The Answer to DEI ...Is Beyonce

mean by that? Today we're going to talk about Beyonce and her historic album of the Year when at the Grammys and what that means for the conversation around diversity,

equity and inclusion are as. I like to call it inclusive economics, a phrase that I began to coin with my brothers Charlemagne, that god who has as enormously popular morning show The Breakfast Club, where I first broke my philosophy around what I thought D E and I really meant, which was really research and development for new markets is where you cultivate the future. It's R and D for companies and for communities and for the country. But it's

been weaponized and politicized. So let's put it aside and have a real conversation about the stuff that really matters, and let's get into it right now. Here's the big idea again, Beyonce is the answer to D and I. We're in this new era. The best way forward for African Americans and others isn't about begging for a seat at the table. It's about building the table and becoming so good that we can't be ignored, or, as my friend Stephanie Rule would say, expand the table and add

a seat. Beyonce just showed the world what it looks like when you dominate a space that was historically not built for you, and in her particular case, it was country music, and became the standard. I'm gonna say it again, beyoncey just showed the world what it looks like when she dominates a space that was historically not built for her country music and became the standard. Think about what

that means, Think about how serious that is. And there's no hate on anybody else's, no no shade on anybody else's. Is not putting anybody down. I mean, she paid the highest compliment to country music by participating in it, by wanting to be part of it. She had already dominated other genres. She had already killed it in our popular culture for African American music. She could have done a lot of different things. She could have done some predictable things.

She could have gone into spaces that were easier pathways, and she went into an area that no one expected, and I'm sure most people questioned country music and absolutely killed it. Beyonce's trailblazing impact. She just became the first black woman to win Album of the Year for a country album, something unheard of decades ago. She didn't wait for permission. She delivered excellence on her own terms. What's

the lesson here? Economic power doesn't come from waiting. It comes from owning your skills and proving your worth in the marketplace, the marketplaces of ideas. What's a patent, It's a monetized idea. What's the biggest Country's the biggest economy in the world. It also is the places with the most patents. Whereas places that have you know, no economictivity, they're dying. Paces that have no patents, places that are stuck in war, stuck and stupid, arguing about well, arguing

to argue all the time. These are places in the world that are not progressing. But a patent is a monetized idea, and Beyonce is a walking, talking, singing patent of excellence. Think about this, what's the parallel to business and finance? Like Beyonce took over country music, Black entrepreneurs and professionals should focus on dominating their industries from real estate to technology to finance. You can't change the rules

by arguing, you can change them by winning. Beyonce's not alone, by the way, I'm gonna She's my real framework for this conversation, and I'm going to go through a roll call of enormous success stories before I finish this podcast episode to give you a wider lens of what's possible when you focus on the right objective. But we just give some easy ones. Doctor Dre dominated in music and

then pivoted. Anybody who's of color who started off in sports, sorry, and music and became a billionaire did it by pivoting the business. But it's not an easy pivot. Who did that successfully and dominated in two areas Doctor Dre and then beats by Dre okay, the headphones, which is now you know, a billion dollar enterprise. Michael Jordan basketball and then Air Jordan's Okay merchandise tennis shoes in his case, Magic Johnson basketball switching to business a multi dimensional measure.

As a friend and somebody who I work with a little bit. After the Roddy King riots in South Central a nineteen ninety twould have been admiring his success and rooting for him every since. We should be rooting for each other's excellence. The Williams sisters dominated in tennis, a sport that supposedly black black folks could not, should not, would not have not succeeded. Look at the Black Forbes fifty lists that just came out in December of twenty twenty four. I happened to be one of the people

included in that list. Now come back to my story in a moment.

don't get off off message. And she decided she was going to create a national platform, a national show, and then do it her own way and bring spirituality in it after you from Initially people did not follow her, but she stayed with it and became the absolute best, and what she did killed it. Oprah's not black, She's global who happens to be proud of the fact that she's black. Right, She doesn't run away from it, but

she doesn't hide underneath it. And she's not trying to get a discount because of it.

and others, I have been getting at it. But no one gets it there by yourself, right, But but no one owes you anything either. When you get that, you take it and you own the field. You own the field, and you make people who are who are rooting for you, proud that they backed you. Don't don't embarrass them, right Uh, and always be humble and be appreciative. Quincy Jones another mentor mind, another iconic doer who's now doing it in heaven.

