By October 5, 2020, Harvard Business Review.
2020 is the year the world’s attention turned to the deep fractures of our economic, political, educational, and healthcare systems. The year when status quo solutions were no longer good enough. For all the declarations of being “in this together,” the dual pandemics of Covid-19 and systemic racism have revealed how low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately left out, let down, and punished by our systems.
The death of George Floyd, representing too many Black lives lost, has reignited the movement for racial justice around the world, demonstrating that we urgently need to build a society that is not only inclusive, but also just. The immediate call to reform police and criminal-justice systems in America is a significant step, but the change must go further. We must upend how capital flows, how hospitals care for patients, how institutions lend, how employers hire and care for workers, and how all of us see and care for each other.
Many of these new solutions are coming from a new category of entrepreneurs who apply their creative and innovative energy to solve problems of poverty. These entrepreneurs, who run for-profit businesses, have been the difference makers in countless communities across America. They bring crucial products and services to the people who need them most, while at the same time addressing the factors that contribute to them being the most in need.
Comments (0)