Groucho coming up for you on American Black Journal.

The president of the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation is here to talk about her two new books that focus on racial healing.

And we're going to examine the outlook for small businesses in the new Year.

What are the challenges?

What are the opportunities?

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Thank you for Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm Stephen Henderson, your host.

Every year on Tuesday after the martin luther king jr holiday, we observe a national day of racial healing.

Now, this event was created by the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation as a way to bridge the divide and build a better world for children, families and communities.

As part of the observance this year, the organization's president and CEO, June Montgomery Abraham, has written two new books that are focused on racial healing.

One is titled How We Heal, and the other is a children's book called Our Differences Make US Stronger.

I spoke with Montgomery today, Brown, about the new books and the importance of racial equity.

It's always great to see you and talk with you.

Welcome back to American Black Journal.

Thank you, Stephen.

I think the last time I was here was about a decade ago when we were talking about this subject.

Yeah, right.

Yes.

I hope it wasn't quite that long, but it was a long time.

And and, you know, that's a good place to start.

The idea that ten years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, pick the time period.

This is an issue that has been with us for an awfully long time.

And it is not any less relevant today than it was at any of those past periods.

So let's start there and just have you kind of assess where we are as a nation with the idea of racial healing and and also do our viewers a favor and define what you mean by racial healing, because I think that's a little different than what some people think that means.

So, yes, I couldn't agree with you more.

This work is needed now more than ever.

It is work.

And for us at the Kellogg Foundation, it's been a journey.

But the work around healing is about bringing people together and connecting people so that we can bridge what we see as an empathy gap in our nation.

What we want to do is connect people in ways that allow us to work through our differences, through affirmation, through storytelling, through gaining shared understandings and building trust.

This is work that has to happen.

And as as I've said, this has been a journey.

And what I know is when communities and organizations focus on building environments that promote healing conversations and advance healing thinking in their organizations, they perform well.

People are connected and they're able to work through differences in very productive ways.

So, you know, our National Day of Racial Healing always follows Martin Luther King Day.

So that after being inspired by his and his vision, we promote the act of coming together, of connecting across our differences, and we give people the tools and show them how they can conduct healing conversations, how they can lead this work in their organizations, and how we can create new possibilities for communities and children and families through this work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, it also strikes me that any effort to do this work now bumps up against a lot of dynamics in our in our country and in our culture that are pushing in the opposite direction.

Right.

Things like social media.

I think the 24 hour news cycle on cable, the sort of sensationalist instincts that that drive that they all seem to be pushing us to identify people in our nation who are different from us as the enemy, as the threat, as something to be to be feared.

And so just talking about the idea of racial healing, I think, you know, meets meets this this incredible this incredible set of challenges that seem to be around every corner right now.

Yeah.

And, you know, same is a good word because that is the narrative that is around every corner.

And that is all we hear and that's all we've heard.

But what I've seen in practice is there is just as much work going on around the practice of healing in communities and how communities are taking this on, as in ways to really grow their communities and uplift their communities.

So yes, we hear a lot of this dichotomous thinking is either this or that.

But in our healing work is not so divisive.

There are all possibilities between this or that.

And what the healing methodology does is teach us how to connect across these commonalities.

And instead of debating one another and shaming or blaming, we get to a space where we can hear one another and hear each other's stories and find commonality that we can then build on to grow our communities.

We don't see that happening in soundbites, but I see it happening on the ground in our communities.

And what we have to do as leaders is continue to promote this conversation.

And that's at the end of the day, racial healing is about having the right conversation across differences so that we can close what is an empathy gap in this nation and begin to build mutual understandings and mutual respect and and connect through our commonalities in a way that we can begin to work together in the future?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can you can you, for our viewers, give us some, I guess, examples of that hope that you see in these these communities or ways in which this is working that that are instructive for people here?

What is it about this that tells you this can work and that things are not as pessimistic as as they are often portrayed?

Yes.

I like to use the the story of Flint, Michigan, where here in Detroit, everyone remembers the water crisis in Flint.

And you probably remember how divisive the community was.

The community was fragmented.

Trust was at a low point in the community.

No one trusted one another's.

The leaders were not working together.

They were blaming one another.

And the Kellogg Foundation supported Flint with our truth, racial healing and transformation effort.

We came into the community.

We promoted the healing conversations.

We created that space and allowed them to connect their leaders with one another, to begin to build a pathway forward, working together.

And we were successful.

The leaders were able to come together and address that crisis in a way where they address the needs of people on the ground.

And they understood that those needs were very different in certain parts of the community.

That developed empathy had developed a way of connecting, and it brought the leadership together.

Now, what's more important about that work is when the pandemic hit and flat, those bonds remained.

So the healing work was enduring and the leaders were more prepared to come together during the COVID epidemic and make sure that everyone in the community was seen and heard and had access to health care.

They wanted healing practitioners in their community.

So the work is very enduring.

And once you understand how to work through differences, most people continue to do so.

So while we promote a day, what we really want is everyone to develop the practice and to understand how to have a conversation across differences that can continue to be embedded in their leadership approach moving forward.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you've written a few books about this.

