SMALL-BUSINESS REPORT
Minority advocate 'never satisfied'

Progress is evident, but Earl 'Skip' Cooper II laments complacency.
Cyndia Zwahlen Small Business Report June 13, 2007

More than three decades into his fight to support small African American businesses in Los Angeles, Earl "Skip" Cooper II doesn't entirely like what he sees.  A persistent lack of financial resources, complacency with institutional racism and apathy on the part of young African Americans are undermining some of the progress his generation carved out in the 1960s and '70s, he said.

"Oftentimes, young people don't understand or recognize or even appreciate the struggle," said Cooper, president and chief executive of the Black Business Assn. (www.bbala.org) in Los Angeles.  "I mean, 35 years ago we couldn't dream of a Colin Powell, a Condoleezza Rice.  So in certain areas we have made progress.  But then in certain areas, we've somewhat regressed," he said.  That makes the role of minority business groups such as the BBA more important than ever, said Cooper, winner of multiple awards from the Small Business Administration and other public and private groups.

Most recently, the two-time delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business was named the 2007 Small Business Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles district office of the SBA for his work as editor and publisher of Black Business News, the association's monthly newspaper.  The paper, which has a print run of about 12,000, always includes a page of SBA news, as well as ads for procurement fairs, international trade updates and an events calendar.

Along with the black business events his group hosts, the paper is a tool to support the minority-owned enterprises Cooper has been advocating since he was a graduate student at USC in the early '70s.   He talked more about his decades-long mission in several recent interviews.

How is your group's focus different?  
We really focus on helping our members and African Americans get contracts with the public and private sector.  But we are also advocates of society supporting black enterprises, for the black community to support black business enterprises, for the corporate community to support black business enterprises, for everybody to support black business enterprises.  That's very important.

Why is support for small minority enterprises so important?
If we support the black business entrepreneur in our African American community and we make them stronger, then they can better develop jobs and opportunities and pride for members of the African American community.  Young people can see those successful businesses, and they can say, "Hey, I can do that."  It gives them inspiration.  

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