Pinky Cole woke up this morning extremely weary.
Despite singlehandedly building her catering business to a multi-million dollar vegan food empire in less than a decade, she says she is the most emotionally bereft she’s been in years.
“I’m sad,” she tells ESSENCE.
She shares this presidential election cycle was the most politically engaged she’s been in her life.
“When Obama won the election, I was still in college and not an entrepreneur so yeah, the policies back then affected me as a human being, but as a business owner, this election hit different,” the 36-year-old says.
Her sentiments echo that of countless other Black women in business who woke up this morning to the news that Donald J. Trump officially became the president-elect of the United States.
Despite being an accused rapist, convicted felon and twice impeached, President-elect Trump still managed to win over swing states thanks to white women, latinos and a small faction of Black men that voted for him. Disappointing, yes. Surprising, no, according to Dr. Peggy Roberts.
The New York-based nurse practitioner owns a healthcare practice and has hinged her career on prioritizing women’s wellbeing, regardless of their tax bracket. Roberts says that she most fears what will happen to how she can deliver care since she accepts Medicaid, a program conservatives are aiming to get rid of.
“He won because misogynoir was more important than the health of our nation,” Roberts tells ESSENCE. “This election came down to race and gender. Most Americans did not want a woman, and definitely not a Black one in office. So, they would rather not vote or vote for Trump despite all of his harmful antics than to have an overqualified Black woman in office.”
She also points out misinformation colored an already undereducated voting pool making it easier for the president-elect to edge Harris out.
“There’s a large number of Americans focused on the ripple effects of inflation and want to blame it on Biden because we’re currently under his administration but they seem to forget that Trump inherited a good economy from Obama. Then we had COVID. So, Biden inherited an economy during a pandemic.”
Morgan Malone, CEO of City Bureau, a national civic journalism organization says Black women in the nonprofit sector in particular should be bracing themselves for the downturns to come.
“We have a social cohesion problem and that affects every facet of leadership,” alone tells ESSENCE. “I’m thinking a lot about revenue diversification right now. Yes, you can get philanthropic dollars. Yes, you can get individual donors. But you have to get real about putting more streams of income in place that aren’t your typical kinds of monetization.”
She says that although the City Bureau is a journalism-first organization, she heavily prioritizes the bottom line.
“I’m already thinking through what assets we own so that we have collateral if ever we need a line of credit because making sure you have other reserves in place is going to be critical for everybody. For real, for real. You can no longer just rely on one product, one base, one audience, one stream of revenue. Those days are gone.”
She is not off base.
Project 2025, the right-leaning manifesto written by conservative group The Heritage Foundation outlines proposed policies that could directly threaten gains in housing, social justice, economic equity and labor protections.
Despite his attempts to distance himself from the agenda, Trump is likely to roll back any and all programs aimed at supporting Black-owned businesses with resources and funding, two elements that are notoriously disproportionate to access particularly for Black women business owners.
To date, Black women-owned businesses received less than 3% of venture capital funds distributed to founders and threats to programs that aim to close that funding gap have already been enacted by the right. Earlier this year, the Fearless Fund, a VC fund that gave capital to Black women founders, was forced to shutter due to a sweeping lawsuitv filed by Edward Blum, an anti-affirmative opponent.
Despite this sobering setback, like always, Black women persist. Cole attributes this sticktoitiveness to the strong community Black women have cultivated with one another.
“I’m praying for VP Harris’s mental health right now,” Cole says, her voice wobbling. “This is incredibly emotional because history is happening right before our eyes and it’s revealing some ugly truths. But I am a woman who is a leader, who is a mother, who cares about reproductive rights. And I saw myself, no I still see myself in this woman and her ability to lead this country as the President of the United States. But one thing about women is we don’t give up. We get better, we get better, we keep going.”