Let's talk about what role you feel that those books can play in this effort and what inspired you to take up the pen?

Yeah.

So, you know, healing is based on storytelling, and the book is about interconnecting stories is the story of of my healing journey and my pathway.

From Detroit, Michigan, to leading the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation.

But it's also a story of the Kellogg Foundation and its healing journey and how we were able to transform an organization that practices this methodology.

And finally, is stories of our grantees, stories of this work on the ground, stories of the possibilities that this work creates.

So the inspiration is to allow people to to understand this practice through stories and to see themselves and see their story in these stories and to be inspired to act accordingly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that's that's so key to to any effort to to, to heal these divisions.

I think a lot of folks look at what's going on and feel like they're helpless to make a societal change or a cultural change or to or to stop the things that we all kind of see when we go on social media or watch television.

And you've almost got to turn that upside down and say, you know, think about the places where you interact with people yourself.

Think about the places where you actually have agency to make things different.

And that's where you begin this work and that's where you have the potential to have real impact.

That's exactly right.

And what I know is that many people are yearning to have these conversations and they don't know how.

And without the tools, it could feel daunting or you may feel vulnerable.

And that's why we're providing these tools.

There's a conversation guide available on Day of Racial Healing that over where you can see the flow of how to conduct such a conversation.

There are other tools.

There are examples of how communities have done this work.

And so we do want to equip people to have these conversations and to show them when you start from a place of affirmation and not blaming or shaming one another, that you can get to a place of productive conversation across differences.

And that's what we want.

We're not trying to say that we're all going to agree with one another forever.

But what we are saying is that all of our faith depends on our ability to work across differences.

It's a new year.

There's a new presidential administration.

Technology is rapidly advancing and consumer behavior is changing.

So what will it all mean for small businesses in 2025?

And how will it impact African-American entrepreneurs?

I checked in with Mark Lee, who is the president and CEO of the lead group.

Talk about the trends, the challenges and the opportunities for businesses this year.

We have this conversation every year, you and I, first of all, here on American Black Journal, but I feel like this year's a little different.

Things seem a little more volatile than they normally do.

In January, a lot of that has to do with the presidential election, of course.

But there are some other things going on that make this a little bit different.

So let's start with just your assessment of what we're facing and what we're likely, I guess, to be facing, especially from a business perspective, small business perspective here at least in the first quarter or so of this year?

Absolutely.

You know, it's never a dull moment when we think things.

They don't.

Great question.

I think expectations as we begin to think about the first quarter.

Exactly.

Just be the volatility.

And I think one of the challenges as we begin to think about moving into the new year is we have a new administration, obviously, just to just succeed recently and the other challenge as you think about a new administration and it means uncertainty.

And so from a business perspective, there's always been the old adage, if the Democrats are elected, you can expect fix.

If a Republican is elected, you can expect Y.

And so we think about the expecting Y now that you had the Republican administration.

Historically, they have been known to be relatively business friendly, business friendly, you know, but the taxes that the cost of if you do that, that gives you the opportunity to spend more money and make more profit at the bottom line.

That's a strong guarantee that's going to take place beginning this particular administration.

So I think to answer your question, the expectation of short term is volatility, with no one knows what the future holds.

So the the strategy then, if you're someone who owns a small business where, you know, every decision, of course, has tremendous potential impact on the business itself, do you do you hunker down for this for this period and just kind of protect what you have?

Or do you maybe lean in to the possibility of something big happening?

I know a lot of people, for instance, who think that the stock market is going to go pretty crazy in the first quarter of this year.

If you're a small business owner, can you afford to to sort of take advantage of that and try your luck, I guess, and hope that this volatility, at least for the short term, ends up in an upswing.

Recommendation to small businesses is to is to make yourself aware and pay attention.

Make sure you understand the policies that will be coming out of Washington, D.C., as well as, quite frankly, on the West Wing, because those have a major impact.

You think about the stock market, for example, only 50% of the American people are invested in the stock market and a lot of those people are invested in the consumer who are invested in the stock market, but probably a little bit more well-off than those certainly considering starting a business again.

You and I chatted about this before, so average small business has less than $10,000 in the bank.

So can you afford to put that, for example, invest in stock markets?

What I tell businesses from a business perspective certainly is to make sure you pause, make your short self aware of the policies.

Every decision coming out of D.C. is going to impact your bottom line.

Do not rush in.

Certainly make any rash decisions.

Be patient and hope for you.

Hope that things fall.

Your place will return.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what are some of the other things that businesses are facing?

Aside from the political environment that they ought to be thinking about in 2025, as they said up front, it's not just it's not just the election.

There's a lot of uncertainty, it seems.

And the change, the change in consumer basis, the change in technology and its effect on on your business and on consumers.

It seems like that's that's picking up, too.

You know, one of the biggest challenges that moving forward still will be inflation.

You know, the economy stabilized somewhat last year.

Inflation of bread came down.

It came down more than half to 100% over the course of the last 12 months.

