Struggling to Succeed: An Examination of Black Business Essay

If one were to take a look at the American telephone circuit world today, much as if one were to look at it a hundred or more years ago, one fact would be easily noticeable. The majority of positions of power and authority in most American businesses ar white males. In fact, white males outnumber all other races n these positions far more than they outnumber the actual populations of these other passel in our country. Specifically, dumb men atomic number 18 sorely represented in executive positions in corporations and businesses across the board. So why is that? Is there some fundamental character of downhearted people that keeps them from success? Is society still oppressive to blacks nearly forty years after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s? Actually, the answer lies somewhere in between. Joane Nagel states, Ethnic Identity, accordingly, is the result of a dialectical process involving internal and external opinions and processes, as well as the individuals self-ident ification (240). So if blacks have an anti-business ethnicity, then the responsibility for that must be functiond between blacks themselves and their oppressors. Similarly, upon examining Micahel Omi and Howard Winants definition of hegemony, which they assert has been the dominant mode of rule in the United States, wee overtake that hegemony is always constituted by a combination of coercion and consent (152). So any societal oppression that the white males in power are able to levy against blacks must be accepted by blacks in order to be effective. In other words, both blacks and their white oppressors must share the responsibility for the decided failure of black men (and women) to take their places as leaders in business.The issue of black success in a embodied world such as America is best understood as one of culture and ethnicity. Generally, success in business demands a certain record and level of ability, just as does success in politics. A quick look at the current sta tus quo of power and authority in the business world will prove that. But existing societal conditions remnant of the evil specter of slavery have created a persona within the park black identity that is fundamentally opposed to business success. Nagel writes Culture is constructed by the actions of individuals and groups and their interactions within the larger societ... ...tion, and the economic status of a historically deprived people certainly wont be an exception. As many successful black entrepreneurs have proven, it is very much possible for good businessmen to postdate greatly despite the opposition, and there is still plenty of room for success. Works CitedCummings, Scott. African American Entrepreneurship in the Suburbs Protected Markets and Enclave Business Development. Journal of the American grooming Association Winter 1999 50-61.Educational Attainment in the United States - March 2000 Detailed Tables. 19 December 2000. US Census. 2 April 2001. Green, Shelly and Pa ul Pryde. Black Entrepreneurship in America. New Brunswick, NJ Transaction Publishers, 1990.Nagel, Joane. Constructing Ethnicity Creating and RecreatingEthnic Identity and Culture. New Tribalisms The Resurgence of Race and Ethnicity. New York University Press. 1998Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States From the 1960s to the 1990s. Routledge NY, 1994.Walker, Juliet E. The invoice of Black Business in America. NY Macmillian Library Reference, 1998