impact again. She just became this iconic figure that you never take this away from her, that went from one genre to another and for the first time ever, became album of the Year for country music. The new conversation is inclusive economics. Whether it's black or white, or red or blue meaning race or color that people want to argue about. Really the colors green as in US currency at least here in the United States of America. Right, But it's always been about green. We just have been

distracted with other well distractions. What did Malcolm X say. We've been bamboozo we've been tricked, we've been food, we've been hoodwinked, right, and we've been emotional, and we now need to get focused on what really mattered. And when you get emotional, it's easy to be deceived, to be disillusioned, to be dismissed. Dee and I has been weaponized, I think for political purposes, but it doesn't matter. It's been weaponized, it's been hijacked, and it's been played with and been

made toxic in many ways as a brand. Some companies are rolling back their diversity programs. I've talked to a number of these CEOs who run these big companies. They're good people. They basically said, I'm still gonna keep I'm still committed to these values because it's good for business and they're good people, but it's also just good for business. They just don't want to have a flag out there that says, come hit me over the head if you

disagree with me politically and making them a target. So they've backed away. Most of these CEOs are good people backed away from the label but not the cause. There are a few of these companies are disingene you didn't meaning when they did in the first place, and I won't name those companies because that's not the way I roll.

the math is really here all that matters. So we need a new framework. De and I has been weaponized and played with. When need a new framework, one based on economic empowerment. That's why I call it inclusive economics. It's about participation, not politics. The data that proves this approach works is from the Business Plan for America, which I wrote, and you can look up on my website Operation Hope and download all of the data and go through it for yourself in as much detail as you like.

It is there, and it is unimpeachable. It's sourced, it's fact based. It's not emotional. It's not partisan. It's not Republican or democrat, or black and white or urban liberal. And it's not rich and poor. It's just data.

in it. Here's some power for you, black buying power over one point eight trillion dollars, yet underutilized in asset building, entrepreneurship growth. Black businesses are growing at the fastest rate ever, but face major capital access gaps. In fact, after the pandemic, the fastest growing group coming out of the pandemic were African American black owned businesses and the fastest group amongst all fastest group were black women own businesses. In fact,

there was the fastest group. It was a fastest growing group of small business owners since two thousand and four after the pandemic. And now I believe it's latinos by the way, So kudos there. Home ownership impact. Closing the Black home ownership gap could add over three trillion dollars to the US economy. Did you hear what I just said?

This is these are real numbers. Closing the black home ownership gap with financially literate, well prepared new home buyers could add over three trillion dollars to the US economy. So the delta, the difference between Black home ownership and their mainstream counterbarts read white, it's about thirty percent. And that's where this three trillion dollars comes from. You know, fighting the good fight's not just about fighting in the streets in the suite. Sometimes you got to fight the

argument with your brothers and sisters in the streets. So sometimes I'll be talking about this stuff about homeownership and brother will say, oh, you know, I don't want to no home. That open home is stupid.

home right. And some people will tell you not to own a home on major TV broadcasts, These wealthy people telling you own you shouldn't own a home, own a home right. So I have no idea what's going on there other than the fact that they don't look at their forty year OO mansions as primary assets that they've grown on that long time ago they remember. They don't remember their humble beginnings. But for most people, home ownership is the user way to build well AI in the

future of work. The next frontier isn't just d E NI, it's AI literacy and ownership in emerging markets, emerging industries. Here's the message to corporate America. Also, companies should shift from diverse optics diversity optics to economic outcomes. Who's getting contracts? My brother Roland Martin and I have this conversation often about in his case advertising contracts. He just wants a reasonable piece of the pie for the market of the

AFT American consumer. You know, again, one point six one point seven to one point eight trillion dollars consumer spending force would be one of the largest nations in the world if we were a country, and ninety percent of what we get is we generates consumption, which is typically not good news, but in this particular case, it is good news because we're buying stuff and those folks are consuming.

