When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched for economic opportunity 60 years ago, the situation in Black communities was dire. Many lacked basic infrastructure such as bank branches, properly resourced schools, and local grocery stores. We know because these were our communities in Denver, CO, and Piedmont, WV. Today, our country continues to stymie the full potential of Black Americans and other underrepresented communities at a greater scale as they continue to be denied equitable access to the tools of economic mobility. This has contributed to a racial wealth gap that has widened by nearly 2% over the last 30 years.
These disparities have limited our communities’ abilities to grow and thrive. Our communities do not suffer from a lack of drive, intelligence or commitment–they were let down by a system that at best ignored them and at worst abused them through practices like redlining and the slow-rolling of school integration. As a result, these communities lost out on economic upward mobility, businesses missed out on their valuable perspectives, and America squandered their potential.
Today, we see this continues to occur across the U.S. workforce, where large companies continue to be far less diverse than the consumers they serve. As the non-white share of the U.S. population rises, McKinsey argues that more representative companies will be able to attract more diverse consumers with products Black and Hispanic consumers want. A Boston Consulting Group survey found that companies with above-average diversity on their management teams had a higher share of revenue generated from new or enhanced products and services, as they are better able to connect with these growing communities.
The truth is that equal opportunity and access are good for business, growth, and the economic well-being of our nation. According to Deloitte, organizations with diverse workforces are six times as likely to be innovative and agile, eight times as likely to achieve better business results, twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets, and can spot and reduce risks by up to 30%.
These increases in productivity and efficiency have been confirmed again and again. A Gartner report showed that diverse organizations have better employee performance and retention than nondiverse ones, leading to a cycle of revenue growth and product innovation.
We know that a rising tide lifts all boats, benefiting customers, workforces, and business owners. Closing the racial wealth gap between white and Black Americans, which currently stands at 13 to one, would increase U.S. GDP by 5%, or nearly $1.2 trillion.
Dr. King once asked, “What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”
We need to support critical infrastructure programs–like promoting broadband access and efforts to infuse capital into communities that are too often left out and left behind. Over 82% of our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) reside in broadband deserts, cutting off these bastions of diverse talent and their surrounding communities from the enabling tools of economic growth in our increasingly digital economy. Similarly, 57% of Black business owners reported challenges in obtaining needed capital compared to 24% of white business owners, stunting the growth of their businesses.
We must develop conduits for diverse leadership so that businesses can identify and support individuals from every community on every rung of the professional ladder–from interns beginning their careers to executives who can provide new leadership. This includes ensuring the pension investments of Black workers are managed by investors who look like them, which will generate greater investment in minority communities.
Above all, we must recognize and embrace the reality that diversity and opportunity are neither deterrents to growth nor burdens–they are our greatest strengths and drivers of success. From Congress to corporate boardrooms, we need to accept that our country will never achieve its potential until we unleash the potential of all our communities. If other nations were to actualize their citizens through access to broadband, capital, and other tools, they would outstrip the U.S.’s capacity for growth, particularly as American companies struggle with growing labor shortages.
This is not about giving one community a handout or a leg up. It is not a call for charity or altruism. It is simply a recognition that the moral and economic needs of our country are aligned and that by striving for equity–not preference or partiality, but parity–we can improve outcomes across the board.
The late civil rights attorney, businessman, and former president of the National Urban League Vernon Jordan once said, “Black people today, for all our righteous anger and forceful dissent, still believe in the American Dream. This nation too often forgets that this land is sprinkled with our sweat, watered with our tears, and fertilized with our blood… And so it is Black people who… can help this nation to overcome its crisis of spirit and enter a new era of hope and fulfillment.” And from this new era will rise an abundance of prosperity that drives our economy and our country forward.
Robert F. Smith is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
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