Protecting the American Dream for New American Entrepreneurs
Protecting the American Dream for New American Entrepreneurs
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Mission of the Business Center and whether the American Dream is still alive. When our staff was in Queens last week we spoke with a street vendor who has a fruit cart. He had just been fined $500 for a minor
infraction and was anxious because he couldn’t afford it. If he does not pay the fine, however, he risks losing his permit and therefore his only source of livelihood.
I was reminded by his plight of Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor who set himself on fire in Tunisia in January to protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by an official. His act sparked a protest movement in Tunisia that has spread throughout the Arab world as citizens of those countries protest repressive regimes that keep them from creating their own futures.
The vendor we spoke to in Queens lives in America, one of the wealthiest and least repressive countries in the world, and yet he is facing some of the same struggles Bouazizi did in Tunisia in trying to make a living.
The American Dream is still alive but it’s vitally important that we support entrepreneurs in order to keep it that way. And that doesn’t just mean Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley startups, it means immigrant and refugee street vendors as well. At BCNA we support entrepreneurs through microfinance, financial literacy education, and home ownership programs.
We also support the work the Street Vendor Project is doing to make sure hard working street vendors are treated fairly so that they too can create a better life for themselves and their families. You can learn more by visiting the Street Vendor Project online or on Facebook. And please visit us on Facebook too!