Privilege Points.

I once heard privilege isn’t points for your team, it’s points against the other team. This is a truth in business. It’s tough to notice our accessibility and abilities when they are built into our lives, but very easy to notice the lack of both when you’ve never had them.

I am a child of immigrants. When I started my business, I had absolutely no information on what to do. I didn’t have parents who I could ask for advice, or loans. There were no advisors, no family in business who might guide me since they worked in factories (many of them didn’t have education that was accepted in Canada). I went through the process relatively alone, and had to search for all answers and advice myself - it was never easily accessible as it may have been for others, and that accessibility often goes unnoticed when it is a given.

As a partner in a book publishing company, Travelling Feet Books, myself and my partner Ayana Francis (the author to my editor) are going through similar learning curves and hitting similar speed bumps on our way to publishing our first BIPOC children’s book, “ABC Where are We? The West Indies!”. While I was able to bring background business knowledge to setting up our company, there was so much that we were doing and learning about for the first time.

We hit bumps in the actual publishing process, and we had to raise funds and save because we weren’t gifted with generational wealth or ease of access to loans. The only thing that has kept us afloat has been the community around us who wants to see us succeed, and the women of colour who have gone through similar hurdles. Business women like Neusa Francisco, Aisha Francis, and Diana Vo have helped with advice and information, and we continue to move forward through our hardships because of the knowledge that our book is important for Canadian children, and BIPOC children in particular.

Most people will see a beautiful book, but never know the story and work behind it. It’s something to think about the next time you purchase from BIPOC owned businesses, or read BIPOC authored books. We succeed and continue to be resilient even when there are points against our team - I love that we can now bring our knowledge to support other aspiring BIPOC entrepreneurs around us so that they don’t have the same points against them.

You see the book - we see the back story.