SEATTLE — When it comes to business ownership, research from the Brookings Institute says Black-owned businesses make up only 1% of all businesses in Seattle.
One coffee shop near Seattle University, Boona Boona Coffee, is hoping to stir up some important conversations about race.
“There’s so much of it [love] that exists within Black culture that it allows for this diaspora of diversity and inclusion,” said Jerome Hunter of the Breakfast Group.
The Breakfast Group is a nonprofit group designed to help mentor young Black and Brown men and provide pathways to college and career readiness.
“What we do as an organization is bring professionals from those sectors in to talk with students and not only tell them what it’s like, but to show them what it’s like,” Hunter said.
According to the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Boona Boona Coffee is one of over 150 Black-owned businesses they represent citywide.
Hunter hopes to see those numbers grow.
“I think bringing some of our youth to these Black-owned businesses that do exist in Seattle and offer internships or job shadowing and ways to not only learn about it in classroom, but to get out into the community and feel what it means to be a Black-owned or Back business owner.”
But he understands that in order to achieve growth, it takes work.
“It’s important to recognize that often times the work isn’t done silent, but it’s done in community,” Hunter said.
Hunter hopes his work with The Breakfast Group can help grow the Black and Brown-owned business community here in Seattle.
“And also create a network of alumni that keep them connected as they grow and evolve, not into professionals and citizens, but also just human beings,” Hunter said.
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