Views expressed here represent those of the author and not necessarily of MassLive or The Republican. Readers are invited to share their opinions by emailing to letters@repub.com.
It has been more than a decade since the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reported that the median net worth of Boston’s Black households was just $8, compared to $247,500 for white households. An update to the Fed report is expected later this year, but it doesn’t take another report to know we have work to do.
The divide in racial wealth has widened over generations through unjust policies — policies that exclude, systemically discriminate, and restrict people of color from building wealth.
Alongside homeownership, a powerful and effective path to wealth is entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, for too many people, entrepreneurship is out of reach. It’s an economic ladder with the first few rungs missing. In Massachusetts, 68% of Black-owned businesses report that having access to capital is a priority — more than double the percent of white-owned businesses that say the same. The Boston Foundation estimates that the annual unmet demand for capital among entrepreneurs of color in the Commonwealth totals $603 million.
About two-thirds of entrepreneurs rely on personal or family savings to start a business, meaning those without generational wealth start with a disadvantage. At the same time, less than 3% of all venture capital goes to Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses nationwide. In Massachusetts, less than 1% of venture funding went to Black-owned businesses in 2022. Without access to affordable, low-cost financing, talent alone is not enough to break through these systemic and historical barriers.
We both know the racial wealth gap is a moral and policy failure. A championship city like Boston can do better.
Members of our community are already drawing up plays and running point to level the playing field and bridge the wealth gap. Bay State organizations like the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) and Boston XChange (BXC) were founded to address these barriers head-on and close the racial wealth gap — by empowering entrepreneurs and expanding access to capital. BXC and the Boston Creator Incubator & Accelerator, for example, provide up to $100,000 in grant funding to entrepreneurs of color, along with work and maker spaces and essential business assistance.
But we need more plays — and playmakers — in the arena. I am introducing the SPARK Act in the U.S. Senate, a bill aimed at addressing structural and historic barriers that have held back underserved entrepreneurs for decades. By investing in community lenders, nonprofits, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority-Serving Institutions, and community colleges, SPARK would light a fire within entrepreneurship ecosystems by expanding access to accelerators, incubators, mentorship and increasing capital opportunities.
History makes clear why entrepreneurship serves as a way to reduce the racial wealth gap in Boston and in cities across the country. In Roxbury, a dense network of Black-owned businesses that once created jobs and served as pillars of the community was diminished through decades of unjust policies. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, perhaps the most famous Black Wall Street, Black entrepreneurs owned thriving banks, hotels and newspapers. That success was seen as a threat and Tulsa’s Black Wall Street was destroyed through racial violence and state complicity.
The lesson from history is unmistakable. The racial wealth gap is an intentional choice upheld by moral and policy failures that robs our society of reaching its full potential.
But instead of letting the clock run out on our communities, we can choose to end that failure by championing a game plan for success. By leaning into equitable policies that expand access to capital, invest in proven community models, and remove historic barriers to ownership, we can give talented entrepreneurs the fair shot they deserve. If we do, entrepreneurship can once again become what it should be: a ladder to shared prosperity, not a privilege reserved for a select few.
Sen. Edward J. Markey is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.