Saving America’s Black Boys Launches National Campaign

Saving America’s Black Boys Launches at SXSWedu in Austin, Texas on March 4, 2013.

QUESTION: How is it possible that across every economic development district in the nation Black Americans uniformly produce paltry percentages of business revenue, create few jobs and have virtually no net worth?

DATA: The total number of Black-owned businesses in America was 1.9 million in 2007 (Census, BLS) with a total revenue production of LESS than 1% of U.S. GDP. More than 1.8 million of those businesses were sole proprietors with zero employees. Then the economy collapsed. Year after year, in a nation where immigrants flock to engage in entrepreneurial opportunity, Blacks led the race with a 60% growth in entrepreneurship from 2002-2007 culminating in the height of economic production that was so tiny a percent of GDP that it amounted to nearly nothing in the greater scheme of the economic landscape.

QUESTION: How is it possible that the phenomenon of Black Americans producing paltry percentages of economic growth remains consistent year after year, decade after decade, and the nation — in particular Black Americans — scarcely speak a word about such economic apartheid?

QUESTION: How is it possible that many metropolitan Black communities are surrounded by thriving innovation ecosystems producing STEM-educated professionals, high-growth entrepreneurs, and risk capital investors and our youth know very little or nothing at all about this economic activity occurring all around them?

As Chicago reels from a year of record-breaking gunfire and deaths, many leaders seek ways of addressing the problem of lost, confused, angry Black boys and young men, who represent a large percentage of the violent crime in Black communities.

We seek to save these Black boys. We believe they are America’s assets that we simply have failed to adequately invest in.

SXSWEDU CONFERENCE: On March 4, 2013, Mike Green, founder of the Saving America’s Black Boys (SABB) Campaign and co-founder of The America21 Project, led a panel of experts at the South By Southwest Education Conference (SXSWedu) in a discussion of innovative approaches to educational development of America’s Black Boys. The scheduled one-hour session ran well over time as educators lined up to engage the panel in an extended Q&A that continued well after the session was over.

The following day, Green, and his partners, Tammara McDonald and Diatra James of Game Changerz (nonprofit 501c3) produced the first of a national series of SABB Solutions Summits aimed at informing and educating the leaders and influencers of America’s Black Boys.

See the recap below in the SABB Solutions Summit Program Booklet for insight into the approach of the SABB Campaign and how it will change the game for America’s Black Boys through the framework of Inclusive Competitiveness.

WHAT: The SABB Campaign is an online and offline messaging platform that seeks to raise awareness, inform and impact leaders and influencers of all races to engage in a collaborative effort to implement 21st century inclusion frameworks that align the education of America’s Black boys with the opportunities inherent in the Innovation Economy within their local innovation ecosystems.

PROBLEM: The talent, skills and creativity inherent in millions of America’s Black boys is being wasted in a school-to-prison pipeline that robs the nation of much-needed ingenuity in a fast-paced 21st century knowledge-based, tech-driven global innovation economy. Too many well-intentioned leaders of such boys — policymakers, educators, parents, clergy, mentors, business and community leaders,  etc — are largely disconnected from the framework of the 21st century innovation economy and inadvertently leave Black boys stuck in a 20th century mindset while they are immersed in 21st century ecosystems they do not understand. The result is a large landscape of lost, confused and angry Black boys.

SABB APPROACH: The SABB Solutions Summit series is an information campaign that galvanizes a coalition of local leaders and influencers who are invested and committed to implementing local economic inclusion frameworks built upon a core foundation of STEM education, high-growth tech-driven entrepreneurial opportunities, access to capital and cultivating long-term success for the nation’s Black boys to help bolster the overall global economic competitiveness of each region and the nation.

SABB informs, educates and empowers local leaders and influencers (such as celebrities and pro athletes) to engage local innovation ecosystems and develop a Pipeline2Productivity framework that results in connecting economically disconnected communities to local and regional opportunity for Black youth.

We seek to empower leaders and influencers with knowledge of the extremely high value that Black boys contribute to the economy in which they fail to benefit, in terms of lost generational knowledge and lost generational wealth. Instead of recognizing their full potential, too many of America’s Black boys are swept up by a system of widespread ignorance and apathy. This sieve represents lost assets, lost generations and a national economic imperative. Those few Black boys who do realize their dreams, despite the broken system, rise to become leaders in virtually every industry in the nation. One even made it to the White House. That’s evidence of the enormous potential inherent in the landscape of America’s Black boys … if we fix the landscape.

If America can produce an incredible amount of Black male talent with a completely BROKEN system, imagine the impact of a FUNCTIONING system that invests in producing exponentially more successful Black men.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• The SABB Campaign needs your support in raising funds to deliver more Solutions Summits in targeted cities. We seek to ignite a 21st century economic movement across the nation. Click our easy donate button below. Your support helps us help the nation’s Black youth.
• We want to produce a Solutions Summit in your town. If you’re interested in a Solutions Summit in your region, contact Mike Green at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
•  Spread the word. Please share this blog posting with your network.

PLEASE REVIEW THE PROGRAM BOOKLET FROM OUR INAUGURAL SOLUTIONS SUMMIT BELOW.

Saving America’s Black Boys (SABB) National Campaign Launch by Mike Green

 

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Mike Green leads the SABB panel at SXSWedu in Austin, Texas on March 4, 2013.

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