Selling Out

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Many brothers who are going into corporate America are worried about selling out, and I definitely know that I was.

My humble family grew up without much from a material standpoint. That’s a long way of saying we were poor.

We didn’t have people in our immediate circle who worked at large corporations and made thousands or millions of dollars who could give us insight into what it was like to work there.

We bought gas from Chevron, but we didn’t get checks from them. We wore Nikes; we didn’t get stock from them. We ate at McDonald's, but we didn’t get any benefits from them. We were corporate outsiders.

In my late twenties, I learned about the depths of racism in the United States and became an activist in UCSB’s Black community. I became anti-capitalist in philosophy, even though I didn’t fully understand what capitalism was. What I did know is that there were these huge corporations that were making billions and trillions of dollars, and I felt completely disconnected from them.

Any friend at that time who would’ve aspired to work in corporate America, in my eyes, was a sellout. It didn’t matter what he was trying to do; just the fact that he was associating himself and becoming a part of the system was something that I looked down on and, in reality, simply didn’t understand.

My biggest concern is that he or others would have to sell out, sell our souls, or give up the authentic part of ourselves in order to thrive in his corporate structures.

However, what I found was something quite different in working with the clients I now see, who are primarily executive-level brothers at leading companies. These guys are amazing husbands and fathers, morally upright, financially successful, homeowners, sending their kids to great public and private schools, and deeply caring about impact and their ability to leave a legacy.

Absolutely amazing men.

So the question is, have they sold out? I would have to say no. They have not sold out.

What they have done is learn how to work within the confines of corporate America. This is a culture that they may or may not have been familiar with, but that everybody there, from whatever culture they are from, needs to adhere to in order to thrive in the corporate environment.

The reality is that the corporate space is going to have some similarities all over the world. It doesn’t belong to any one ethnic community per se, although the dominant ethnic majority is likely going to be the cultural majority of that corporation as well.

These guys have learned not to post anything particularly inflammatory on their social media; they’ve learned how to work across differences, especially with white people in the United States, in order to get tasks done. They’ve learned the language of business and the lingo of management. They relinquish complete freedom of their schedule when the company needs them to travel or show up for important events. These are the changes that these men have made in order to thrive in their organization, which is comprised of staff members and clients from around the world.

This is not selling out; it’s simply becoming a member of enormous business institutions and learning how to thrive there.

Now, one might say these guys are leaving the Black community or not giving back, and I would say this is largely incorrect. What’s happening there is largely an untold story about Black men who are doing absolutely incredible things that are being undervalued and unhighlighted at the same time.

The skill sets, insights, and upgrades these brothers have have enabled them to become power players in the overall Black community and in the business world.

So what would be an example of selling out? Well, it all comes down to your values.

If you find yourself engaging in unethical behavior that does not align with your sense of right and wrong and brings harm consciously to other people or directly to the Black community, this is not something every man must weigh for himself.

However, my recommendation would be not to go down that path; there will always be an opportunity to trade one’s values and morals for unscrupulous behavior, and you don’t have to go to corporate America for that. That's something you can find in every sector of society. The battle between good and evil within.

So no, these brothers are not selling out; they are actually exactly the type of men that need to be highlighted as leaders in the Black community and in the business world.

Written by Jewel Edward Love, Jr.

Founder and Executive Coach, Black Executive Men

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