And Rowland Martin and other minority media companies just want a fair share, reasonable share of the economic pie with an allocation of advertising dollars. But there's so many other examples, and participating supporting institutions that can give you access to these emerging markets is good, but it's not only the right thing to do. It'll pay dividend because they'll bring you more customers. Corporate America, So who's on your supply chain,

who's building wealth as a result of this platform? You have these major major company because you have vendors up and down the chain in this company. Who you're hiring, right, does it reflect your communities? Does it reflect your customer base, you know, I mean you do business with people you reflect back to understand, appreciate, right, and they appreciate and respect you in return. Right, So it's doing well and doing good. It's good capitalism. Just don't talk about inclusion.

Invest in it, action steps how to win like Beyonce for entrepreneurs and professionals, be the best in your space, period over to rounded through it. You're gonna get to it. I believe an entrepreneur works eighteen hours a day to keep from getting a job.

very best that they can be. And it pays off because they become the NBA players, the pro league of their sector, and don't have to worry about somebody cutting number break they become they're breaking for the whole. They are creating new holes. They're creating a wake behind them that other people can follow through. They're not following others. They people are following them, and people are investing in them because they're the best at what they do and

they're creating as a result of that, economic opportunity. Beyonce has created economic opportunity. She just opened a whole new door just with this most recent shift, which was very risky again into country music, which she bet on herself. What would happen if you bet on yourself multiple income streams all right, real estate, UH, investing, entrepreneurship, learning, AI, and tech. Because the economy is shifting, for business leaders and corporations move beyond U d n our programs and

invest in economic participation contracts with diverse applies. As I mentioned funding black entrepreneurs. You can do it actually through minority participation contracts or minority women own businesses. If you don't have to target minority in women own businesses. If you're you're targeting underserved communities, you're going to get minority in women owned businesses who are in those communities. By by the way, this includes poor whites in West Virginia

I'm not excluding anybody. If you're talking about inclusive economics, it's just really repairing the ladder from the bottom to the top. And as you're trying to get the folks at the bottom, you can naturally sweep up as a result of that, best in class potential leaders and doers of the future who happen to also be black, brown, and different without targeting black people. Okay, but that's a

whole nother podcast for another time. But you know, one of my businesses, the Promise Homes Company, which I sold the majority of a couple three years ago, still on mistake in it. When I was the chairman CEO, we made sure that half of all contracts went to minority and women in small businesses in communities where we invested in. Because we were invested in underserved communities, I didn't have to say, where's the black business. That's not the way

we worked it. You had to be competent, you know, it was really where's a competent business. I didn't want to go to a national company. I want to go to small businesses in my neighborhood where I invest in these affordable house signal in underserved community homes where I grew, you know, where I Atlanta in North Florida, and the

likelihood I was going to hit up. You know, if I throw a rock at a business in the underserved area affordable workforce development community area where I'm invested in bought seven hundred homes, the likely that is going to hit you know, if I threw a rock, close my eyes and hit a business, there's going to be a minority of women.

emphasizing where the dollars should also have a shot to.

Support businesses that support your community. I'm not down with the boycotton thing. I mean, everybody do their do their situation, do their thing. I don't say, don't boycott the company. Clean the shelves right there are there are black owned products of minority with Latino, whatever, Asian, whatever, your whatever, your cause. Azure is if there are products for those good companies that are on the shelves of these companies at Target, Tarja, Walmart, or wherever it is you shop,

clean the shells, go buy all of them. Send the message that that you've got the area is buying power and support either the brands and or companies that support your community by giving them your dollars and then writing a letter to the CEO, writing a letter to the store manager whoever you can get to, and let them know that you back your values up with your dollar bill buy a share of stock in that company, if it's a publicly traded company, and now you have a

voice as a shareholder as well. You can talk with the shareholder meeting. It's a whole another conversation with another time. But be a positive force for good, not just an irritant. I mean being an irritant is productive and useful. There

is a time for protesting. By the way, where will we be without I was talking to Charlottvigne today about the legacy of Al Sharton and Jesse Jackson's not the way I roll, but you know them shaking trees twenty thirty years ago, and Reverend Sharpton's case ten years ago, and now I mean in many cases that opened the door for Aerial Capital Management, which is now doing billions

and billions of dollars of management of mutual funds. They're they're doing on merit, but they couldn't get the attention way back when. And it was you know, it was doctor King had these visions as well, of bringing attention to companies that would not pay attention just because they were well, in that particular case racist, just to call it what it is. If you're competent and no one will pay you any attention and will actually actively ignore you and call you incompetent.

