If I were black and reading an article like this, I think it would feel more empowering and encouraging if it was written like any other article about a historic person, and just causally mentioned the founder's background. As it is, it doesn't feel empowering at all.
Comparing it to something trivial from my own life, if I read an article about some surfer or skateboarder and he happens to be even older than I am, that makes me feel hopeful about improving my skills. But if the author again and again talks about how hard it is for older surfers and that it's basically a miracle that he even survives then I would feel the opposite.
Yes I know it's not the same but still, it would be interesting to hear from an actual African-American what they feel about this kind of article.
> If I were black and reading an article like this
You have no idea what you would feel, because you aren't.
> I think it would feel more empowering and encouraging if it was written like any other article about a historic person, and just causally mentioned the founders background.
No, whitewashing the context wouldn't make it more more “empowering and encouraging”.in any sense, it would just rob it of honesty and relevance.
> As it is, it doesn't feel empowering at all.
Yeah, honest stories about the Black experience in the late 19th and early 20th Century in the US usually aren't, except in the sense that making people feel less alone in the deep struggles they still face and see their community facing is.
That's not a problem with the storytelling.
> Yes I know it's not the same but still, it would be interesting to hear from an actual African-American what they feel about this kind of article.
As an actual Black American, it is, I guess, a fine piece of the struggle narrative, and notable as a reminder that the struggle was not then (and is not now) limited by either the geography of socioeconomic classes that are usually focussed on (though that focus, in both cases, is not without reason.)
It's not some kind of transcendent work that will liberate you from the struggle just because you've consumed it, but that's hardly the point.
I think we can talk about history - and Black history - without it having to fulfill some external function like making people feel good or bad or inspired or whatever. At the very least it's just one more historic anecdote about how bigotry kneecaps entrepreneurship and stifles talent - so we should strive to judge people by their character and talents and not conscious or unconscious biases or what social convention dictates.
Also - why a company might have failed is always relevant to discuss even if it leads you somewhere uncomfortable.
Careful, that talk in these times will get you downvoted, it's not approved by the Ministry of Approved Thoughts. You don't want to get put on the critical revaluation of bias education list, do you?
Comparing it to something trivial from my own life, if I read an article about some surfer or skateboarder and he happens to be even older than I am, that makes me feel hopeful about improving my skills. But if the author again and again talks about how hard it is for older surfers and that it's basically a miracle that he even survives then I would feel the opposite.
Yes I know it's not the same but still, it would be interesting to hear from an actual African-American what they feel about this kind of article.