Why Now? 🤔

An aggressive movement threatens to push us backwards. Yet, we have talent and creativity to spare, command $1.8 trillion in annual spending power, and add billions more in value to other platforms. It's time to build our own parallel economy and power structure. That starts right here, with BlackShares—the platform for all of us.

The Challenge of Our Generation

Our community has always possessed immense untapped potential, waiting to be unleashed to propel us forward. However, the recent shift in cultural currents threatens to push us backwards in dramatic fashion. There is an aggressive "erasure" underway—an effort to deny the centuries of U.S. history that systematically disenfranchised African-Americans—and it is being used as the pretext to dismantle policies that sought to address that onerous legacy. Not only have programs like affirmative action been struck down by an ultra-conservative Supreme Court, but even private companies are being combatively pursued and threatened for choosing to focus on their own DEI initiatives.
 
And, this says nothing of the new federal government's effort to dismantle DEI within government itself, as well as within the substantial network of universities, states and other entities that are being brought to heel by way of funding and statutory influence.

We as Black people in the U.S. must recognize that we have lost politically and culturally. Our solution will not come from the outside or through appeals to traditional political, corporate or social power. Our solution will come from within.

There's Powerful Reason for Hope

The good news is that we wield over $1.8 trillion in annual spending power. Further, our community is absolutely loaded with infinite creativity, skills and talent. There is no reason we can't create our own economy—one that benefits us in concrete, measurable fashion—and create unprecedented forward progress.

This economy starts with ownership of our own platform, which is exactly what BlackShares represents. We cannot continue giving our time, attention and money to other platforms that don't support us and, worse, actively work against us.

But, it's also not enough for a platform to be "Black-owned". That ownership must also convey concrete benefits to the Black community and the individual members within it.

This is why BlackShares is intentional about sharing a substantial percentage of all revenue with members, as well as contributing an additional percentage to a fund that invests directly in Black-owned businesses. A share of every dollar we earn will contribute directly to Black economic empowerment.

Is Focusing on The Black Community Racist?

It's a now-common (and ridiculous) refrain that attempting to remedy the effects of racism is itself racism. It'd be laughable if it weren't such effective propaganda.
 
But, we're not taking the bait on debating that, as that's exactly how the powers that be want us to continue exhausting our energy. You see, we understand that the entire juxtaposition of race and economics is a ruse. It's a distraction intended to divide the masses, as we fight over crumbs while the oligarchs divide the real spoils generated by the economy. This old quote may be familiar to you:

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
 
– President Lyndon B. Johnson
 

In this formulation, the Black community has suffered disproportionately as the longstanding scapegoat. From slavery to Jim Crow to redlining to the prison industrial complex, we've gone from codified racism to ongoing biases and exclusion from valuable networks. The end result has been a brutal disenfranchisement of the Black community that persists to this day.
 
So, trust Black people when we say that no one despises this legacy more than we do. We didn't ask for it.
 
In our heart of hearts, we'd love for everyone—no matter their race—who has been negatively impacted by this divide-and-conquer to wake up, see through the ruse, and join us in claiming their fair share of the economy. But, too many have been weaponized against us. We can no longer afford to wait or to exhaust our energy on endlessly defending the truth. The Black community already knows that it has been and continues to be uniquely and devastatingly impacted by its systematic disenfranchisement.
 
It's past time to exit the debate and get to work empowering our community. Join us and let's make it so.