We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Janelle Williams, Ph.D. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Janelle , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Longstanding inequality has resulted in a formidable racial wealth divide, which will take more than 200 years to close if it continues to be passively addressed. This gap has drastic implications for people of color’s ability to access the care and opportunity necessary to thrive. Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative (AWBI) has an explicit focus on places and people, that have experienced stubborn economic inequities in the American South, starting with a central Black mecca, Atlanta. We are a community of investors, advocates, and activists working to transform systems and structures of capital to create opportunities for Black people. We are working to pilot and scale innovative strategies that foster collective Black wealth.
The journey started over 5 years ago, a revolutionary idea nestled within a city too busy to hate. Atlanta was consistently considered a leading city for income inequality and further examination of economic outcomes clearly revealed that Black Atlantans disproportionately held the burden of economic exclusion. In fact, when a baby is born into poverty in Atlanta, there is just a 4% chance of escaping poverty in their lifetime. Across all measures of household financial security, households of color are faring worse than White households in Atlanta. It was through this pain and hope, I co-founded an organization with Tene Traylor, designed to address the racial wealth divide and build community wealth. At that time, we both worked in philanthropy and continued to see lackluster economic outcomes for the communities we served. Together we sought to stretch the role of funder, especially as two Black women leading major portfolios in Atlanta, and the American South. With a a data informed approach guiding us, we partnered and commissioned a third party to research wealth building strategies across the city. The research highlighted the pronounced economic disparities. For instance, even though the city was dubbed a mecca for Black businesses, 96% were considered solopreneurs and they generated roughly $56,000 in revenue, compared to over $650,000 in revenue from White businesses.
While we had the data, we needed a strategy. We convened and invested in a community of practice which included multi sector representation to determine a collective path forward. As funders, we also made sure that we only participated when we were invited to engage. We wanted candid and collective feedback on what needed to be activated to change current trends, not a proposal. The network gave us a clear charge – launch a race explicit entity, dedicated to economic justice. We listened to community stakeholders, sought counsel from leaders and strategized with investors to build a relevant, sustainable, and ambitious organization. The foundation was laid with a deep bias for action.
Today, our work is more necessary than ever. White Atlantans have 46x more wealth of Black Atlantans in 2022. That is an alarming statistic because Atlanta is the second wealthiest city for African Americans after DC. If this economic imbalance is happening in Atlanta (considered to be a Black Mecca), what does this mean for over 40 million Black people that live in the United States? This issue is further punctuated by the rapidly changing demographic composition of the United States, by 2040, this country will be majority people of color. How can a country that is rapidly becoming more racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse, not deeply invest in its citizens of color? If we do not deeply invest in our citizens of color, I shudder to think about the economic future of this country. Without implementing brave and daring solutions soon, rampant inequities will magnify.
While a young organization, we have thrived despite a global pandemic and a concerted assault on racial justice. We have embraced an interdisciplinary approach to facilitating Black wealth by addressing financial, health, environmental and civic issues. And, we have created a “Structural Determinants of Black Wealth” framework with recommendations outlined in our inaugural Building A Beloved Economy Report. We also launched our national Black Community Wealth Network to activate and scale Since its inception, Atlanta Wealth Building’s work as an intermediary has directly and indirectly facilitated $36,220,499 in funding to strengthen community-based small business ecosystem and support nonprofit capacity building and transformative models primed to build Black wealth.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a daughter of the Diaspora. So much of my “creation story” is rooted in the experience of being raised in a former slave colony, that finally secured our independence during my parents’ lifetime. With limited educational opportunities, my parents’ formal schooling abruptly ended at formative years. The systemic exclusion for children to dream and learn doomed many families to intergenerational poverty. My family was no exception. My parents and community sacrificed everything they could to help me leave my homeland at 19, to pursue tertiary education. When I got to the United States, I realized that many Black people are economically marginalized, much like my native homeland, Trinidad and Tobago.
