In conversations with Black business leaders in recent months, I heard many descriptions about how this has played out. One that stood out came from someone who is trying to create more connections within the Black community, Jhaelynn Elam, who earlier this year started the B Suite, a co-working and networking space for Black people in downtown Minneapolis.Before opening the business, she gathered focus groups to ask Black professionals what’s missing in the Twin Cities. She heard from some that they travel a lot to other big cities, like Houston and Atlanta, where Black people are more deeply part of the community.“They have what we’re looking for,” Elam said. “These are places where you can find thriving communities of Black professionals. These are the cities that don’t have to work hard to sell us to come there and move there. And so you find, even people who relocate here, make the time to travel to those places to just immerse themselves in it even just for a weekend.”Elam moved to Minnesota in 2021 from Michigan for a job at General Mills. Within the company, she hosted brunches for colleagues of color, which grew to bigger gatherings beyond the company. After going through a fellowship program from the Minneapolis-based African American Leadership Forum, Elam said she felt “called to create some solutions” and decided to open the B Suite.She perceives the need for Black entrepreneurs to have a space to create that “bonding” type of social capital. The efforts to create “bridging” social capital fall on white people, of course, the dominant culture.After Moore joined the Osseo Lions, the club began to help her with charitable fashion shows and even sponsored some of the students at her modeling school. “Not only did they recruit me, they help support my business and my charity awareness, which, not only, but primarily serves minorities,” Moore said.



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