Reid investigates these questions and more, offering breaking news, fresh insight, and experienced insider analysis, mixed with fascinating behind-the-scenes drama, to illuminate three of the most important figures in modern political history, and how race can affect the crucial 2016 election and the future of America itself.
A.S.A.P. – The Book by Deric Muhammad
D
eric Muhammad’s very first self-published book is a compilation of soul-stirring opinion editorials that cover a number of issues plaguing the Black community. In A.S.A.P. – A Street Activist’s Perspective he addresses social, political, cultural, spiritual and economic issues in a way that is reflective of his position as a street activist. This is a must-read for all of Black America. Black people in America have many issues. This book focuses on some of the most critical of our time. While it is meant to create meaningful dialogue, my real motive is to create in us a sense of NOW in addressing these issues. In so many ways we have become ‘jaded’ toward our own suffering. We make mockery of our own destructive behavior. Through television shows like ‘Love & Hip Hop’, as well as ‘Scandal’, we promote that which demotes the dignity of our community. This book is small in size; but so is a match. The size of a fire is never limited to the size of the match that lights the fire. In cities all across America and beyond we must come together as a people and create a ‘let’s get it done’ mentality when it comes to addressing our issues, mapping out a strategy to solve our problems and executing a plan with perfect precision. Let’s quicken the pace toward freedom by adopting the A.S.A.P. mentality. Let’s go! (Excerpt from Chapter 1). http://dericmuhammad. com/a-s-a-p-the-book/
www.amazon.com/Promises-Power-A-Political-Autobiography/ dp/0671216023
126 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Black Rage: Two Black Psychiatrists Reveal the Full Dimensions of the Inner Conflicts and the Desperation of Black Life in the United States by William H. Grier, Price M. Cobbs
T
he first book to examine the full range of black life from the vantage point of psychiatry, this widely acclaimed work has established itself as the classic statement of the desperation, conflicts, and anger of black life in America today. Black Rage tells of the insidious effects of the heritage of slavery; describes love, marriage, and the family; addresses the sexual myths and fears of blacks and whites; chronicles how the schools fail the black child; examines xamines mental illness among black people and the psychic stresses engendered by discrimination; and, finally, focuses on the miasma of racial hatred that envelops this country, why it exists, and what will surely happen if it is not soon dispelled. www.amazon.com/Black-Rage-PsychiatristsDimensions-Desperation/dp/0465007015
Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood
Thurgood Marshall brought down the separatebut-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this stunning new biography, award-winning author Wil Haygood details the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past one hundred years. Using the framework of the dramatic, contentious fiveday Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first AfricanAmerican Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative and moving look at Marshall’s life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped—or desperately tried to stop—the civil rights movement of the twentieth century: President Lyndon Johnson; Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., whose scandals almost cost Marshall the Supreme Court judgeship; Harry and Harriette Moore, the Florida NAACP workers killed by the KKK; Justice J. Waties Waring, a racist lawyer from South Carolina, who, after being appointed to the federal court, became such a champion of civil rights that he was forced to flee the South; John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy; Senator Strom Thurmond, the renowned racist from South Carolina, who had a secret black mistress and child; North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, who tried to use his Constitutional expertise to block Marshall’s appointment; Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who stated that segregation was “the law of nature, the law of God”; Arkansas Senator John McClellan, who, as a boy, after Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, wrote a prize-winning school essay proclaiming that Roosevelt had destroyed the integrity of the presidency; and so many others. This galvanizing book makes clear that it is impossible to overestimate Thurgood Marshall’s lasting influence on the racial politics of our nation. www.amazon.com/Showdown-Thurgood-MarshallSupreme-Nomination/dp/0307957195
127 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Calendar
networking sessions with financial institution representatives and tech-
February 2016
September
26th
12th-17th Trade Winds Africa Conference Set for Johannesburg, South Africa is a two-tier event. Particpants may elect the conference only option or the conference plus trade stops option. The Trade Stops offered in conjunction with the conference are: Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and extended time in South Africa. For detailed particiation information go to www.trade.gov/DBIA/ tradewinds-africa/index.asp.
29th 2015 Africa Showcase South Africa Airways hosts exhibits in 4 US cities - Los Angeles, 9/30, Dallas, 10/1, Boston, 10/5, Toronto, 10/7. For details go to www.onshowsolutions.co.za.
October 15th 12th Annual Procurement Exchange Summit Taking place at the LA Hotel Downtown, the Summit offers opportunities for matchmaking, learning through workshops and attending the awards luncheon. One-On-One
porate Council on Africa website at www.summit.africacncl.org or #AfricaBizSummit.
nical service providers will provide attendees with financial services information that will help them secure a business loan. For particiation information visit www.bbala.org.
November 2nd-5th
BBA Annual Awards Dinner Taking place at the LA Hotel Downtown, the awards dinner will highlight the achievements of African American entrepreneurs and the government agencies and corporate entities that provide positive supports for African American businesses. For particiation information visit www.bbala.org.
March 26th BBA Salute to Black Women Taking place at the LA Hotel Down-
US-Africa Business Summit 2015 More than 1,000 private sector and
government representatives from Africa, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East will convene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the common goal of networking and expanding their knowledge on investment opportunities. For particiation information visit The Cor-
town, the business conference, vendor faire and awards luncheon will be presented using the theme "Working to Form a More Perfect Union." For particiation information visit www.bbala.org. ď ƒ
Resources Media/Information Africa Interactive Multimedia Press/Content Agency in Africa www.africa-interactive.com Africa World Press Books www.africaworldpressbooks.com African Trade Magazine www.africantrademagazine.com African Vibes Magazine www.africanvibes.com The Africapitalist www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/ africapitalisminstitute/africapitalist-magazine The African World www.theafricanworld.tv Africast TV www.africast.tv Afritorial www.afritorial.com www.facebook.com/Afritorial AllAfrica http://allafrica.com Black Wall Street Times http://bwstimes.com Black Business News Group www.blackbusinessnews.net BlackPast.org www.blackpost.org Black Press USA www.blackpressusa.com BridesNoir www.bridesnoir.com The Chocolate Voice www.thechocolatevoice.com CuisineNoir www.cuisinenoirmag.com DiasporaVoice www.blogtalkradio.com/diasporavoice Publish Africa http://wow.gm/publishafrica Rock Me Africa //rockmeafrica.com YouTube Educational Channels http://teacherswithapps.com/197-educational-youtube-channels-know
Organizations
http://africaleadership.org The African Union www.au.int/en Black Business Association www.bbala.org CauseCast www.causecast.com www.causecastfornonprofits.com Pan African Film Festival www.paff.org United African Organization http://uniteafricans.org Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce www.zambiausachamber.org
Investment/Development Africa Reports www.africareports.com African Development Bank www.afdb.org African Export-Import Bank //afreximbank.com/afrexim/en AfrigadgetTV www.afrigadget.com Disrupt Africa http://disrupt-africa.com/ The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke Silicon Harlem http://event.siliconharlem.net Ventures www.ventures-africa.com
U.S. Government Commerce Department www.doc.gov International Trade Administration http://trade.gov Minority Business Development Agency www.mbda.gov Power Africa www.usaid.gov/powerafrica Small Business Administration www.sba.gov State Department www.dos.gov Trade Africa www.usaid.gov/ tradeafrica White House www.whitehouse.gov
Africa Leadership Forum 130 September 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819