The Michigan Black Business Alliance (MBBA) is challenging every candidate for Detroit mayor and city council to release a comprehensive agenda for supporting Black-owned businesses. With more than half of Detroit’s workforce employed by small businesses and a city economy that relies heavily on Black entrepreneurship, MBBA insists that this election season cannot ignore the community that has long sustained Detroit.
Over the last four years, MBBA has moved beyond rhetoric. They’ve put over $12 million in funding directly into the hands of Black-owned businesses and helped create or retain nearly 5,000 jobs. Through policy advocacy, statewide partnerships, and direct programming, the organization has worked to shift not just access to capital, but access to decision-making power.
In a conversation with the Michigan Chronicle, MBBA President and CEO Charity Dean reflected on the Alliance’s founding during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There were no systems built to support Black-owned businesses at that time,” she recalled. “That’s why we created what was then the Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance. The pandemic devastated businesses everywhere, but Black businesses were hit on both sides—health and economy. We were already operating from a deficit because of the racial wealth gap.”
Dean explained that entrepreneurship is one of the few tools available to build generational wealth, yet Black entrepreneurs are often set up to operate without the same financial cushion or support as their white counterparts. “White families with the same education and income have nearly nine times the wealth of Black families. That difference shapes every aspect of entrepreneurship. It affects who gets to take risks, who gets funded, who can weather setbacks.”
MBBA’s 2025 Detroit Policy Survey gathered responses from over 200 Black-owned businesses. The results painted a picture of structural neglect:
- 69% of respondents reported significant barriers to accessing funding.
- 66% identified the lack of affordable commercial space as a primary challenge.
- 89% said the city is not doing enough to support access to capital.
- 31% reported operating cashless despite an ordinance that criminalizes this model.
- Only 13% believe Black businesses are fairly represented in public contracting.
Dean cited the cashless ordinance as an example of how policy decisions often reflect limited vision. “Two years ago, the City Council passed a law that makes it a misdemeanor for retail businesses to operate without cash,” she said. “We opposed it. One council member said she couldn’t pay cash at a market, so she introduced legislation. But our members go cashless for safety, efficiency, and innovation. One of our members was building a tech platform that could’ve expanded Detroit’s digital economy, but that kind of leadership gets punished while downtown parking lots owned by billionaires get exceptions.”
MBBA has played a central role in pushing for meaningful policy change. In 2023, their advocacy led to the establishment of a Director of Entrepreneurship within the Mayor’s Office. They were instrumental in shaping the Small Business Concierge proposal now under consideration by City Council. But as Dean pointed out, none of this is permanent without policy to back it up.
“Much of the COVID-era funding was one-time. Those dollars are gone. Clawbacks are happening across the country. We need bold leadership that won’t just preserve these programs, but expand them,” Dean said. “Otherwise, we’re moving backwards.”
For 2025, MBBA’s platform includes:
- Making the Director of Entrepreneurship and the Small Business Concierge Service permanent, with dedicated funding.
- Reforming the cashless ordinance to reflect the needs of modern businesses.
- Establishing a Small Business Capital Council to address inequities in lending.
- Creating a City-run capital leverage fund to cover costs for microbusiness contractors awaiting reimbursement.
- Ensuring City contractors are paid within 15 days.
- Prioritizing commercial space for Black-owned businesses and reforming zoning laws to support equitable access.
- Publishing procurement data by race, geography, and size to increase accountability.
- Removing certification fees for minority- and women-owned businesses.
- Embedding small businesses in neighborhood development planning.
- Developing workforce strategies tailored for small businesses, including pooled staffing and shared training programs.
What does it reveal about Detroit’s priorities when Black-owned businesses—responsible for more than half the city’s employment base—remain largely unsupported in how policy is written, implemented, and enforced? As candidates step forward seeking to lead the city, how many have engaged directly with the entrepreneurs anchoring commercial corridors across Dexter, Grand River, and Seven Mile? The disparities outlined in MBBA’s survey aren’t new. What remains missing is urgency and political will. How will those seeking office address a regulatory landscape that penalizes tech-forward Black businesses for going cashless, while allowing exemptions for downtown corporate parking structures? Who is prepared to dismantle ordinances that criminalize innovation and build mechanisms to ensure future legislation doesn’t repeat this bias?
What structural changes will be introduced to prevent a Black-owned business from closing its doors over a delayed city payment or unattainable zoning requirement? What are candidates proposing to correct the persistent imbalance in city contracts—where Black business participation remains disproportionately low in an overwhelmingly Black city? Public officials have long claimed that small business is the backbone of Detroit’s recovery. This election will test whether that claim is reflected in real policy reform, or if it continues to be a slogan detached from practice. Candidates must answer, in specific terms, how they plan to protect and expand access to capital, space, contracts, and workforce infrastructure for Detroit’s Black-owned businesses. Anything less should be recognized for what it is—politics without a plan.
MBBA’s push is not only about what’s missing—it’s about what’s possible. Dean explained that regulatory frameworks often treat small Black-owned businesses the same as multinational corporations. “My coffee shop has to meet the same city code as Starbucks,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense. It’s the same for retail—small apparel businesses face the same requirements as major chains. Without infrastructure and capital, that kind of one-size-fits-all regulation pushes us out.”
She also called on large corporations with Detroit headquarters to examine their spending. “Detroit is over 80% Black. If your procurement spending doesn’t reflect that, you’re not aligned with the city you’re in. A few years ago, companies were releasing statements calling racism a public health crisis. Where are those commitments now?”
Dean pointed to the importance of designing policy with equity in mind. “When you fix systems for the people furthest from power, you end up helping everyone. Look at curb cuts on sidewalks. They were created because of advocacy from the disability community. Now, parents with strollers, people with carts, cyclists—all benefit. The same logic applies to policy. If Detroit’s process works for a Black business on Dexter, it’ll work for developers too.”
She warned that many Black businesses still lack room to fail. “White entrepreneurs are often funded through multiple stages of trial and error. Black businesses are expected to get it right on the first try. That’s not how business works. That’s not how innovation happens.”
Dean said she wants financial institutions to publish data on who receives loans, how many Black businesses get funded, and what the terms are. “You can’t fix what you don’t measure,” she said. “You can’t claim to care if you’re not tracking your impact.”
MBBA will spend the rest of the year hosting a series of public forums and releasing a report card evaluating candidates’ plans. The goal is not to endorse personalities, but to elevate policy. The community deserves to know who has done the work—and who has only claimed the title.
Dean closed the conversation by reminding Detroit’s elected leaders and those seeking office that Black businesses are not a side conversation. “This is the economy,” she said. “The work is already being done. Now it’s up to the city to decide if it’s going to meet that work with the investment and respect it deserves.”
As MBBA continues to build, advocate, and inform, their mission remains the same: ensure Detroit’s economy is one where Black entrepreneurs are not only surviving, but shaping the future of the city they’ve always called home.
About Post Author
