BLACK CAPITALISM: A Program for American Business in the Ghetto

by Theodore L. Cross ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1969

There are two strategies, this lawyer-businessman-and publisher tells us, for the war on ghetto poverty. One, adopted by most ""concerned"" businessmen, is an ""Exits-from-Poverty"" approach, which seeks to create jobs outside the ghetto for black workers and executives. The other method aims at ""Enriching the Slum,"" by fostering the growth of new jobs and enterprises there. Cross chooses the latter strategy, and here issues guidelines to business and government on how to succeed in ghetto business. Tax credits and loan guarantee programs are urged to underwrite the creation of risk capital and credit for ghetto firms, and to pay the costs of outside consultants who would advise black entrepreneurs. Most of these suggestions -- like Cross' critiques of FHA and SBA loan policies -- have been around in business and anti-poverty circles for the last several years. The book's major novelty is its effective documentation of the economic patterns which have hitherto made investment in the ghetto so undesirable. The author successfully answers black nationalists who argue that the ghetto is already being milked of its wealth by white business, proving instead that the ghetto has precious little cash for anyone to extract, and that it appeals only to marginal white business and criminal enterprise. For the rest, the book is overlong and repetitive. An appendix listing present company programs in the ghetto will provide the executive who wants to ""give a damn"" with the proper number to dial.

Pub Date: May 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION