After graduating from the prestigious Stanford University, Andrea Chen was shocked when she started teaching in New Orleans: 17-year-olds couldn’t spell the word ‘dog’ and were on edge a year after a gunman burst into their school and shot four students.
Then Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, flooding 80 per cent of the Louisiana city, famed for its Mardi Gras.
Some 1,500 people died and 130,000 were displaced, with the poor and African Americans worst hit.
Chen resolved to do more to fight inequality and poverty in the city, where six out of ten residents are African American.
“How did we get to a point where students had to go to a school like that— And what happened that they couldn’t read in the tenth and eleventh grade,” asked 35-year-old Chen.
“Our analysis was that it was structural racism that was feeding every single thing.”
And so Propellor was born: a business that funds and supports entrepreneurs in New Orleans working to tackle disparities in education, health, food and water.
Based in a 10,000 square foot incubator building, which used to be a tyre and rim shop, Propellor offers a work and meeting space for the city’s social entrepreneurs, or businesses seeking to have a positive impact. It has helped more than 130 businesses and charities since 2009 with initiatives such as coaching teachers, ensuring children receive health screenings in school, and developing vacant lots into orchards giving free produce to locals.
Despite these successes, Chen felt she was not doing enough as statistics showed only 27 per cent of businesses in New Orleans are owned by African Americans, who make up 60 per cent of its population.
Only 2 per cent of all the money spent in the city goes through black businesses, she said, citing a report by the Urban League of Louisiana, which runs education and employment programmes for African Americans.
“We can work so hard and run these businesses, but if we’re not actually changing the system, the outcomes that we are looking for are not going to change,” Chen said.
Racial discrimination has become a hot topic in the United States, with the Black Lives Matter movement protesting fatal police shootings of unarmed black men.
President Donald Trump’s refusal in August to condemn white-supremacist marchers in Virginia, where a protestor opposing the rally was killed, also put race issues in the spotlight. — Reuters
Lee Mannion
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