Empowering Black Entrepreneurs

All right, we're back. From securing critical funding to expanding into African markets, there are a number of obstacles facing black entrepreneurs. However, there are keys to unlocking the tools to success. And here with me now for more is Reverend Dennis Dillon, who is the publisher and CEO of the New York Christian Times and the lead pastor of Rise Church Global. Good to see you again, sir. It is always good to see you, Antoine. Welcome back. Praise God for your strength. I'm doing it. I'm trying. Amen, amen, amen. Reverend Dillon, just talk about some of these obstacles that actually face funding for black entrepreneurs. What are some of the things? The biggest obstacle for us is really access. I think we continue to struggle to have access at the level that other communities have access. Again, I think the three key areas in terms of access would be, number one, access to capital. That's a huge problem. It continues to be a problem in our community. The second is access. To government corporate contracts, when you look at MWBEs, as much as we're advocating and talking about this area for all these years, you look at the numbers for blacks, even as it relates to the city of New York, where we represent such a significant percentage of the vote, the reality is that we're not even getting. to doing business with the city of New York at any significant level. And the third is access to markets. I think if we can fix these three areas, we're going to see a tremendous rise in growth as it relates to black businesses and certainly black economic empowerment across the globe. So let's start at the city level. We know that this current administration has only been in office since January. This has been something on your radar for a number of administrations. Every time someone creates an office to do this and trying to get the capital there. The problem is it's... Here's what I think one of the biggest problem is. One of the biggest problem is, and how we fix it, I really don't know. I think we have a tendency to be... politically correct. And in the process of being politically correct, we're looking at, let's say, let's provide opportunities for minority women-owned businesses. At the end of the day, all the other minorities, so-called minorities, jump ahead of the black community. So where we are, we become then the disparity in the disparity. Tell me about the efforts that you, the church, and your community partners are trying to do to address the situation. Yeah, I think when we look at the resurgence initiative and And again, I want to salute the mayors who have really helped to really get this resurgence initiative going. We started this back in 2021 as a revival to the Black Church Means Business Conference initiative that go back to the Jacob Javis Convention Center back in 1994. What we've been doing is really bringing together, again, all of these key institutions and stakeholders that can really make a difference in facilitating Black economic growth and Black economic empowerment. Black. Blacks are still struggling at the very bottom of this economic barrel, if you will. We're bringing the corporations together, the banks together. We're bringing government agencies together. And we're saying, let's begin to open more doors, more opportunities. Let's do more financial literacy, more economic education. Let's create more strategies. Let's begin to provide the information that is needed that will really help to thrust these struggling communities forward. So, number one, we have to increase home ownership within black and brown communities. Number two, we have to increase business ownership. And thirdly, we definitely have to look at how do we increase wealth ownership in all the other financial wealth growth products that are available. There's a scripture, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. A big part of the problem is that particularly in our communities, we just don't know where the money is. We don't really know how to access it. And most times when we do know, there are enough... We have gatekeepers that are blocking us from getting to those resources. So we have to break all those barriers down. Number one, we've got to provide more information. Number two, we have to get more people in those places where they can open up doors and provide greater access. And then obviously we're going to have to get to those monies that sit in there. I mean, at every level, it's just amazing the amount of resources that are there. Prosper Africa, as an example, so many resources. underutilized. I want to ask you about the Resurgence Conference. You have a conference coming up. Tell me about that. Well, we're excited about the Resurgence Conference. We're in Harlem at Columbia University. Thanks to them for their participation and sponsorship over the years, the Columbia Business School and the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce and the West Harlem Development Corporation and all of the partners that we're working with. The 18th of November, we want to invite everybody to come. And excitingly enough, we're just coming from We just had an awesome conference there. And again, when we understand that in Africa, 30% of the world's mineral resources are sitting in Africa. 90% of platinum is in Africa. 65% of the world's uncultivated arable land. is in Africa. 60% of the world diamond based on value is in Africa. This is the time that Africans in America really need to run to Africa and say, wow, let's create the kind of partnership that's going to fuel the kind of economic growth that will elevate black folks to the next level. And I really believe that we're on the verge of a global African economic renaissance. And I believe it starts by inculcating a spiritual foundation as we journey back to God. I think we set the stage to how we grow to become economically empowered because we got to take our faith beyond the pulpit and beyond the pews and beyond the choir loft. We got to move Move to the pavement and we got to begin to look at how we transform and empower our people. and not having all this resource and then we're the laughing stock of the rest of the world because we're not effectively utilizing all that God has endowed us with. Reverend Dillon, come back and see us again. Listen, man, always a pleasure to see you. Stay right there. All right, everybody, up next, the hosts of Practical Wisdom are going to be here. They're going to be sharing real-world tools for mental toughness as they explain and share with you on their podcast. We're going to be meeting them when we return.