keep building, and let's create real economic future. Now, let's give you some stats, facts and details that are an inspiration and sends a message that your undeniable right, black economic power in financial gaps, right, black economic power twenty twenty three number is one point eight that's mad to be one point eight trillion dollars. It's greater than the GDP gross domestic product, the income of a nation of Mexico or Canada.

one of the fastest rates in the country. In the fact of twenty twenty three, it was the fastest rate in the country plus thirty eight percent since twenty twenty two alone. Yet they receive less than two percent of all venture capital funding. Right, you can't tell me they're not you know, future apples and future you know big businesses and of all.

killing it. We don't need to ask for a seat at the table. We need to own the building. Let's try that for a change. Home ownership and generational wealth. Black home ownership rate is forty five percent, give or take between forty one, forty two, forty three, forty four percent fluctuates. Versus White home ownership rates are pretty stable at seventy five percent. That's the Urban Institute twenty twenty

three as a source. White folks owning the homes because it works right, you know, homemwondership values that had not gone down since the beginning of time. There's been recessions. They received right, recession recede, but then they correct above the line every time. Right, They're not growing any more. Land by yourself a home, and I'm a landlord, so I should want to encourage you to do nothing but rent. But I want you to rent, to own, rent for me,

and then prepare to own. I want to run out of people who want to rent, but I want to empower you to go up that economic ladder just like I did. Closing the Black home ownership gap could generate Listen now, three trillion dollars in economic growth. That's tay, that's the Mackenzie and Company statistic. Renders are ten times likely. How do I say this? They're less likely than homeowners to be wealth creators. So they're ten times less likely

to build intergenerational wealth than a homeowner. I hope that made some sense. So it's not just that you're renting, is that your mindset is different. When you're a homeowner, you're ten times less likely to build integer generational wealth if you're rendered.

part of the past. Black and Latino workers are the highest risk of automation replacing their jobs, but less than five percent of work of them working AI related fields. That's a problem and an opportunity because I just told you nobody knows about AI and everybody understands it's about to come and change everything. Folks arguing about Dee and

I should be talking about AI. If really, that's a drop the mic for you right there, that's like no different than Beyonce is Lata, y'all talking about R and B and hip hop and rap cool. I'm going to talk about country music and do that too, bi lingual. It's an and not an ore. By investing in AI education, black wealth could increase by three point five trillion dollars by twenty forty five. If we don't do that, black wealth will be zero by twenty fifty three. There's your

difference right there. Investing in AI education is we're dealing with the AILP THREEI Pipeline of Prosperity project's part of the AI Ethics Council. I co chair with Sam Altman here in Atlanta and my partnership with Dean Phillips and Georgia State University and Clark Atlanta University, and Moorhouse and Spelman and Atlanta Public Schools, Doctor Johnson and Mayor Andrea Dickens here as a model for a pipeline of new prosperity and jobs. Don't wait for folks to destroy jobs

and destroy your life. Go and take control of your life and be the future you want to see and be excellent. When folks are running out of get running you out of town, Get in front of the crowd, made like a parade. D E and I is being replaced by AI. The real issue is in representation. It's ownership of the future economy. You can do that, and there's time. Nobody has this figured out yet. Beyonce didn't demand the seat of the table of country music. She

just took it over. That's the mindset we need. She's not diverse, she's undeniable, and that's how we win. Don't wait for permission to be great, just do it. This isn't about handouts. It's about leveling the economic playing field with real participation. We don't need more Dee and I panels. We need black businesses with billion dollar valuations and asset panels. When black and brown communities build wealth, America wins. I've

often joked, but I'm sort of serious. If black folks succeed economically, even the racist wins, because all economic boats rise. Money has no color, but economic access has always been black and white. When you win in the economy, they have no choice but to open the door. Excellence is the new activism. Ownership is a new protest. There's a lot of folks who wanted to deny my Jewish brothers and sisters. I mean, I've been They've been run out of every place in the world. I just we just