Don't don't get too comfortable.

I mean, we're seeing what's happening with food prices again.

Now, all of a sudden, eggs, for example, are going through the roof.

And so inflation is still going to be an issue as we move forward this year.

Again, with the volatility, the Fed is considering cutting interest rates again.

You're still you're still trying to battle with those those decisions.

Looking at Washington, D.C., inflation is not going to go away.

I think a recession on the horizon.

I think they're still minimal at this point, but that's never out of the question.

So it depends on how consumer spending is just spot on.

Consumers will continue to evolve and change your overall behavioral patterns.

Will prices go up?

What do they do?

They pull back and that's going to have a major impact on your business because you may have a you may have a service tickler, you may be part of a service industry.

Restaurants, for example.

So if prices go up, you know, consumers will pull back.

The other thing that's critical this year I want people to pay close attention to is diversity equity and inclusion.

That certainly there was a lot of pull back from corporations last year.

That's certainly not going to change this year.

I mean, some organizations have become very explicit in the need not to have the programs for their business that could affect your expenditure levels because some programs were investing in black businesses to help them elevate their bottom lines.

So the bottom line there is that don't get too comfortable.

Well, let me rephrase that.

Be concerned about the future of the AI programs for Mayor.

What about access to capital because of inflation?

Of course, you know, interest rates have not been great for for businesses as well as individuals.

But all businesses need operating capital.

They need investment capital for infrastructure and things like that.

What is what is the advice, I guess, for for for maintaining your access to that capital and making sure that that capital doesn't cost you too much?

Access to capital is always the number one issue for small businesses, whether or not the economy is strong, whether or not the economy is not strong, access to capital always rises to the top.

My advice for small businesses is to diversify your income stream from a business perspective.

Look at all your financing options.

Historically, as you know, people who traditionally at banks to get a loan, you want to you want to be careful there.

I mean, it's still a viable option, but don't forget to look at things or programs such as grants, grants.

Those are the types of programs where you can get access to capital or capital.

You don't have to pay the money back, but you simply have to prove what you're going to deliver on that investment.

Also called a grant.

So we'll look at your traditional financing sources, look at your nontraditional financing sources.

I still discourage people.

Don't use your credit cards to finance your business.

Ultimately, that's going to break your that's going to break your bank, you know, based on interest rates.

So be very frugal, be very methodical, very strategic and do your research.

Look at both traditional and traditional retail financing for your business.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this is also a huge year for political change in the city of Detroit.

Know, and it was really the first time in many years that there's a, I guess, more uncertainty about what will happen.

Mayor Mike Duggan, who served for three terms, says he's done so somebody else will will win that election this year.

City council has a new map to run on and that could lead to some changes.

There are a lot of things that that are up in the air.

If you're a local business here in Detroit, if you're an African-American owned business in Detroit, how much how much attention should you be paying to those changes and what should you be doing inside your business to get ready for them?

You should pay a lot of attention to what's going on and here's why.

So, yes, the mayor, we all know as announcers in terms of the run for governor, this will bring in a new administration later this year towards the election.

And so, you know, Detroit is relatively the last four years.

We've kind a very good relationship to Mayor Duggan with Washington, D.C. And as a result of that, you've seen dollars come into the city.

Now, what's happening, just as we discussed earlier, there's going to be volatility and uncertainty.

Obviously, we got the new administration in D.C.

So what's the relationship would it be between Detroit in Washington, D.C.?

So if I'm a small business, again, pay attention.

Don't don't pull the blanket over your eyes.

Understand what the opportunities may be, what the challenges are going to be.

Because I know some people argue that the new administration is not going to be as as free flowing with resources as with the previous administrations.

So clearly pay attention, understand?

Again, you can insulate yourself, industrial resources and make smart, strategic decisions for your business.

Don't make those rash decisions.

Always have a plan moving forward.

What about the idea of starting a business?

You know, lots of people are always saying thinking, Well, when I get the chance, I'm going to start a business.

And then they don't always act on it.

Is this a good time if you're absolutely the is this a good time to do that?

Again, you know, starting a business, you have to ask yourself whenever it's a good time for you.

If you feel like you have the passion, if we have the resources, if you understand what the customers are looking for is always a good time to start a business.

The challenge that people always jump into doing that without having that plan so we don't have that plan.

What happens to increase?

You have a higher increase or a higher probability that your business going to be successful.

So actually, look, in 2024 students, the SBA actually increased its lending efforts to small businesses, particularly black owned businesses.

And so what they're saying is, we still believe in you and we trust in you.

So my recommendation is be frugal, be strategic, is always a good time to start a business, but don't do it based on impulse.

Just make sure you have that plan.

And I would encourage you get a desire and a passion.

You know, go for.

That'll do it for us.

This week, you can find out more about our guests at American Life Journal dot org and you can connect with us any time on social media.

Take care and we'll see you next time.

From Delta Faucets to Bare Pane, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco Serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Support Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

DG Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan, focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at DTI Foundation, Macomb also brought to you by the Sound Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.