Black Capitalism Approach to Local Economic Development
There is an old saying that comes to mind when one considers the solution to ghetto problems as lying in assistance to the local business community: "if your only tool's a hammer, all your solutions look like nails".
Certainly some people could benefit from assistance in business start-ups or education and trainingto better prepare them for a successful career in small business, but the solution usually is accompanied with the belief that the market economy is a self-correcting even playing field for those who choose to participate, and that all that is needed is the work with the business itself. Often it is much more complex. The concept of separatism or that of community development is sometimes mixed with the idea of support to the business community in order to deal with larger holistic structural problem of a ghetto.
In the United States, black capitalism has met with mixed reviews. some hold that the only way any semblance of black capitalism succeeds in ghetto communities is through massive outside subsidies and aid, more or less in perpetuity. Some have compared the ghetto to other former colonies today, noting that a long history of abuse has inhibited the gradual development of infrastructure. Cases now going before the courts in the States for "back pay" for the centuries of slavery are related to this viewpoint, claiming that is not sufficient to set people free without addressing the damage done to another's advantage. Whether financial compensation can ever correct the real damage is a question many ask, as grants available now don't seem to work.
Links related to the "black capitalism" approach are below.
Links To Further Resources
navigation