We can’t wait! It’s time to desegregate businesses and organizations in Memphis
How is it possible that in a majority Black city and county, so many “upscale” restaurants, retail establishments, organizations and other entities have so few Black employees and members?
Ever since I moved here 13 years ago, I’ve been shocked, amazed and horrified at the number of restaurants, retailers, professional-service firms and events, where there has not been a single African-American employee or attendee, or Black representation is limited to the janitor or receptionist. Oftentimes, I wonder if I’ve magically been transported to Iowa or Eastern Tennessee.
So I’m not surprised by the discrimination allegations being hurled at the owners of Flight and Southern Social, as discriminatory practices seem to be more the norm than the exception in upscale restaurants.
In fact, my most recent memory of just how segregated our restaurants are was a dinner at the Coastal Fish Company, which is owned by the same group that owns Southern Social and Flight. Despite being smack dab in the middle of a taxpayer-funded park in a majority Black City, I didn’t see a single African-American hostess, bartender, waiter, cook, manager, patron. Zip. Zilch.Zero. Nada.
I left disgusted, and promised myself that I’d never return.
While the Coastal Fish Company was the most egregious example, especially since it’s located in a public park, segregated upscale restaurants with almost all-white staff are endemic in Memphis. I had almost the same experience when I ate at the Moondance Grill in Germantown, but at least there was one African-American cook in the back.
The intentional or accidental discrimination isn’t limited to restaurants, but businesses and nonprofits throughout the city.
Since it’s been awhile, and since maybe things have changed, I won’t list names but I remember one retailer publishing a staff photo of their 50+ employees, which didn’t include a single person of color. Or the time I visited one of the city’s larger marketing firms, and the only African American was the receptionist. Even more egregious was an event featuring 100+ people hosted by a prestigious local club, and the only African American was a representative from another organization giving an announcement.
We can no longer stay silent about the racial exclusion that pervades Memphis. It’s time to have hard conversations about the fact discrimination in hiring, lending, contracting, etc. is widespread, and demand change in order to become the prosperous community we want.
We need to begin gathering the employee demographics for all businesses and nonprofits in Shelby County, so that we can see both trends and identify which organizations are not inclusionary. And ultimately, so we can make decisions about where we spend our money as consumers and taxpayers.
After all, why should Memphis, Shelby County Schools, Shelby County and other public entities spend our taxpayer dollars with businesses that don’t provide equal opportunities to all?
While in some cases the exclusion is intentional, in many other cases it’s a lack of intentionally working to recruit more diverse staff, customers and members. It’s not enough to say, ”We don’t discriminate,” when all your senior management and the overwhelming majority of your employees are white. Building diverse businesses and organizations requires making concerted efforts to recruit and retain diverse staff, customers and members.
Success requires expanding searches beyond your traditional networks. It’s about hiring women and people of color into your leadership, not just lower ranks. It requires learning about what it feels like to be a minority, and how things people often say can be hurtful and insulting to us. Ultimately, it’s about achieving a critical mass of people, so that instead of having a handful of advocates responsible for representing all Blacks, Latinos, Asians, women, etc., you have a diverse staff, where diverse views become the status quo.
Embracing diversity and inclusion isn’t just about achieving a higher purpose, it’s about driving higher profits as well. Making diversity and inclusion a key economic development strategy positions Memphis to capture a bigger slice of the the $1.4 Trillion Black Consumer market, and for local businesses to grow their customer base.
As a former Indie Memphis board member I saw first hand the benefits of intentionally pursuing an inclusionary strategy focused on serving all of Memphis, not just part of Memphis. Building a board that better reflected community’s demographics, hiring an African-American woman as our artistic director, creating new community partnerships, and developing new offerings targeting African Americans, helped expand our audience dramatically, both locally and nationally.
The journey hasn’t been easy, and is far from over. It has required hard choices, and uncomfortable moments, but the results have been amazing so far, with Black film makers and movie buffs coming from as far away as France to participate. Considering there are no longer any Black-owned hotels, and few Black-owned restaurants, white-owned businesses actually profited the most. After all, no matter the color of our skin, we all share the same color in our wallets, green.
However, business and nonprofit leaders shouldn’t have to go through the process alone. We need organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Administration, nonprofits, city and county governments developing programs to help organizations embrace diversity and inclusion.
In summary:
- Exclusion, both intentional and unintentional, is endemic in Memphis.
- We need to begin gathering and publishing the data to identify both the scope of the problem as a community, and rank specific organizations on their inclusion stats.
- It’s time to stop the farce of race-blind initiatives in a very color-aware world, and create economic development strategies that leverage Black talent, culture, and history to grab a bigger slice of the $1.4 trillion Black consumer market, supplier-diversity dollars, and position Memphis as a global cultural leader for all races.
- As taxpayers and consumers we need to hold organizations accountable for their actions, or lack of.
- Finally, we need programs to help organizations succeed on their diversity and inclusion journey.
If we truly want to honor MLK Jr’s legacy, then this is our opportunity to move beyond empty slogans and transform Memphis into a city of equal opportunity for all. We can’t wait any longer. The time to act is now!
