Black Entrepreneurs Guilt

What is something that I carry around more than I need to?

It’s guilt.

Why? Well, there are many things that I am as a person. I’m black. I’m female. I’m an immigrant. I’m a parent. I am an entrepreneur.

These are the questions that I constantly ask myself:

• Am I spending enough time with my family vs my business?
• Have I given back enough to my nation/country?
• Does my business support and enable women?

But the black guilt, that’s what weighs the heaviest. It holds so much intertwined history and is so much bigger than me. So when you add an entrepreneur to the black, it breeds a whole new level of guilt. And it’s is a common feeling that black entrepreneurs battle with every day.

Here are three things black entrepreneurs feel guilty about within their business and how they operate.

1. Charging premium prices for products/services.
   The majority of black individuals in the US grew up in either a low income and/or single-parent homes, so affording premium priced products were out of reach and out of the question. So now as entrepreneurs, we imagine our younger selves, our parents, and our networks who need these products or services, not being able to afford it at the premium rate.
2. Labeling products/services as “for the black community”.
   This one is huge. We live in a society where things that have too many black people involved, are seen as only for blacks and not open to the general public. Then if you have companies and institutions such as Black Girls Code and HBCU’s that are directed toward black achievement and celebrating black excellence, people start to make act as if it’s a problem. These companies and institutions generate negative attention in the media and gain a reputation as being non-inclusive. But why is it when a space is majority white we don’t assume it’s for whites only? The black community has been held back for so many years that we need these spaces as much as we need mixed spaces.  We should not be ashamed to say we are here for the black community.
3. Giving a discount on our products/services. 
   This one is another huge one for me personally that I struggle with constantly. People tend to ask for a discount when shopping at black businesses. It’s as though they assume the quality will be low or that they don’t need to pay the full price because it’s a black business. This needs to stop. The same folks asking for discounts at black businesses would never do that at any other type of business.

Does this resonate with you? 

What kind of guilt do you experience in your life?