Hello family,
I apologize for being out of touch. I know that you all know I have been busy living The Ebony Experiment. It has really been challenging. I bet you are thinking the challenge involves finding and dealing with Black businesses to meet my family's needs. Some of you believe the sacrifices include not being able to go to those restaurants, stores, and websites I've been going to all my life. Others are just wondering how tough it must be having to plan my life around the few Black businesses in my community or the others I can find via word of mouth or online research. You might be saying... What a crazy way to live!
I've never been so happy. My life is full of joy. Everyday is a victory. I love meeting new Black business owners and professionals. I love telling them what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I love the love I receive from all kinds of people who see this project for what it is - a learning experience, a creative way to promote entrepreneurship, and a self-help economics exercise.
You know where my pain comes from? You wanna know why I really cry about this every night? OK. Sometimes I feel like I have to beg my own people to get engaged and understand the vision of EE. The larger community's perspective and opinions have been easiest to comprehend and manage. But I gotta be honest, when it comes to really just "getting it"(regardless of whether or not they support it), other folks seem to have us beat.
We went into this assuming that since our community was so engaged and alive with pride and hope, we were prime for making some special achievements happen for ourselves. We make this journey public because we want you to do it too! We want you to feel it too! We assumed you would love the idea, be excited and anxious to do your part, be obsessed with maximizing its potential, and be united about the possibility of enhancing our quality of life and showing the world how fantastic we are when we come together.
Assumptions. BIG assumptions.
I've spent most of the past two weeks traveling to promote EE. I've been fortunate enough to encounter dozens of wonderful entrepreneurs, activists, students, educators, and everyday folk. I introduce them to EE. I tell them about our vision and plan to have that Ticker on the website, growing minute by minute, showcasing all the money and love we are pouring back into Black households and businesses, empowering the entire Black business community so that they create more jobs, scholarships, and role models in underserved Black neighborhoods... I showed them all that. Some people cried. Some people hugged me.
So then I asked them to work... to connect me to the people who can really make this happen... to contribute to the Foundation so we can raise the money we need to build the database, hire the staff, plan the events, and buy the technology we need to start this national campaign. We have the media attention. The time is right. We are right there...but we need a lot of help!
That's when the hugs turned to shrugs. That's when the passion waned. Those tears dried up real quick!
I cannot do this alone. I am a mother and a wife. I am daughter, sister and auntie. I am a proud Black American woman, ready to give all I have to improve my community and thereby make my country better for everyone. And that's all I am.
I have been spending too much time beggin' Black, when I'm supposed to be out there buying Black!!
Of course, there's a happy ending. Hold on...
I woke up today sad. I woke up thinking I should give up - not on buying Black - but on using our journey to inspire millions of others to try to find and support Black businesses, professionals, and products too. I was gonna give up on the Ticker. I prayed for understanding and wisdom. I've been spending all our money trying to make this happen (printing, traveling, taking folks out to lunch and dinner, paying attorneys and other vendors...), and maybe it's time to call it quits. I prayed to make the right decision for EE.
Then a woman I met in Atlanta sent me a note. She told me she loves me. She told me, "Stay determined and focused - it is all going to work out right!...We will work hard to make this happen because it is right and it is the time! God's hand is definitely in it! " She then told me that she is going to write a check.
She's not one of the multi-millionaires I met. She isn't a bigtime politician. She doesn't own a business that will be served by EE. She is a hard-working woman who has family problems of her own, whose family has been hit hard by this economy and recent job loss. She's just another strong, proud Black American woman, trying to do what she can to help her community.
I barely know this person. I have never seen her. I talked to her yesterday for the first time, on the phone. I wanted to treat her to breakfast yesterday to present EE to her. I was going to ask her to help me meet some wealthy people who could help us raise the money the Foundation needs to start the campaign. I couldn't take her to breakfast because I needed to be with my mother (she's sick with pancreatic cancer). I called her instead, just as a courtesy. We had a nice conversation. She promised she would connect me to some people. My husband is meeting with one of them in two hours.
She is an angel. She is an angel God sent my way because He knew I needed some encouragement. She isn't going to give us much, but that she is giving is enough to keep me focused on The Ebony Experiment vision, that Ticker.