came from Poland last week. I mean, what was that? What happened to them in Auschwartz is just undeniable were placed with there. A million people were murdered, a million in one location and one little forget a city. I mean, it's just a few football fields, right. A million people were murdered in Auschwitz. I mean, and that's just one of the tragedies that's been visited upon my Jewish brothers and sisters. And by the way, did you know that half of Jews in Israel or dark skin. That's a

whole another conversation for another time. They've been to run out of every place. But look, but still they rise because they become excellent at a dozen different industries and self reliance and they demand respect. And we could take a page out of that book two or two, or three or eight or ten. So she didn't fight for inclusion. She made inclusion irrelevant by winning. This is a Beyonce in her story with this win for Country Music of

the Year album, Black economic strength is already here. We just need to activate it through ownership. You make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep. Black businesses had equal access to capital. If black businesses had equal access to capital, GDP would increase by one point five trillion dollars a year. That's a City Group report. My brother Ray McGuire author that report when he was vice chairman of City Group. You should read that report.

Inclusive economics means we stopped waiting and start winning. What will you build next? As I wrap up, here's some outlier winners who also killed it in their area. Just to show you there's not just about Beyonce, who is amazing, right, Tiger Woods killed it in golf when there was no black people playing golf at that level. What's his impact?

Became one of the greatest golfers of all time, winning fifteen major championships and revolutionizing the sports appeal and broadening the field of merchandising, of bringing blacks and brown people into the sports watching it, you know, watch it, contributing to the Nielsen ratings on television, buying merchandise, going to tournaments, becoming golfers swinging. I mean you can black people swinging golf clubs all or all all this across this country.

You know, tens and tens of millions of dollars of economic industry energy, maybe more than that, in large part because Tiger Woods made it cool. That's economics.

when they emerged. What's the impact? Together they changed the game with power, athleticism and mental toughness with While Serena became arguably the greatest female athlete of all time with respect or impact in tennis, Wilma Rudolph track and field overcame childhood polio in a racially segregated athletic system to become the first African American women to win three gold medals in a single Olympics that was nineteen sixty and

inspired generations of black female athletes in track and beyond. Arthur Ash tennis, the first black man to win Wimbledon nineteen seventy five, the US Open and the Australian Open. Impact uses his platform uses platform for civil rights, AIDS awareness and racial justice. My mentor in Bassor, Andrew Young, worked with Arthur Ash on work around civil rights and social justice in Africa. I was with Van Jones and Poland last week against I mentioned and I remember Ben

looked at me and looked at it. At what was then during nineteen forty five period, what happened in Poland with Germany. It was really Austras was the most technologically advanced death camp in the world. And he looked at me and said, this is what happens when you have technology and no humanity.

my board of directors at Operation Hope. What's the impact the only black driver currently racing full time in NASCAR's Cup Series and an outspoken avagainst advocate against racism in the sport. And who is his big backer now? Hello, Michael Jordan. Can't make this up. Debbie Thomas. Debbie with an I. By the way, the EBI. We should know

these figures are. She was a figure skating phenom, the first black figure skater to win the US national title of the nineteen eighty six and Olympic medal in nineteen eighty eight. Impact broke barriers in a sport with few after American athletes at the time. George Foreman boxing and business success post sports, came from an underprivileged background, became an Olympic gold medal listener, two time heavyweight champion, reinvented himself with a George Forman grill, making more money in

business than boxing. By the way, I should throw in my brother Reggie. Reggie Jackson who mister October did this incredible stuff in baseball, broke all these records and then went on to business. And he's still in businesses day. And they also whenever I talked to him, he's all about giving back. In fact, he tracked me down on twitterus. I became friends because he was talking about he was looking at my work in financial literacy and wanted to

find a way to partner. Now we bug each other all the time, trun trigger out how we can help our community be better. Here's some business legends for you, right who won against the odds and created their own affirming action. They were their own mechanisms of inclusion. Reginald Lewis and Finance, one of my heroes, one of the

first black billionaires in America. Well he created a billion dollar company, first black billion dollar company, which was he acquired Beach's International, backed by my friend Michael Milkin, by the way, for nine or eighty five million in the nineteen eighties. They might as well call that twenty billion dollars. To today, it's a lot of you know, billion dollars. Nineteen eighty was unheard of for black man to secure

