#minority-owned-businesses

#minority-owned-businesses

"I found out that I was accepted the day - the literal day after George Floyd was murdered - and this thing that I was so excited about, I instantly stopped caring about it. In the back of my mind, I was just like, 'We need Black-owned grocery stores.'"

Yasser has such an incredible drive and understands that our business is rooted in the success of those around us, including our loan officers and the customers that look to us to educate and inform along their pathway to homeownership.

Instead of overwhelming shoppers with endless options, it focuses on brands with a clear point of view-most of them LGBTQ+ owned, others deeply aligned with the community through their values, partnerships, and impact. Some are small businesses built from the ground up. Others are growing brands challenging industries that haven't always made space for us.

The study frames each of the models as 'emerging strategies' that can either complement or serve as alternatives to well-known sustainability certification schemes such as Organic, Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance.

Institutions want to be recognized for the great work they're doing. What [the recognition] would say to the public, to the students, to our community, is that we don't just enroll a certain percentage of students. We also produce successful outcomes for those students.

While entrepreneurship can be challenging, Black founders often face additional barriers in accessing funding, mentorship, and networks, barriers that can also create psychological hurdles. In fact, a 2025 BDC study found that 72% of Black entrepreneurs shared that the fear of racial stereotypes almost stopped them from starting a business. To support founders on every stage of their journey, we've updated our guide to highlight programs, funding, mentorship, and community resources specifically for Black entrepreneurs across Canada!

To Ian Gonzalez, though, it was a testament to three years of hard work. A community built from the ground up. The crowd had come on a cool Sunday morningto celebrate Gonzalez's business - Last Lap Cornerstore - before its temporary closure in April 2023. "It was the saddest joy I've ever felt," Gonzalez said. "For the community to come out and say they see me and show the love, that was beautiful."

It seems to me that there's a cover up going on,

What should be stories about innovation, resilience, market disruption, and leadership have increasingly been flattened into a single, repetitive narrative: DEI. Not the company's business model. Not the founder's vision or entrepreneur journey. Not the problem being solved or the customers being served. Just DEI. And it's often framed through the lens of rollbacks, political backlash, or cultural controversy.

As U.S. job growth in 2025 reached its lowest point since the pandemic in 2020, Blacks have been hit extra hard. Their discharges stem from rollbacks in the federal government, DEI pullbacks, and large layoffs in areas such as education, health services and social assistance. Now, nearly two-thirds of Blacks in the U.S. are looking for a new job in 2026. Yet, 75% feel unprepared for the job search ahead.

In places where inclusion is part of the infrastructure of their economy-supply chains, procurement processes, capital access, or business ownership-people thrive. Inclusive economies create more resilience by expanding the base of potential business owners who can build, own, innovate, and hire. They allow more opportunities for homeownership and investing in the longevity of communities. As our economy becomes increasingly stratified and volatile, we need as much resiliency as we can get.

The past 10 years have seen the number of women in the UK's tech sector creep up from 16% in 2015 to 22% in 2025, and black women still only account for 0.6% of people in tech roles. There are countless reasons for this, including a lack of inclusive culture in the sector, limited visibility of career role models, insufficient flexibility in the workplace and misconceptions about the type of people who work in tech roles, along with the influence of unconscious bias.