Joseph Haskins, Jr.

Walking the Talk: Investing in the Future of Black Banks, Entrepreneurship, and Opportunity

Eugene Cornelius, Jr, Henry Childs II, Emanuel Friedman, Tracy Gray, Joseph Haskins, Jr., Aron Betru

This panel examines the systemic barriers preventing Black entrepreneurs from accessing capital and reveals that closing the racial wealth gap could unlock $1.6 trillion in US economic potential. Experts advocate for a strategic shift from traditional inclusion to innovation by leveraging $9 billion in government-funded preferred stock to mobilize $90 billion in community lending and aggregating pension capital for diverse asset managers. The discussion concludes with a call to build a self-sustaining minority economy driven by global export opportunities, artificial intelligence, and direct financing models rather than reliance on historically exclusionary systems.