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Listen to this articleAn event organized by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey drew more than 300 attendees for an examination of issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion in New Jersey. Participants included members of both chambers, business leaders and community stakeholders. The event featured two panel discussions – The Value Proposition of DE&I and Media Engagement of DE&I – as well as a keynote speech by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
At the top of the program, John Harmon, founder, president and CEO of AACCNJ, noted this effort is of critical importance for the state and one that he has spent a lot of time working on with Tom Bracken, the state chamber’s president and CEO.
“We’ve come together just trying to figure out how we can make New Jersey one of the best states in America,” Harmon said. “New Jersey is known as the most diverse state in this country. And if you don’t leverage your strengths, you don’t get that return.”
Bracken noted that he and Harmon came together on this initiative in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and were drawing attention to DE&I. But he conceded that the combination of the pandemic, inflation, the Ukraine war and other events led to some of the momentum being lost. So, this event marked a chance to bring attention back to the issue.
“We’re here to reignite the enthusiasm we had back then for DE&I and find a path together with you all giving us advice as to how we should move forward faster,” Bracken said. “Because the benefits to this state, in many ways – culturally, economically – are enormous. And we want to make sure we achieve that. Is there a better time to do this in New Jersey than now? The answer is no.”
The backdrop of the event was marked by the passing of Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver just days earlier, which left many attendees with a heavy heart but a renewed sense of urgency to continue the work and initiatives to which she devoted her life.
“Let me say one thing about Sheila Oliver if I could,” said Bracken. “If there was a better example of the benefits of expanding diversity in our state than Sheila Oliver, I don’t know what was. She was a person who committed herself to the State of New Jersey, who gave to the State of New Jersey like very few people have ever given. And New Jerseyans, in their entirety – people, businesses, government – all benefitted from what she brought to the table. So, a woman of color who can add that much to the equation just speaks to why we need to expand diversity in our state. Because the more we do that, the more Sheila Oliver’s will be stepping forward and the more this state will benefit. I would say that Sheila Oliver is the epitome of the diversity initiative we are trying to promote in this state.”
“This is a woman who was well-educated from a working-class family who never lost sight of who she was and who she represented,” said Harmon. “She represented the underprivileged, the underserved, the underrepresented men and women of society. And Governor Murphy saw fit to bring her amongst his team as our lieutenant governor. She’s a woman, in my opinion – although she had great power and carried a big stick – who utilized her power and strength with great discretion.”
Harmon vowed to continue the work Oliver undertook in her honor. “I think it was Dr. King who said the ultimate measure of the man – in this case, men and women – is where you stand in the time of controversy, comfort and convenience,” said Harmon. “It is time for us to step up and do what we believe is right, inclusive and transformational.”
There are four areas, which Harmon stressed, where engagement and action was needed: increasing corporate board and C-suite diversity; more contract opportunities for Black businesses; more career opportunities; and more corporate citizenship support in underrepresented communities
“None of this is about charity,” Harmon stressed. “We want you to allow these men and women a level playing field to compete because it’s well-documented with diversity, equity and inclusion, you get a better outcome.”
The first panel was moderated by Dr. Forest Soaries, Jr. The CEO of Corporate Community Connections, Inc., and included Jackie Taylor, partner at EY; Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board; and Ferlanda Fox Nixon, chief of Policy and External Affairs for AACCNJ.
Soaries opened by thanking Harmon and Bracken for their efforts in taking on this issue. “Never in the history of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce has there been this kind of connection between it and the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey and all of us,” said Soaries. “I want to thank god for Tom Bracken and his team that has partnered with John and his team to make these kinds of events possible.”
Nixon kicked off the discussion by running through some topline numbers and economic trends here in New Jersey. He noted that the African American community commands a spending power of $57 billion. While the overall unemployment rate in New Jersey is 3.5%, it is almost double in the Black community (6.8%). The median net worth for Black and brown families is nearly $300,000 less than for white families.
Nixon also described a disparity in homeownership of 35%-37% for Black families versus 74% for white families. And he said African Americans are getting less than 3% of state government contracts while comprising more than 15% of the population
“And we all know that COVID struck the Black community the hardest. And that set us back. So, any gains that we may have been able to tout – the pandemic set us back,” Nixon explained. “Those are the numbers. They’re still bleak and obviously there’s a lot of work to be done. But I also want to go back to that positive number that I started with – with that $57 billion of spending in this state. If those numbers that I just ticked off were better, then we’d be spending even more, which is better for the state’s economy.”
The conversation weaved through a number of topics such as the need to support entrepreneurship, improve access to capital, support homeownership and do more than just issuing statements.
“It is an ongoing process. It’s not here today or tomorrow,” Nixon said. “Fifty years from now, we should still be talking about this. We should still act because we need to always remember that it is an issue.”
Taylor spoke about sectors where there is significant opportunity, such as the area of automation and emerging technologies, as well as offshore wind and renewable energy, maritime opportunities at New Jersey’s ports and cannabis.
Nixon added that in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, there are opportunities around any space that provides remedial help or educational support for students of color.
Peterson agreed on technology being a major area of opportunity and pointed out that the health care sector is another one because of the ongoing labor struggles in that sector. She also said that there are opportunities in the trades.
“Those are five areas – technology, energy, education, health care, and trades – that offer not only employment but entrepreneurial opportunities,” said Soaries. “And they’re just going to grow. They’re not going to get any smaller.”
That conversation continued into a second panel offering a chance for attendees to engage with media representatives on these issues.
Baraka then closed out the event with his keynote. “Inequity is a problem in New Jersey. It’s also a problem in America – a problem we have not been able to deal with,” he said. “Once we deal with inequity, then all the other problems will be less severe – problems of unemployment, problems for education, problems of growth, of crime and violence. All these problems begin to dissipate when we deal with inequity.”
Baraka spoke at length about many hot-button issues on the minds of attendees, including that affirmative action ruling and more. He also ticked off a number of programs and initiatives in Newark to support Black and brown businesses.
“The point is the things that we’re trying to do are difficult,” the mayor said. “This is going to take a collective effort because it’s so heavy. We didn’t get here yesterday.”
“In Newark, we try to do as much crazy things as we can possibly think of,” Baraka added. “We want to do as much crazy stuff as we can imagine. Some of it won’t work. But we want to have the risk to be able to do it, because once we find out what won’t work – we know what will. And we want to push and keep pushing and pushing.”
Baraka closed by telling the attendees and organizers to keep up their efforts and to keep pushing.
“I just want you to be serious about the work that you’re doing. Don’t take this stuff too lightly,” said Baraka. “This is serious stuff that we’re dealing with – serious, serious stuff.”
“There is no better time to introduce a reignited diversity initiative than right now,” Bracken said. “Because we are going to start to promote the state like it’s never been promoted since the governor’s taken office. What we need to do is take the enormous assets we have in this state and leverage those assets. And one of those assets – maybe the most prominent asset we have in the State of New Jersey – is diversity. We are the most diverse state in the country.”
“At the end of the day, this is our state. We have to own it,” Harmon said. “And if we do better, we all do better.”
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