I believe reparations is an important policy tool to support restorative justice. As the world becomes increasingly polarized, now more than ever we need to seek, acknowledge, and protect our shared humanity. This takes forgiveness and reconciliation. Reparations is about healing and repair! We cannot achieve equity and thus build communities of opportunity when we fundamentally refuse to acknowledge much less repair the past – and if we are being honest, state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. This is a global challenge and opportunity. Many societies have profited from the bodies and labor of African and other indigenous souls, and it is time for models that promote economic and social healing.
My personal and professional experiences intersect in dynamic and relevant ways to produce the credibility and expertise to yield optimal impact needed to promote economic justice. My mastery of active listening started at the dinner table, an anchor that welcomed diverse backgrounds and experiences. I quickly learned how food could be used as a strategic instrument to flavor ideas and season perspectives, it was through communal experiences that I cultivated a deep love for diversity, always grounded by our shared humanity. Regardless of the venue, I have been a consistent champion, thought leader, and practitioner on the issues of equity and access to opportunity. My relentless commitment to foster inclusive environments demands collaboration. I work hard to resolve issues in a concerted way that builds bridges, relationships, and networks.
I am thankful to pursue a mission minded career anchored by a commitment to justice. Over the past 20 years, I have dedicated my career to supporting innovative strategies, policies and practices that increase opportunity for places and people – particularly those bearing the burdens of systemic racism and economic exclusion. I worked with colleagues to co-design the Federal Reserve System’s inaugural Racism and the Economy which amplified how systemic racism constrains the overall competitiveness of our economy. I also characterize civic leadership by one’s credibility to inspire others to radically imagine, invest and implement strategies that will ultimately leave our communities better than we found them. Civic leadership also demands strategic foresight while managing with empathy and vulnerability, we do have a commitment to carry the torches of hope and joy in this work. Through my civic leadership, I partner with others to promote understanding of community wealth-building strategies to cultivate the engagement, capacity, and leadership necessary to shape a new economic narrative in Atlanta and beyond.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met Tene Traylor a few years before we co-founded Atlanta Wealth Building. We really started collaborating when she took on a new role. I was deeply invested in developing a working relationship with her for many reasons. There were very few people in philanthropy at the time, explicitly working on racial and economic justice issues. She was also native to Atlanta and had an intimate understanding of the region, the players, and the context. We were also two Black women working in Southern philanthropy, which is still a predominantly white sector. While we are deeply values aligned, we often have diverse approaches to the work. Our distinct strengths make us a formidable partnership. Our partnership is also deeply rooted in trust. This allows us to leverage our respective talents to achieve our desired outcomes. We never question the intent of our actions because we unequivocally trust, respect, and love each other. We documented our partnership and AWBI’s origin story in our Black Wealth Unlocked series.
Our working relationship blossomed into a friendship, rooted in respect, commitment, and love. The origins of our partnership, friendship, and AWBI intersect in a dynamic and authentic way. We created space to dream together and invited other to join the journey. We fiercely interrogated our respective assumptions, broke bread to center our humanity, and committed to making sure we always grounded this very difficult but necessary work in joy. Truthfully, our relationship became the cultural blueprint, DNA, if you will, for AWBI. Healthy relationships facilitate loving accountability. We sought to launch an organization deeply rooted in love and courage to create impact. Our intent was to both acknowledge and address the stubborn race based economic inequities. As the organization was created through a partnership, our natural practice is to stand in solidarity for Black liberation.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
All About Love, Bell Hooks. Capitalism and Slavery, Dr. Eric Williams
Harris-Perry, M. V. (2011). Sister citizen: Shame, stereotypes, and Black women in America. Yale University Press.).
Wallis, J. (2016). America’s original sin: Racism, white privilege, and the bridge to a new America. Brazos Press.
Alexander, M. (2011). The New Jim Crow. Ohio St. J. Crim. L., 9, 7.
Contact Info:
- Website: atlantawealthbuilding.org
- Instagram: @atlawbi
- Facebook: @ATLAWBI
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/awbi
- Twitter: @ATL_AWBI
- Youtube: @atlantawealthbuilding