While a call for structural change to policing has been at the heart of many protests across the country, demonstrators have also been shining a light on other forms of systemic racism, including longstanding economic disparities.
In Boston, such gaps were famously highlighted in a 2015 report from the Boston Federal Reserve, which found that white residents in and around the city had a median net worth of roughly $247,000, the average net worth among black residents was just 8 dollars.
It’s the type of problem that local businessman Herby Duverné, CEO of the security consulting firm the Windwalker Group, is hoping to address with his Greenwood Challenge, which he kicked off by giving a $100,000 donation to the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts. He is calling on the corporate community to similarly donate and to commit to addressing the racial wealth gap.
The name of the challenge comes from the economically vibrant historic Greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma — sometimes called Black Wall Street — that was the site of a massacre in 1921, when a white mob killed as many as 300 people and destroyed more than a thousand homes and businesses.
Duverné told Jim Braude on WGBH News' Greater Boston Tuesday that the time for mere talk was over.
"We feel that the business community needs to do something," he said.
He gave an example of one area of change needed.
"Only one percent of the contracts go to black and minority businesses," he said, referring to data released last year about contracts awarded by the City of Boston for goods and services. "So I believe that BECMA can play a pivotal role in leading the charge to make sure that ... we make sure that corporations are part of [the solution]."
Such structural inequalities have infamously been exacerbated by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Here in the Commonwealth we did a survey back in March just to see what the impact was having on our businesses then, and it showed that 90 percent of our businesses were experiencing a somewhat severe impact," said BECMA executive director Segun Idowu. "And over 60 percent only had reserves to last up to 90 days. We're past that 90-day mark now."
