Understanding the Transition from DEI Initiatives to BBE Certification for Black Economic Empowerment

The National Business League Secures Historic USPTO Federal Trademark for Black Business Enterprise (BBE), Revolutionizing Economic Equity and Sovereignty for Black Entrepreneurs Globally
Tuskegee, Alabama — In the “Deep State,” sixty-one years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Black America remains at a pivotal crossroads. Promises of economic inclusion have not only faltered but have entrenched a dependence on systems never designed to foster or sustain Black prosperity. Today, the National Business League (NBL)® announces a monumental shift: securing a USPTO Federal Trademark for the Black Business Enterprise (BBE)®, a Certification and Scorecard Program under registration numbers 98127825 and 98130839. This milestone is more than a legal victory—it is a cultural declaration of war against entrenched economic systems that perpetuate exclusion, inequity, and systemic racism.
Booker T. Washington’s vision of self-reliance and economic empowerment, forged in the crucible of Tuskegee, remains as urgent now as it was in 1900. “We stand on the precipice of reclaiming our economic destiny,” said Dr. Ken L. Harris, President and CEO of the National Business League. “Integration was never the solution to our economic disenfranchisement. The experiment has failed. DEI initiatives have failed. Affirmative action has failed. Black businesses and their communities have been left behind, and now we declare unequivocally: We will no longer beg for a seat at the table. We are building our own.”
Dr. Harris continued: “For decades, Black Americans have been sold the false promise of inclusion, while governments, philanthropic, public and private sector economic systems, institutions and structures have fortified their stranglehold on wealth and opportunity. The time has come to get off the economic plantation. The Black Business Enterprise (BBE) Certification represents, the global Black community’s emancipation proclamation for the 21st century.”
As a Primer to the Demise of DEI and Affirmative Action for the Civil Rights Movement:
In confronting the deliberate construction of race as a tool for economic exploitation and systemic oppression of Black indigeneity, it is imperative to engage critically with the pivotal works of scholars who have meticulously documented these truths. Dr. Theodore W. Allen, in The Invention of the White Race, exposes the 16th-century conditions under which “whiteness” was fabricated as a deliberate marker of privilege and control. This invention was not an organic societal evolution, but a colonial strategy engineered to fracture solidarity among laborers across racial lines, ensuring economic advantage and dominance for white elites.
Building upon this foundation, Dr. Jacqueline Battalora’s Birth of a White Nation highlights the codification of whiteness through legal structures that entrenched racial hierarchy into the very fabric of American society. These laws institutionalized inequality, embedding racial subjugation into the economic and social systems that persist today. Contemporary scholars, including Tim Wise and Dr. Robin DiAngelo, have illuminated how these historical constructs sustain barriers to genuine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives—programs that, in their current iteration, are undeniably dead-on arrival. Dr. Jeffrey B. Perry extends this trajectory to a global scale, illustrating how racial constructs have systematically marginalized Black-Indigenous populations across the diaspora.
The coordinated strategies of global elites have perpetuated a divisive racial economy designed to sustain control and dominance. This context underscores the necessity of understanding race not as a relic of the past but as an enduring mechanism of division and control. As educators and scholars, we bear the responsibility of dismantling these systems by exposing their origins and challenging their continued operation. This historical framework is essential for understanding the systemic failures of DEI and affirmative action while affirming the urgent need for an unapologetic, informed approach to Black economic justice in 2025 and beyond.
DEI’s Hollow Promises: A Post-Mortem of Failed Economic Inclusion
The aftermath of the civil rights movement has exposed the systemic shortcomings of well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed strategies:
Legal Setbacks: The 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC, driven by minority Asian American plaintiffs, dismantled race-based affirmative action, rendering DEI initiatives legally and institutionally impotent. This ruling marks a significant setback, shifting the burden back onto Black communities to fight for educational access and opportunity in environments historically resistant to change.
Performative Government and Corporate Promises: Over $200 billion pledged for racial equity since 2020 has yielded negligible change for Black businesses. The façade of corporate philanthropy has masked an unwillingness to invest in genuine, systemic change, revealing a pattern where declarations of support do not translate into tangible economic upliftment for Black communities. The pledges became merely press conferences with ambiguous announcements and platitudes, with Black faces used to validate already failed promises without accountability or measurement of progress. While the CARES Act ($2.2 trillion), the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (approximately $900 billion in relief), and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ($1.9 trillion) were enacted, less than an estimated 1% of these taxpayer funds went to Black American communities and businesses.
Structural Regression: With DEI departments shrinking, political, corporate leaders, and Black gatekeepers have abandoned progress for performative gestures, retreating from bold commitments to Black economic empowerment. This regression signifies a return to tokenism rather than substantive action.
Colonial Lexicons: Words like “minority,” “disadvantaged,” “people of color” and “marginalized” are linguistic chains that perpetuate dependency and diminish Black enterprise excellence. The Black Business Empowerment (BBE) movement rejects these terms, embracing a vocabulary of autonomy, equity, ownership, and power, advocating for a narrative that uplifts rather than confines.
Meritorious Manumission: Historical practices like the 1710 “Meritorious Manumission Act” in Virginia illustrate a legacy of division where personal gain was prioritized over collective liberation. This act of freeing enslaved individuals for betraying their own community has left a lasting impact, today creating a class of Black leaders often more aligned with white power structures than with the needs of their community, defeating the struggles and sacrifices of our Black ancestors.
