Economist's Speech Stresses Success for Black Business

A black businessman's primary obligation is to be successful, Dunbar S. McLaurin, black businessman and economist, told a Business School audience yesterday.

McLaurin, who specializes in ghetto economic development, talked about the problems that face black capitalists--who currently control only two per cent of the nation's businesses.

Instead of failing in business by helping others in the ghetto, McLaurin said a black businessman's "first obligation is to be successful. To go back and help others is just massaging your ego," he said.

McLaurin told the audience--which numbered about 50--that blacks will find special problems in business that the classroom has not prepared them for. Corporate politics are far more important than ability, he said.

Changing Rules

McLaurin also said that the "Establishment" tends to change the rules once blacks learn to take advantage of them. Laws regulating bank holding companies and foundations were tightened just as black businessmen were beginning to utilize them, he said.

Though corporations will hire blacks with business degrees and offer them higher salaries than comparably qualified whites, whites will rise in the system more rapidly, McLaurin said.

McLaurin explained that blacks are hired more readily because "we are living in a time when blacks...have come to the attention of the country."

Ability

"Either you have it or you don't," McLaurin said in assessing the chances for successful black entrepreneurship. He said that black businessmen can only be successful if they have innate ability.

McLaurin concluded his speech with the thought that black businessmen must provide something unique for American business. "Don't be a black businessman doing a white thing. Give a little 'soul' to capitalism," he said.