Author of "Our Black Year" Featured Speaker at NEIU’s Black Economic Forum

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Margarita, "Maggie" Anderson, author of "Our Black Year" is the featured speaker at Northeastern Illinois University's “Black Economic Self Determination” forum at the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd., from noon to 3 p.m., June 28.
Margarita, "Maggie" Anderson, author of "Our Black Year" is the featured speaker at Northeastern Illinois University's “Black Economic Self Determination” forum at the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd., from noon to 3 p.m., June 28.

Margarita “Maggie” Anderson, author of “Our Black Year,” along with her husband, John Anderson and her children, made history and dominated headlines as the national media covered their real-life case study in self-help economics for the Black community. The family exclusively utilized Black businesses and talent, and consumed only African American-made products for an entire year.

Maggie calls the effort, “The Empowerment Experiment” (EE), an endeavor that resulted in a landmark study conducted by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business.

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper queried Anderson about “The Empowerment Experiment” and also asked about her participation in Northeastern Illinois University’s (NEIU) upcoming “Black Economic Self Determination" forum scheduled from noon to 3 p.m., on June 28, at the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood Blvd.

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper: I want to go back a bit and ask what the motivating factor was for the “The Empowerment Experiment?

Maggie Anderson: This was deeply, intensely personal. We wanted to take a stand to inspire people to think about our (Black) businesses, where our money goes and what it could be doing to help our community, and about economic empowerment. We also wanted to prove the value and validity of self-help economics. That’s why it was called an experiment. It was just as much a scientific exercise as it was a social stand. The inspiration for The Empowerment Experiment was the conversation we kept having about Black people not supporting each other, our community being raided economically by outsiders who disrespect us, and our really being more acutely aware, as we progressed in Corporate America, of how small a role our businesses play in this economy. We wanted the media and the Black “leaders” to talk about our problems from an economic perspective. We created EE because we believed that our people and our neighborhoods suffer because the businesses are gone and dying. Without the businesses, the community dies…Black businesses, the neighborhoods, the children… no success, no life, no hope.

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper: What were some of the things you learned during that experience?

Maggie Anderson: Unfortunately, when we first finished it, I felt a deep and brooding anger and a painful sadness. I had less hope, not more. ..It showed me how utterly disrespected we are as a people, a culture, and especially a businesses.

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper: What in your opinion is the reason African Americans are not obtaining economic stability (wealth) in the way other races do and what would be your recommendation for African American families in terms of attaining wealth?

Maggie Anderson: I think our families are poor for many of the same reasons our businesses and neighborhoods are failing. We have lost a sense of self-worth. We don’t even have life insurance… (In many cases), (we just have) funeral coverage. We can easily create more intergenerational wealth by doing what the other ethnic groups do to survive. They support their own and they invest in themselves. We need to do both. We need to shift our spending to Black businesses, create accounts at Black banks... Those of us with higher disposable incomes need to do all this and then some. We need to be pooling our money to create high-quality businesses in poor Black areas. We should be using our talents to create jobs, not just get jobs. We need to demand that the corporations we work for include more Black businesses in the supply chains, engage more Black professional firms. The little things we can do, that the other groups have mastered, will take us a long, long way.

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper: Tell us about the upcoming “Black Economic Self Determination” forum at the Center for Inner City Studies and why it's important for people to attend?

Maggie Anderson: I am so proud of this outstanding coalition of activists, academics and business leaders for creating this event. Instead of just complaining, studying, whining…about the lack of economic unity and business power in our community, or just waiting for government or corporate munificence… Dr. Conrad Worrill, (National Chairman Emeritus of the National Black United Front (NBUF) and Director/Professor, Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies), is calling on everyone who is ready to employ our excellence - instead of employing excuses… to come to the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies if you want to perpetuate our potential - not our problems. We are going to talk about the cultural impediments and potential cultural impacts of really focusing on economic empowerment as a community. We want to examine and promote how things can change if we were to understand and express our pride and culture economically…If you are ready to make that shift and you want to know why or how, you need to come to this event. Besides that, you will meet some wonderful business owners and community stewards! I am begging folks to show up and spread the word. I want us to start acting like we are in a movement. Everyone who still wants to pick up where Dr. (Martin Luther) King, Jr., left off, should show up. We want to sign 1000 new people from Chicago into our million by July 1.

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