black entrepreneurs empowerment network | culture & community
Join the Black EntreprenEurs Empowerment (Bee) Network
The AADM provides space for entrepreneurs to network, access resources, sell and promote their products and services. Join the BEE Network and become apart of a growing community that’s dedicated to economic empowerment and collective success for Black and Minority entrepreneurs.
Stay up to date with vendors opportunities by completing the form below.
Vendor Eligibility Guidelines:
AADM welcomes participation from:
Black and Minority-owned small businesses
Retail, services, nonprofits, local artists, creatives, and food vendors and more representing cultural traditions
BENEFITS:
By participating, vendors receive:
Exposure to a diverse and engaged community audience
Opportunities to grow brand visibility and customer base
Access to a supportive environment that uplifts small, minority-owned, and emerging businesses
Networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs, creatives, and community leaders
A platform to test, launch, and expand new business ideas
Discrimination doesn’t only happen in courts or classrooms—it shows up in who gets capital, contracts, protection, and opportunity. Economic exclusion has always been a tool of discrimination. And by supporting Black and minority-owned businesses, we are correcting historic inequities, strengthening our community, and building sustainable pathways to justice. This is not about exclusion—it’s about access, repair, and equity.
Black EntreprenEurs empowerment (Bee) Network
Be part of a growing community that’s dedicated to economic empowerment and collective success for Black and Minority entrepreneurs.
Stay up to date with vendors opportunities by completing this form.
* In filling out this form, you are opting-in to receiving text messages and phone calls from the Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. To opt-out, you may reply “STOP” at any time.
For more information, please read our Privacy Agreement.
WHY FOCUS ON BLACK BUSINESSES?
Because discrimination created the disparity.
This focus is not arbitrary—it is historically and legally grounded.
Historically, Black and minority entrepreneurs were:
Locked out of New Deal programs
Denied SBA loans and bank financing
Redlined out of commercial districts
Excluded from unions and trade networks
Targeted by predatory lending
Shut out of government contracting
These barriers were state-sanctioned, not accidental.
You cannot repair harm without naming who was harmed.
Equity ≠ Equality
Equality gives everyone the same thing.
Equity gives people what they need to overcome systemic barriers.
A wheelchair ramp is not discrimination against people who walk.
Targeted business support is not discrimination against those who already had access.
Debunking the “This Is Discrimination” Argument
1. Supporting marginalized groups is not discrimination
U.S. civil rights law once recognized remedial and inclusive programs designed to address historical exclusion.
Courts have consistently upheld:
Minority business development programs
Women-owned business initiatives
Veteran business preferences
Because they expand access, not restrict it.
2. No one is being excluded from opportunity
A Black Entrepreneurs Empowerment Network:
Does not remove resources from others
Does not prevent anyone from starting a business
Does not deny services based on race
It adds resources where they were intentionally denied.
That is corrective justice—not discrimination.