financing to buy a global company. By the way that the Beaches worked in forty different states, sorry, forty different countries, proved that black entrepreneurs could operate at the highest level of Wall Street and global business, going from them from Main Street to Wall Street in one lifetime, really killing it from the neck up using his brain lawyer Harvard educated. I just killed it and proved that a black man

can produce some green internationally. Ursula Burns became the CEO of Xerox in two thousand and nine, the first black black woman to lead a fortune five hundred company, paved the way for more black women and executives leadership with you're about to hear about in a second, but you know, you know, she got a lot of arrows when she went in there, and no one gave her a thing. When I went in every business I've been in, I've

seen nothing but headwinds. When I built Operation Hope, and I build Promise Homes Company, Brian goreod Ventures, all these things I've done, people just laughed at me. When I went into the federal banking regulators and said I want to put a nonprofit inside of a bank branch, people literal really laughed at me. Now we're the only nonprofit ever allowed to operate out of a bank branch in

US history. With our Hope and Side model, fifteen hundred locations across the country, empowering you to get your credit screw up, your debt down, your savings up, and turning you into a customer. I'm not going and I'm saying you're a black person. I'm saying you're a good customer who pay your loan back. And here's all the data they give you the loan. Did it happened to be you're also black or brown?

philanthropist and a good man. Kathy Hughes in Media founded Radio One now Urban One, first black woman to lead a publicly traded media company, created one of the most influential black owned media companies in the country. Ava DuVernay from Film and Entertainment, first black woman to direct a film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, which is the film Selma twenty fourteen. What's the impact broke berries in Hollywood creating platforms for black voices in film, not

just black films, all films. Of course, you got to give Tyler Perry at honorable mentioned here. I think the first black owned major movie studio, Tyler Perry Studios, is not the Homeboy Shopping net Work. Here is a major studio major here in Atlanta. It's like going to Disneyland. I mean, you come to Atlanta, you want to tour Coca Cola and Civil Rights Museum and King Center natural center for several human rights. Go do all of that, and then go by Tyler Perry Studios and have your

mind blown. Doctor Patricia Bath in medicine invented the laser cataract surgery, becoming the first black woman to receive a medical patent.

you know their success was not expected. But proving that that talent, resilience, and vision can overcome historical barriers. What can you do? Where can you succeed? How can you use the tenants and the philosoph he's of inclusive economics to prove and not just black lives matter, but black capitalists matter more. In other words, you don't need anybody to like you.

outrun everybody else. You'll outwork them, and you'll outthink them. That is that immigrant up from nothing diversity story. People come to this country and they got nothing to be ignored, and they work hard to prove they could make it. I mean go in Sacks, which we all talk about, is a guy named Goldman, a guy named Sas. Literally, these Jewish up from nothing business people were running selling stuff's door to door with a briefcase because they couldn't

get a job in the skyscraper. Now they own the skyscraper, right, And so you can do this. Whoever we're listening is wherever you are quotation marks, you can do this. Women were denied at a credit card, couldn't get a credit card in nineteen seventy two, could can get along without her husband co signing it in nineteen seventy two, not

eighteen seventy two. Nineteen seventy two, a white woman, all women, right, and because of affirmative action, which was designed for black people, and denied us after it was designed for us, after Kennedy started in and Johnson, President Johnson advanced it, and actually Nixon came in and he codified it as well. But the courts said eh, and tried to stamp out the support that was giving the blacks.

right decision. A third of the US economy or women? Hello, seven eight trillion dollars almost ten trillion dollars and a twenty seven trillion dollars almost thirty trillion dollars economy. Without women, we'd be an also ran nation, we'd be a third world country. And once again today, diversity has to win, otherwise we'll be speaking Mandarin in ten or twenty years, making meaning Chinese. We're already chinae that war with us.

They want to be us, and the only way they are not going to be us is if we all stick together and row this boat into the same direction of progress and realize that we are all in this thing together. Everybody wants to be an American and except Americans. Thank you Beyonce for inspiring us to realize we're all God's children and racism is actually signed typically intellectually and spiritually stupid. We love her music. It brings us together.

Let this message be a lighthouse for your future. This is John O'Brien. I'm out. This is Money and Wealth. Tell your friends to follow. The series Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.