Dilution of Diversity: For over 246 years of enslavement and 160 years under Black Codes and Jim Crow segregation, Black Americans have sacrificed blood, sweat, tears, and lives in the pursuit of civil rights and economic justice. Notably, this struggle was predominantly shouldered by the Black community alone, without significant frontline participation from other racial groups, creeds, colors, sexual orientations, or genders. After more than 400 years of resistance against enslavement and economic oppression, Black people fought for civil liberties that today benefit groups like white women, veterans, Jewish individuals, and other economically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups including Asian Americans, Indian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. However, Black Americans still find themselves at the bottom of the economic ladder, often trapped in what feels like a permanent underclass. Irony strikes as white women, who once owned nearly 45% of slave plantations, have emerged as significant beneficiaries of affirmative action and DEI policies, which were ostensibly designed to address the historical disadvantages inflicted upon Black communities.
The Politicization of DEI: Instead of affirmative action and DEI becoming universally supported policies, they’ve been politicized, creating divisions along party lines. This politicization has been used to garner Black votes without ensuring accountability or the adoption of policies that would lead to Black economic prosperity, regardless of political affiliation.
Black Gatekeepers: The demise of effective DEI initiatives can also be attributed to the actions of Black gatekeepers, whose primary aim often seems to be to selectively benefit certain individuals or groups rather than empowering the broader Black community. This has resulted in a scenario where “Black faces in high places” or “debunked Talented 10th” or “integrationist” theories do not necessarily lead to community upliftment, while those genuinely committed to Black economic justice are marginalized within systemic structures. We need to return to Booker T. Washington’s self-determination and economic models for independence and sovereignty due to the economic failures of integration into a burning house. Acknowledged by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Minority and Other Certifications: To add insult to injury, Black leadership during the Nixon Administration used the Black struggle to create a minority agenda instead of addressing the Black problem first. This led to the Black agenda being co-opted after the signing of civil rights legislation by other races, creeds, colors, sexual orientations, and genders who identify with the white power structure, leaving the collective Black community and its pursuit of economic freedom, liberation, and justice to be neglected, isolated, marginalized, and targeted for further oppression, restriction, and exclusion from accessing industries, sectors, and markets for economic opportunities. Today, 61 years after civil rights legislation was signed in bipartisan fashion to curb Black resistance and destruction, out of 3.6 million Black-owned businesses, less than 1% are certified by any minority or economic certifying body within the public, private, federal government, and philanthropic spaces, excluding Blacks from billions in economic opportunities.
The Black Business Enterprise (BBE): A Blueprint for Economic Liberation
The statistics speak volumes: Black businesses comprise only 1% of minority and other certifications, locking them out of more than $500 billion in annual government and private sector contracts. The BBE Certification and Scorecard Program will rewrite this narrative by prioritizing:
Certification: Exclusive to businesses where Black ownership is at least 51%, the BBE Certification opens doors to economic spaces long barred to Black entrepreneurs, where the U.S. Black community’s estimated $1.5 Trillion dollar consumer patronage in 2025 is respected and wanted.
Scorecard: A groundbreaking digital accountability tool ensures transparent and equitable spending by corporations and government entities with Black businesses.
Proven Results: Piloted through the National Black Supplier Development Program, the initiative has already yielded $150 million in contracts with major corporations Comerica Bank, Cummins, DTE Energy, Ford, GM, Lear, Magna, and Toyota, showcasing its potential to redefine Black economic power. Again, we will work with those who work with the Black business community in the public and private federal government sector.
A Call to Action: From Legacy to Liberation
The BBE Certification is more than a program—it is a clarion call for Black economic sovereignty. Its official launch will take place at the 125th Quasquicentennial National Black Business Conference in Atlanta, GA, from August 20-23, 2025, in conjunction with the launch of the Black Economic Freedom Movement Digitize 1 Million Black Businesses by 2028 Campaign. This historic occasion will be a rallying cry to reclaim Black economic freedom through digital transformation, innovation, and ownership. This critique is not just an examination of DEI’s failures but a call to action for a reimagined approach to true equity, one that centers on the historical and ongoing struggle of Black Americans for justice, recognition, and economic power. It’s time to move beyond performative inclusion to real, structural change where Black communities are not just participants but primary beneficiaries in the American dream.
Dr. Ken L. Harris issues this unapologetic challenge: “The era of waiting is over. We are no longer asking for inclusion; we are declaring ownership. We are no longer pleading for equity; we are asserting sovereignty. Our liberation will not come from external validation but through our own hands, guided by our own vision. Booker T. Washington laid the foundation; it is our sacred duty to finish the work. We will no longer beg for seats at tables where Black enterprise is neither valued nor respected. We will build our own tables and only partner with those who genuinely support and honor the mission of Black economic freedom.”
About the National Business League: Founded in 1900 by Booker T. Washington, the National Business League (NBL)® is the nation’s oldest and largest trade organization committed to advancing economic equity for Black businesses. Visit www.nationalbusinessleague.org.
About the National Alliance for Black Business (NABB): Co-founded in 2022, NABB unites the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the World Conference of Mayors, and other Black organizations to drive growth and prosperity for Black businesses. Visit www.nationalallianceforblackbusiness.com.
About Dr. Ken L. Harris: Dr. Ken L. Harris, a proud Detroit native, serves as the 16th President and CEO of the National Business League, following in the footsteps of its iconic founder, Booker T. Washington. Dr. Harris earned a Ph.D. in African American and African Studies with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and Economics from Michigan State University. With over 25 years of exceptional experience in corporate executive leadership, education, public policy, business development, entrepreneurship, and Pan-Black global economic empowerment, Dr. Harris is a visionary leader committed to championing Black economic prosperity, self-determination, and the unification of the global Black diaspora.
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NBL Media Contact:
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Email: mmforman@gmail.com
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Keywords: Black Business Enterprise, Economic Autonomy, Booker T. Washington, DEI Demise, BBE Certification
#BlackEconomicEmpowerment #BBECertification #BookerTWashington