Afroempreendedorismo: trajetórias de vida e negócios de pessoas negras no Brasil

Abstract

Our central theme is Black entrepreneurship. We seek to understand how the notion of belonging to a Black identity influences the life and entrepreneurial trajectory of Black individuals. Black entrepreneurship can be understood in two ways: first, as the act of Black individuals engaging in entrepreneurship in Brazil, regardless of their relationship with identity self-affirmation issues, and second, as a political-economic movement of Black people who, beyond economic subsistence and market relations, use their entrepreneurial action as activism for the reaffirmation of their identity, resistance to the social hardships faced by the Black population, and a strategy to combat racism. This thesis aligns with the second concept. In our theoretical framework, we present Black entrepreneurship as a movement that intersects economic, identity, political, social, religious, and ethical aspects, making it a movement of symbolic dimensions in the field of struggles for the expansion of economic rights for the Black population. By emphasizing entrepreneurship and its symbolic dimension, we place various arrangements at the center of the debate that allow for interpretations beyond economic market relations. The research is qualitative in nature, and the chosen method is biographical trajectories. Our methodological path considered the value system and the ways in which individuals interpret their own history, taking into account categories such as ethnic-racial identity, relationship with education, influence of parents, labor market relations, entrepreneurial history, reasons for entrepreneurship, business profile and conditions, and perception and relationship with entrepreneurial ecosystems. The results showed that identifying as a Black person is essential for the positioning of entrepreneurs in the world. This will establish their place in relation to themselves, others, their surroundings, their business, and consequently, their consumer audience, suppliers, employees, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem itself. The Blackentrepreneurs in our research, beyond the economic dimension of materiality and survival, ascribe a series of other meanings to their entrepreneurial action, associating it with a life purpose, reaffirmation of their identity, combatting racism, a project for the advancement of the Black population, a spiritual mission, ancestral connection, as well as dimensions of redefining Black identities, such as overcoming, resistance, triumph, and self-fulfillment. Their businesses are a means to materialize their values in the world. They operate in a market of symbolic goods (black money), fostering the social mobility of Black individuals through networks of solidarity in the form of Blackentrepreneurial ecosystems. They purposefully seek to contribute to a more representative society, guided by an ethical commitment to ethnic-racial belonging. In this way, in their life trajectories, Blackentrepreneurs redefine the relationship between identity and business, based on the conception of an ethnic commitment to social justice, their unique and distinct market, and their participation in networks of mutual support, referenced in the idea of contemporary quilombos, making their experiences symbolic spaces of interconnection between the material and substantive world.