 |
|
|
 Business News | May 2005 
Magazine Exec Urges Black Business Out of Mexico
 Dianne Solis - Dallas Morning News
| | Black Enterprise is a monthly business-service publication for African-American professionals, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives. Through its monthly features and departments, the magazine examines critical personal finance, money, and career. |
Earl Graves, the 68-year-old founder of Black Enterprise magazine, says he's not a civil rights activist but a businessman.
In that role, he's urging African-Americans to take their vacation business out of Mexico in the wake of President Vicente Fox's comments that "not even" blacks want the U.S. jobs taken by Mexican immigrants.
"I don't think it was insensitive; it was racist," said Mr. Graves in an interview in Dallas, where he opened the 10th annual Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference.
Mr. Graves first made the remarks in his opening speech Thursday morning to a gathering of about 2,000 well-heeled conventioneers at the Wyndham Anatole hotel.
That night, he says, he was on the phone talking strategy with a variety of black leaders, including civil rights activist Julian Bond and the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"We want to create some sensitivity in terms of the African-American market and respect for us as citizens," Mr. Graves said.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson met with Mr. Fox in Mexico City on Wednesday, and Mr. Fox is expected to be on Mr. Jackson's radio show Sunday.
In Mexico City, presidential spokesman Salvador Musalem reiterated Mr. Fox's regrets regarding his statements. Mr. Fox will publicly explain himself on the radio show, which can be heard on the Internet at www.keephopealiveradio.com, the spokesman noted.
"It is not necessary to have a boycott against Mexico, as he has said he didn't mean to offend anyone," Mr. Musalem said.
Mr. Fox is known for describing Mexican migrants as the nation's heroes -- something few Mexican presidents have ever done. Thus, his remarks on U.S. blacks could complicate the Mexican government's efforts to advocate an immigration policy in which U.S. employers play a critical role in legalizing the Mexican immigrant workforce.
Against this backdrop, the Black Enterprise conference opened in Dallas with an emphasis on wealth creation and the wealth crisis among black Americans.
Mr. Graves, a former PepsiCo franchiser and former aide to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, said "buying black" now has broader meaning. In the U.S. auto industry, for example, every vehicle now has parts supplied by a minority-owned company. "It's just that significant now," Mr. Graves said.
Diversity in the use of suppliers from a variety of minority groups has grown dramatically in corporate America, Mr. Graves said. But the rise of African-Americans into the executive suites has been much slower, he said.
Black Enterprise magazine is now in its fifth year of the Black Wealth Initiative.
Its mission is to combat the great disparity between the net worth of white and black Americans.
"Homeownership is the key, and you must save," Mr. Graves said. Black homeownership rates hover around 50 percent, vs. 75 percent for white Americans. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us