I guess my assumptions were not that far off. They were just misplaced. I now assume that God is with me, with us, and that we are doing His work through the EE Foundation.
Thank you, Angel. Thanks to all my EE angels.
Showing posts with label Black community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black community. Show all posts
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Middle Class Chicago Family Commits to Buy Black for all of 2009
My name is Maggie Anderson. My husband John and I are the founders of The Ebony Experiment. It is a year-long study and campaign about economic empowerment and Black entrepreneurship grounded in my family's pledge to try to exclusively support Black-owned businesses and professionals for an entire year. The project officially launched yesterday, January 1, 2009.
I created this blog to keep my community informed of our progress, the ups and downs of our commitment, and maintain a dialogue about the plight and potential of Black business.
For more about The Ebony Experiment, visit http://www.ebonyexperiment.com/. You should also read the article in the Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/business/1341775,CST-FIN-buyblack21.article?plckCurrentPage=18&sid=sitelife.suntimes.com) that presented our story to the world. I also copied our national press release below. You can also find it on Forbes, Reuters, Yahoo! Finance, Hoovers, and several other local, national, and international media outlets. Our little project has created quite a stir! Join the conversation. Join the movement.
ONE FAMILY ATTEMPTS TO STIMULATE ECONOMY THROUGH “THE EBONY EXPERIMENT”
Black Family Pledges to Solely Support Black Owned Businesses For One Year
CHICAGO (December 22, 2008) – John C. and Maggie Anderson are ready to engage in an experiment that will change their lives. On January 1, 2009, the Andersons will launch “The Ebony Experiment,” a year-long effort to generate significant economic growth within the Black community. During this time, the Andersons will only support Black owned businesses and professionals in efforts to motivate other Black consumers to do the same. With a concerted national push, the Andersons look to prove that Black communities can be improved when Black consumers and investors support their own.
Tracking Every Penny Spent
For the Andersons, the Ebony Experiment will be no small undertaking as they will transition their standing contracts and household expenditures which include loans, utility bills, credit cards, etc., to truly execute their initiative. The Andersons will track their progress on the experiment’s website, http://www.ebonyexperiment.com/. The website will feature a ticker that tracks the Anderson’s expenditures in real time with a national goal of one million dollars by 2010. “During the coming months, we want The Ebony Experiment to become a national movement connecting Black consumers and investors to Black businesses and professionals,” said Maggie Anderson, president of The Ebony Experiment Group. Anderson continued, “Ultimately, this will unify the struggling and successful sectors of the Black community so we can determine and improve our standing together.”
An Effort Worth Supporting
The practice of supporting your own community is not new and is often exercised by many races in the United States. However, The Ebony Experiment will be the first time that a Black couple steps outside of their daily conveniences in order to help build their community. There are nearly 2.5 million Black households with incomes over $100,000. The Ebony Experiment targets these middle-class and upper middle-class families and asks them to make commitments to buy Black. “The Black community is energized and engaged as we look to 2009. This is the perfect time to leverage that excitement by maximizing the potential of our business community and the bargaining power of Black consumers and investors,” said John C. Anderson, co-founder of the Ebony Experiment.
An effort of this magnitude has drawn the attention and support of esteemed Black scholars and leaders including world-renowned author Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Steven Rogers, the director of the Levy Institute of Entrepreneurial Practice at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. At the end of the experiment, a comprehensive and revealing study will be published by Dr. Michael Bennett, the executive director of the Egan Urban Economic Center at DePaul University. Dr. Dyson will also co-author “The Ebony Experiment,” a book that will chronicle the Anderson’s journey and how their efforts impacted the Black community.
About The Andersons
John C. Anderson is a Harvard graduate with a MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a native of Detroit. Maggie Anderson is a first-generation Cuban American, reared in a drug-infested area of Miami, and has a JD and MBA from the University of Chicago. The Andersons live in Oak Park, Ill., with their daughters Cori and Cara, who are ages two and three respectively.
About The Ebony Experiment Group, LLC
The Ebony Experiment Group, LLC, was created by John C. and Maggie Anderson of Oak Park, Ill, and is a community service oriented project that is seeking sponsors to support the experiment and maintain the website. The purpose of The Ebony Experiment is to infuse long-term wealth into the Black community by galvanizing and uniting Black consumers, investors, businesses and professionals.
