The defining moment of my 2020 was the eight-minute video showing in excruciating detail George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police.
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This year has been defined by the coronavirus. In this vein, the Central Mass. business person who had the most admirable year was Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester. He has been a voice of reason, advocacy and strength, leading the efforts to combat the pandemic, dealing with financial and employment issues, all while keeping his top focus on fighting disease.
The defining moment of my 2020, though, was the eight-minute video showing in excruciating detail George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Twice, I watched as Floyd begged for mercy, cried out for his late mother, went limp and died before my eyes. In those two viewings, my entire thought process behind diversity & inclusion and institutional racism changed. Before, my approach to anti-racism was well-intentioned but ultimately toothless, as my main concern was calling for equal opportunity and making sure I was saying the right things. I didn’t want to say something wrong and offend somebody. That video forced me to come face-to-face with centuries of suffering at the hands of institutions who are not set up to help people or benefit society, but to protect the institutions themselves.
I was no longer concerned with saying something wrong. I became concerned with not saying enough, or doing enough. WBJ’s coverage changed after that video, as diversity & inclusion became an integral part of our coverage, and we began to examine institutional racism. Our first major effort came June 22, with a magazine dedicated almost entirely to diversity, led by the story “Black businesses matter”.
Each year in our Economic Forecast special edition, I detail my favorite business person: in 2017, it was The Queen’s Cups owner Renee Diaz, for her honesty about small business struggles; in 2018, Dave Peterson from the Worcester Bravehearts was my favorite, for his standing up to the Worcester city government; in 2019, it was marijuana entrepreneur Ross Bradshaw, for his perseverance against the roadblocks facing small cannabis firms.
This year, my favorite business person in Central Massachusetts is Eurayshia Williams Reed, the owner of Worcester salon Shi-Shi’s Lounge. For that “Black businesses matter” story, WBJ writer Grant Welker struggled to find Black business owners to talk openly and frankly on the record, since it was (and still is) such a controversial time, and WBJ at the time had few established relationships with people of color. Yet, there was Reed, putting herself out there, talking about the difficulties of navigating being a Black business owner, amid the new calls for social justice. Hers was one of the bravest interviews I’ve seen.
No matter who you are, 2020 left its mark on you. It was not a positive year. Yet, we can take positives from this year. Seeing Reed’s bravery made me a little braver, too. That’s why she is my favorite business person of 2020.
– Brad Kane, editor
