The article “Black capitalism” promised a better city for everyone. What happened? by Corkery & Heisler was published in the New York Times recently. The paper thoroughly describes the economic story of one city, Rochester. Namely, the Black population is viewed as economic agents—factories’ workers or entrepreneurs (Corkery and Heisler). Further, various concepts about race are mentioned in the article. Namely, racial diversity in corporate companies and systematic racism. Hence, the authors show the importance of the topics about race through the extensive description of the development of the work culture in one city.
The main issues depicted in the article are systemic racial discrimination and the demand for diversity in corporations. The first one is shown through the project’s failure, Eltrex, which hired as many Black and Hispanic populations as possible and pursued socialistic goals of helping the discriminated against through capitalism (Corkery and Heisler). However, the market was putting more challenges for the company than any other in the region. The CEOs rarely listened to by their partners from other companies or critiqued the low quality of their products (Corkery and Heisler). Yet, these claims were untrue, and the main issue behind this attitude is systematic racism.
The other concept in the article was the importance of diversity among the firm’s workers, as well as racial minorities taking the leading positions in such companies. The paper showed that even the successful implementation of diversity would not immediately help the discriminated population. The workers in the city remained poor, although the factories they wanted were built for them (Corkery and Heisler). Thus, the article presented the consequences of the two critical topics concerning race in the light of capitalism development in Rochester.
After reading the material, I have delved into my thoughts about the concepts presented in a new light for me. Currently, the political agenda supposes that diversity would be a solution for all the problems with racism. However, I can see in this example that the situation is more complicated, and there is no straightforward approach that would immediately solve the issue. The reason for this lies in systematic racism. Namely, the oppressed population, even when guaranteed to receive proper education and opportunities for professional growth, encounter challenges that are not obvious at the first look. As such, some people still devalue the work done by the Black population and do not trust them on the market (Corkery and Heisler). Such prejudices are built-ins of the people’s minds in the USA and cannot be removed from there in an instance.
In my opinion, the United States of America has a chance of riddance with racial inequality. The existence of such articles that highlight the existent problems precisely or cities where the Black population can participate in corporate governance illustrates that changes are being made already. However, to confront the issue, people should be educated about the nature of changes—these do not occur in one moment. I think that America would be cured of racism when people stop noticing the race of their neighbors, employees, and rivals, just as they do not care for eyes color. The current demand for diversity is helpful for that, but to ensure the integration of the discriminated against in the economy would require raising several generations in the atmosphere of equity.
Works Cited
Corkery, Michael, and Photographs By Todd Heisler. “‘Black Capitalism’ Promised a Better City for Everyone. What Happened?”The New York Times, 2021.