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Black business owners and workers too often face systemic biases: from underrepresentation in the boardroom to higher rates of unemployment. In <\/em>Black-Owned and Proud<\/em><\/a>, we profile innovative Black entrepreneurs building businesses and bringing much-needed change to the face of enterprise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The year 2020 was a tough time for Myron \u201cPauly\u201d Jackson as a young Black man in America. The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor sparked international social justice movements. Jackson found it difficult to separate his fate from that of those who look like him and his children. He watched his then 2-year-old son participate in local protests, holding a sign that read, \u201cMy life matters,\u201d and couldn\u2019t shake that image from his head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, later that summer, Jackson\u2019s brother, Jacob Blake, was shot in the back seven times by police in front of three of his children outside his Kenosha, WI, home. In response to that latest incident of police violence, the Milwaukee Bucks withheld their labor during the middle of the NBA playoffs to demand justice for Jacob Blake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe tragedy ignited a wildcat strike throughout professional sports that became one of the biggest signs of national racial solidarity that we\u2019ve seen in years, disrupting a billion-dollar industry,\u201d Jackson says. <\/p>\n\n\n