We Cannot Separate Politics From Business

Some of us may try not to mix business and politics - that my friend is a futile effort because business is heavily political.⠀⠀⠀⠀

America is one big political business ran by white men who are still reaping the rewards from systems created by the murder of Indigenous souls, the stealing of land, and the enslavement of Black people. That lineage touches and informs how we operate within business today. Even if we don't want it to. Even if we’re constantly unlearning and learning.

It's irresponsible and naive for us to think that our businesses are not political.

We’ve been trained to not mix business and politics. We’ve been trained to separate our identities, our intersections, and our being from business under the guise of politics being “bad” for business. But the fact of the matter is that race, gender, and class are all mechanisms that have been used to influence business...and influence how money is made within the landscape of business. 

From the language we use on our website to the images we share on social, to how we price our offerings, to who we seek mentorship and business support from...it’s all political. It’s all a signal of our politics and our intersections.

We live and have been indoctrinated inside of an imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist patriarchal society, and that indoctrination affects everything we think about and touch. 

Capitalism fuels business and capitalism says that there are workers and there are owners. Workers get extracted from and exploited while owners get unjustly enriched. Capitalism also turns us into machines and absolves us of our sovereignty. Most of us operate our businesses through a capitalistic lens...even if we’re just a one-person operation. Capitalism is deeply internalized.

But also slavery built America, created the capitalist economy as we know it, and has been the blueprint for how we do and be in business. How could business not be political? 

“Even business histories that consider plantation slavery tend to be constrained by the assumption that innovation occurred despite slavery, not because of it.” - Catlin Rosenthal

And also remember this: the personal is political.

As entrepreneurs, mainly soloprenuers running small businesses, our personal values are deeply entrenched in how we do business, so if we don’t interrogate our biases or our conditioning we simply become perpetrators of harm in the name of “earning a profit.” 

For me, personally, my politics are front and center in my business. As a Black woman living in America, this is hella important. And some parts of my political beliefs are always shifting and changing as I unlearn and learn. As I decolonize more and more, I'm able to see where I've been harmed, where I've been harmful, and where I've harmed myself.⠀

My hope for all Black entrepreneurs is that we’re able to be self-defined within our businesses and continue to do amazing, life-affirming, healing work that is deeply needed.

A Consideration For All White Entrepreneurs

If you’re a white person in business, who has not taken the time nor dedicated any of your resources towards an effort to unpack and understand the harmful history of business and your connection to it, your work and business will only seek to further perpetuate the ills of white supremacy and capitalism. 

Especially for you, creating and growing your business without also grasping an understanding of how whiteness is destructive, will weaponize your business and make it unsafe for folx who do not look like you to engage with your work...no matter what it is.

And your work of unlearning whiteness is not a one and done deal. Whiteness is something that you need to constantly unravel and learn to identify within yourself.

The Conclusion

As we’re creating new ways of collectively being, as the business world constantly shifts and is influenced more and more by politics, and as entrepreneurs are being called to do better and be better and to not replicate the ideology of "big business," we must not shy away from standing for things.

“People say they don’t care about politics; they’re not involved or don’t want to get involved, but they are. Their involvement just masquerades as indifference or inattention. It is the silent acquiescence of the millions that supports the system. When you don’t oppose a system, your silence becomes approval, for it does nothing to interrupt the system. People use all sorts of excuses for their indifference. They even appeal to God as a shorthand route for supporting the status quo. They talk about law and order. But look at the system, look at the present social ‘order’ of society. Do you see God. Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is only the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the enslavement and genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to.” - Mumia Abu-Jamal