Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 22, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 7 vs. 21 for all county firms. e average payroll of a black-owned firms in Worcester County is $428,648 vs. $1.02 million for all county firms. Tangible harm e disproportionately low number of black-owned businesses in Central Massachusetts and their relatively small size has a direct impact on the black community in the region. Among the reasons: Black-owned businesses are more likely to hire minority employees; the revenue from those businesses is dispersed into black communities; and business owners and executives are seen as community leaders who can speak up on societal issues, like police brutality and institutional racism. A study from the University of Wisconsin published in 2001 – the most recent study available on the matter – found black workers have been proven to have hiring advantages when there are more black business owners. Looking specifically in Boston, the study found a black-owned business was more than five times more likely to hire a black candidate than a white one. e simple reason, the study found, is those businesses attract and hire more black applicants. Greater rates of business ownership among the black community in Central Massachusetts would help greatly with financial wellbeing and career opportunities, said Stacey Luster, a black professional and Worcester State University's assistant vice president for human resources, payroll, and affirmative action and equal opportunity. "at's a tremendous asset that we don't have," Luster said. Among the reasons for the low rate of black business ownership in Worcester County is difficulty in finding the financing and capital necessary to start and fund a business, said both Randolph and Milka Njoroge, the CEO of Worcester home healthcare agency Century Homecare. Njoroge runs the largest black-owned company in Central Massachusetts, with Century Homecare's 180 employees. She said when she went to get PPP financing to help her business through the coronavirus pandemic, she had to shop around for different banks as the one she normally used wouldn't provide a loan. With so few black business leaders, Worcester County is le without many prominent black business voices, something Segun Idowu, the executive director of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, said is critical for knowing the experiences black workers have lived. "We can't expect that even the most well-intentioned ally is going to bring up these issues all the time or even to get it right all the time when they do," Idowu said of white business owners and executives who may commit to helping fight systemic racism but don't have the lived-in experiences of members of the black community. "You can't substitute the voices of those being affected with someone from the group that's affecting them," Idowu said. "When I think of the voices of allies, it's not their role to speak on our behalf but to have us at the table and to listen." Black business leaders who do have a seat at the table said they value the opportunity but wish there weren't so few others. Eurayshia Williams Reed, the owner of the salon Shi-Shi's Lounge in Worcester and a trustee at Becker College, said the feeling of being the only black professional on a board of trustees or in an industry group is isolating and when two or more are in such situations, they are drawn to each other. Having so few black-owned or black- run businesses could hamper an ability for black workers to do better in their careers, too. An article in the journal Academy of Management in May cited practices prolonging inequality, including a tendency for those screening candidates to choose those with similar backgrounds and business networks oen tend to favor white men. The impact of COVID-19 e coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated challenges black business We have a nearly 100% white workforce F L AS H P O L L How effective is your company's policy against racism and racial discrimination? In response to the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by the Minneapolis police, protesters around Massachusetts and the U.S. are demanding states, local officials and company leaders implement meaningful policy changes to explicitly and preemptively tackle issues associated with racial discrimination, police brutality and systemic inequalities, including those in the workplace. When polled online, about a quarter of WBJ readers said their organization is a leader in combating racism white workforce 11% We have a policy, but incidents of racism still occur at work. We have a policy, but our workforce is nearly 100% white. 39% We don't have any policy specifically against racism or racial discrimination. 24% We are among the leading businesses in combating racism. 26% Milka Njoroge, the CEO of Century Homecare in Worcester Lou Brady, the CEO of the Family Health Center of Worcester Continued on Page 8 COMMENTS: "These poll questions are heavily weighted and do not provide an opportunity to properly answer. I suspect this is being done to skewer the results and increase responses in the racism pool." "I would guess most companies in Worcester County would have few African Americans employed, as African Americans make up less than 3% of the population of Worcester County." (Editor's note: Black or African Americans make up 6% of Worcester County residents, according to the 2019 U.S. Census Quick Facts.) PHOTO/MATTHEW WRIGHT

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