What would it look like if the economy loved Black people?
Believe-in-YouMoney
What would it look like if the economy loved Black people?
"There is a healing balm inside the Black imagination that we are not accessing. It turns joy and play into strategies for living and loving. When we invest in that, transformation happens."
- Jessica Norwood
When I look at our economy today, one thing I see clearly is a lack of love for Black people. The reality of the racial wealth gap makes this truth undeniable: a Black person has the least amount of wealth in the U.S.—just one-eighth of the average White person’s wealth. This relative lack of wealth comes from generations of financial exclusion and racial terror and impacts everything from quality of education and healthcare to access to wealthy networks, political power, and, of course, business capital. Due to pervasive and ongoing systemic racism, Black founders are denied business loans two times more than any other group and receive less than 1% in venture capital.
A Black person in the U.S. has just one-eighth of the average White person’s wealth.
Yet, the myth of the American Dream has indoctrinated us to believe that entrepreneurship and capitalism will save the day, that they are somehow able to close the wealth gap for Black people and provide a pathway for stability and well-being in Black communities. But let's be honest with ourselves, a system that is based on racism and extraction can never do these things in the absence of an explicitly antiracist and community-centered approach.
When I look at our economy today, one thing I see clearly is a lack of love for Black people. The reality of the racial wealth gap makes this truth undeniable: a Black person has the least amount of wealth in the U.S.—just one-eighth of the average White person’s wealth. This relative lack of wealth comes from generations of financial exclusion and racial terror and impacts everything from quality of education and healthcare to access to wealthy networks, political power, and, of course, business capital. Due to pervasive and ongoing systemic racism, Black founders are denied business loans two times more than any other group and receive less than 1% in venture capital.
A Black person in the U.S. has just one-eighth of the average White person’s wealth.
Yet, the myth of the American Dream has indoctrinated us to believe that entrepreneurship and capitalism will save the day, that they are somehow able to close the wealth gap for Black people and provide a pathway for stability and well-being in Black communities. But let's be honest with ourselves, a system that is based on racism and extraction can never do these things in the absence of an explicitly antiracist and community-centered approach.
Believe-in-You Money delves into the history of Black business investing and shares six profound ways we can all use capital as a powerful tool for addressing racial injustice. By offering practical guidance and anecdotal insights around providing non-extractive, long-term, antiracist capital to Black founders, the book invites all people, wealth holders, and wealth movers to start a money revolution that begins to realize the power in investing in Black business owners and culture-makers in a way that creates a better tomorrow. From reimagining risk to bringing the philosophy of right relationship into play, we can make important changes in our practices and policies in order to invest in the brilliance and innovation of Black people, and reap the collective benefits of a more just, equitable, interconnected, and loving society.
Believe-in-You Money delves into the history of Black business investing and shares six profound ways we can all use capital as a powerful tool for addressing racial injustice. By offering practical guidance and anecdotal insights around providing non-extractive, long-term, antiracist capital to Black founders, the book invites all people, wealth holders, and wealth movers to start a money revolution that begins to realize the power in investing in Black business owners and culture-makers in a way that creates a better tomorrow. From reimaging risk to bringing the philosophy of right relationship into play, we can make important changes in our practices and policies in order to invest in the brilliance and innovation of Black people, and reap the collective benefits of a more just, equitable, interconnected, and loving society.
Endorsements for Believe-in-You Money
Jessica brings personality, courageous storytelling, and inspiration to the financial space in a way no one ever has before.Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard University
Jessica Norwood has inspired me to relinquish my trained scarcity around resources, and helped me to understand that we must transform our financial systems as we transform our relationship to ourselves and the planet. Community is the pathway to mutual, sustainable abundance.adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy
Black people have given an immeasurable amount of unpaid labor and blood to this country and the capital we invest should honor that. Jessica is the right person and this is the right time for this conversation.LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matters
The inspiring story of how Jessica created RUNWAY reminds you to “Trust Black Women”. You will never see investing the same way after you learn about the work Jessica and the team at RUNWAY is doing.Tarana Burke, founder of me too. Movement
Listen to Featured Interviews from the Book
Jessica talks with friends, wisdom keepers, philanthropists, other investors, and entrepreneurs about what it would look like if we changed the way we invested in one another? What would it look like if the economy loved Black people?
Nwamaka Agbo
CEO, The Kataly Foundation Managing Director, Restorative Economies Fund (REF)
Anurag Gupta
Founder, Be More with Anu
Brendan Martin
Founder and Director, The Working World Co-Director, Seed Commons
Konda Mason
Founder and President, Jubilee Justice Strategic Director, RUNWAY
Sonya Renee Taylor
NYT Bestseller, The Body Is Not An Apology
Rev. Andrew Wilkes
Co-founder, The Double Love Experience
Featured in the book
Nwamaka Agbo
CEO, The Kataly Foundation
Managing Director, Restorative Economies Fund (REF)
Anurag Gupta
Founder, Be More with Anu
Brendan Martin
Founder and Director, The Working World
Co-Director, Seed Commons
Konda Mason
Founder and President, Jubilee Justice
Strategic Director, RUNWAY
Sonya Renee Taylor
NYT Bestseller, The Body Is Not An Apology
Andrew Wilkes
Co-founder, The Double Love Experience
TheInterviews
TheInterviews
Jessica talks with friends, wisdom keepers, philanthropists, other investors, and entrepreneurs about what it would look like if we changed the way we invested in one another? What would it look like if the economy loved Black people?
