Two things can be true at once: marginalized communities suffer the detriment of digital and economic inequity; and Black businesses have thrived post-pandemic using the benefits of digital integration to strengthen and drive the Black ecosystem.
Coupled with the pressures to achieve economic development and combat capital discrimination, Black business owners have shown resilience, accounting for $217.3 billion in sales this year alone, according to the U.S Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy.
Digital inequities disproportionately plague African Americans, with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reporting roughly half of Black workers in 2020 had the proficient digital skills necessary in a tech-driven economy, compared with 77% of white workers). Despite the digital divide, Black businesses continue to thrive and grow, with entrepreneurs using technology to strengthen their businesses and empower Black communities overall.
“When you look at the power of being intentional in designing meaningful access to the internet, [it] can have a really beneficial impact on our communities,” said Angela Bennett, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) digital equity director. “[Entrepreneurs] utilize technology to help people sign up for grants and programs, research, to basically build their business and use the internet to market their business. Access to the internet is now access to their healthcare, their services. It has so many different impacts.”
Among other strategic developments, incorporating technology into business operations has allowed Black-owned companies to remain competitive in an evolving industry and increase revenue and consumer relationships beyond the average brick-and-mortar. According to a 2022 survey from the Connected Commerce Council: 85% of Black-owned firms see digital tools as a major aspect of their operations; 83% noticed a “noticeable impact” when using digital methods to scale their organization; and 80% consider digital tools crucial in driving revenue.
To ensure opportunities for continued innovation and economic growth, NTIA focuses on expanding broadband internet access and adoption nationwide. As the executive branch organization primarily responsible for advising the president on telecommunications and information policy matters, NTIA has launched initiatives like the Digital Equity Act programs in place to support a progressive future that benefits all communities.
“We really do approach our work from a public health lens. When you look at the domains within the social determinants of health, you look at healthcare, education, economic, neighborhood and built environment, as well as social cohesion. Looking at those five domains, we really see access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet is that super social determinant of health having an impact on each of those core areas,” Bennett told The Informer.
In addition to prioritizing representation and minority inclusion, the Digital Equity Act programs work to identify and eliminate the impact of interdependencies in the ecosystem that often exacerbate barriers for overlooked groups, such as incarcerated, elderly, or low-income individuals, amongst others.
Bennett emphasized the importance of promoting avenues for economic and communal prosperity within these intersections, citing digital exclusion elimination, connectivity and “meaningful” internet use as focal points driving the mission.
“Being able to access online training, remote opportunities to distance learning based upon that training, [individuals] are able to obtain a higher paying job, which increases their economic mobility, [and] there’s a correlation between income and access to health care, right? So you start to see those different correlations,” she explained. “In communities [where] individuals have to move away for economic opportunities, having the internet not only enables them to stay in their community, but it also enables them to remain connected and have the support and access to the social capital that they need to help themselves and their families thrive.”
Black Business Owners Using Technology to Drive the Black Ecosystem
Aside from defying the status quo, Black business owners use technology to propel the ecosystem in various avenues like generational wealth, environmental justice, food security, and more.
Financial technology companies like digitally native neobank Kinly build generational wealth for the African American community, while other businesses like Re-Nuble – a climate tech company that transforms unrecoverable vegetative waste into sustainable products – make use of industrial resources to create jobs and eliminate waste stream and air pollution in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods.
Both innovators solidify the advantage of transgenerational designs and diverse leadership on underserved communities.
“Right now, there are fewer Black homeowners in America than there were in the ’70s; there are fewer homeowners now than when Black people were in the Civil Rights Movement. Fintech gives us the ability — through lending, through credit, through financial education — to go and serve those customers that honestly banks have left on the side,” said Donald Hawkins, CEO of Kinly, when he appeared as a session panelist at the 2022 C3KC Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Since its launch in 2020, Kinly, which was acquired last year by Greenwood (a digital banking platform for Black and Latino individuals and businesses), has raised $20 million in funding to “improve the financial outcomes of Black America and allies through financial education, saving and wealth building,” according to a May 2023 press release. The joint integration of the two largest Black-centered digital finance companies underscores the value of collaboration in building wealth and uplifting the voices of excluded groups.
“We can see inflation increasing with revenue and salaries not increasing, so there’s a lot of very painful moments that we have ahead of us if we don’t act now,” Hawkins said. “Fintech is Revolutionizing Banking” session. “We’re already late, but we’ve got to do something.”
Similarly, Re-Nuble’s connection to digital integration stems from a localized approach meant to serve a national impact. Alongside effective sustainable growth practices, the social enterprise advocates for communities of color by creating equitable opportunities for workforce development through online training and recruitment devices that reduce redundancy and bias in job selection.
“When there’s diverse leadership, it takes into consideration, what are the behaviors, the concerns and the challenges which continue to evolve beyond oneself? It’s being able to take those really contextualized points and make it part of the business, so that you can provide products and services that address those beyond a certain demographic,” said Tinia Pina, founder and CEO of Re-Nuble. “You can also create opportunities that are driven by those very diverse concerns and employed by diverse people. I joke and say that our team looks like the [United Nations], and it’s only helped us.”
While Pina also said these resources play an important role in exposure and awareness, she urges communities to recognize that climate mitigation and an equitable ecosystem can not be achieved with digital solutions alone. She advocates for remote and tangible efforts that could suppress environmental injustices and offer marginalized communities a just future despite systemic challenges and inequities.
“When I think of what happened in the most recent hurricane, some of these manufacturers really could have prevented some of the deaths by ensuring that they had contingency plans, and that’s not going to be solved by software,” Pina told The Informer. “That’s going to be solved by people being aware of the situation, diverse mindsets, and having as many concerns voiced, because everyone’s going to struggle with it differently. Just being inclusive of how everything impacts everyone from the bottom up – it’s certainly a two-fold, two-pronged solution.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship Lab. The Lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.