Media Contact: Courtney Quaye or
Carla V. Oglesby
CGC Communications LLC
312-733-0644
Courtney@cgccommunications.com
Carla@cgccommunications.com
###
I created this blog to keep my community informed of our progress, the ups and downs of our commitment, and maintain a dialogue about the plight and potential of Black business.
For more about The Ebony Experiment, visit http://www.ebonyexperiment.com/. You should also read the article in the Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/business/1341775,CST-FIN-buyblack21.article?plckCurrentPage=18&sid=sitelife.suntimes.com) that presented our story to the world. I also copied our national press release below. You can also find it on Forbes, Reuters, Yahoo! Finance, Hoovers, and several other local, national, and international media outlets. Our little project has created quite a stir! Join the conversation. Join the movement.
ONE FAMILY ATTEMPTS TO STIMULATE ECONOMY THROUGH “THE EBONY EXPERIMENT”
Black Family Pledges to Solely Support Black Owned Businesses For One Year
CHICAGO (December 22, 2008) – John C. and Maggie Anderson are ready to engage in an experiment that will change their lives. On January 1, 2009, the Andersons will launch “The Ebony Experiment,” a year-long effort to generate significant economic growth within the Black community. During this time, the Andersons will only support Black owned businesses and professionals in efforts to motivate other Black consumers to do the same. With a concerted national push, the Andersons look to prove that Black communities can be improved when Black consumers and investors support their own.
Tracking Every Penny Spent
For the Andersons, the Ebony Experiment will be no small undertaking as they will transition their standing contracts and household expenditures which include loans, utility bills, credit cards, etc., to truly execute their initiative. The Andersons will track their progress on the experiment’s website, http://www.ebonyexperiment.com/. The website will feature a ticker that tracks the Anderson’s expenditures in real time with a national goal of one million dollars by 2010. “During the coming months, we want The Ebony Experiment to become a national movement connecting Black consumers and investors to Black businesses and professionals,” said Maggie Anderson, president of The Ebony Experiment Group. Anderson continued, “Ultimately, this will unify the struggling and successful sectors of the Black community so we can determine and improve our standing together.”
An Effort Worth Supporting
The practice of supporting your own community is not new and is often exercised by many races in the United States. However, The Ebony Experiment will be the first time that a Black couple steps outside of their daily conveniences in order to help build their community. There are nearly 2.5 million Black households with incomes over $100,000. The Ebony Experiment targets these middle-class and upper middle-class families and asks them to make commitments to buy Black. “The Black community is energized and engaged as we look to 2009. This is the perfect time to leverage that excitement by maximizing the potential of our business community and the bargaining power of Black consumers and investors,” said John C. Anderson, co-founder of the Ebony Experiment.
An effort of this magnitude has drawn the attention and support of esteemed Black scholars and leaders including world-renowned author Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Steven Rogers, the director of the Levy Institute of Entrepreneurial Practice at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. At the end of the experiment, a comprehensive and revealing study will be published by Dr. Michael Bennett, the executive director of the Egan Urban Economic Center at DePaul University. Dr. Dyson will also co-author “The Ebony Experiment,” a book that will chronicle the Anderson’s journey and how their efforts impacted the Black community.
About The Andersons
John C. Anderson is a Harvard graduate with a MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a native of Detroit. Maggie Anderson is a first-generation Cuban American, reared in a drug-infested area of Miami, and has a JD and MBA from the University of Chicago. The Andersons live in Oak Park, Ill., with their daughters Cori and Cara, who are ages two and three respectively.
About The Ebony Experiment Group, LLC
The Ebony Experiment Group, LLC, was created by John C. and Maggie Anderson of Oak Park, Ill, and is a community service oriented project that is seeking sponsors to support the experiment and maintain the website. The purpose of The Ebony Experiment is to infuse long-term wealth into the Black community by galvanizing and uniting Black consumers, investors, businesses and professionals.
Media Contact: Courtney Quaye or
Carla V. Oglesby
CGC Communications LLC
312-733-0644
Courtney@cgccommunications.com
Carla@cgccommunications.com
###
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