COVID's economic impact on Black Bostonians and businesses

A 2015 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that white households in the city had an average net worth of nearly $248,000 compared to an $8 net worth for Black households. These findings had experts worried about how Black Bostonians and Black businesses would fare during and after the COVID pandemic.

Nicole Obi, President and CEO of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts joined WBUR’s Morning Edition ahead of the council's annual Mass Black Expo to talk about the pandemic’s impact on Black Bostonians.

Highlights from this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.

On how the pandemic affected Black businesses:

"The pandemic, of course, really highlighted the vulnerability of the Black economy here in Massachusetts. So we had many of our businesses, which are often very small, fail during the pandemic, because they just don't have the scale or the access to capital to get through a crisis like other businesses were able to do. So we see a lot of businesses that are still slow in their recovery from the COVID crisis."

On how Black businesses are recovering compared to other businesses:

"The pace is much slower than other businesses. A lot of our business owners that were able to survive had to do so through accessing their own personal lines of credit, or through friends and family who were also in similar situations. We even still see that the Black unemployment rate, while it's improved, is still twice as high as that of our white peers here in Massachusetts. So the recovery is still pretty slow."

On opportunities for Black businesses in the city:

"One of the things that we are hearing about is the silver tsunami that is happening across the nation. Boomers are not just leaving the workforce, those over a certain age are also leaving their businesses, and in Massachusetts, because our state skews slightly older than the national average, we're seeing our white business owners leaving their businesses at two and a half times the rate of Black business owners.

"So you're seeing downtowns, whether it's out in Framingham or in Boston, it's part of the reason why there's more vacancies that's occurring. We think this is an opportunity for Black and Brown business owners to actually grow through acquisition and move into and acquire some of these businesses that are going to be vacated over the next five years."

On how the cost of living can impact Black businesses

"Things like high housing costs, transportation issues, really put our business owners at a disadvantage to continue to grow and scale their businesses. Their workers can't get to work. Their workers can't live close to where they're employed, which is a challenge especially because so many of all of our families are dealing with child care issues, elder care issues.So we have to solve the housing transportation issues, not just for our Black business owners, but for the entire Commonwealth to be able to remain a competitive player in the nation and in the world.

"Another issue that we're also seeing that we think is critically important is around health. There was a recent study that found that there was a 23 year difference in life expectancy between the Back Bay and Roxbury. This is in 2023. So, you can imagine that health affects wealth. If you are dying in your prime working years, if you're sick and you can't support your family, It really does affect our ability to grow and grow our generational wealth and to help to contribute to the economy."