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Diverse Suppliers Are Good for Business and the Community

Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Now more than ever, there’s a focus on prioritizing businesses that are actively addressing diversity, equity and inclusion, which creates opportunities for diverse suppliers. JPMorgan Chase is dedicated to the development and utilization of qualified diverse businesses – defined as companies that are at least 51 percent owned and […]
The post Diverse Suppliers Are Good for Business and the Community first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

3 years ago

December 5, 2023

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Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Now more than ever, there’s a focus on prioritizing businesses that are actively addressing diversity, equity and inclusion, which creates opportunities for diverse suppliers.

JPMorgan Chase is dedicated to the development and utilization of qualified diverse businesses – defined as companies that are at least 51 percent owned and operated by members of historically underrepresented groups, including minorities, women, military veterans, disabled veterans, service-disabled veterans, people with disabilities and members of the LGBT+ community.

Ted Archer, Global Head of Business Partner Diversity for JPMorgan Chase, recently spoke about why diverse suppliers are good for business and the community.

Tell us about how you came to lead supplier diversity at JPMorgan Chase and what inspired you to get involved in this work?

I’ve been at JPMorgan Chase for seven years, and previously served on the firm’s Global Philanthropy team as Head of Small Business. Most of my career has been dedicated to building business programs and partnerships that drive economic growth, and helping underrepresented businesses succeed. Supplier diversity is an exceptional discipline because its impact goes beyond the transactional and advances the fundamental opportunity for businesses to scale. Through its buying activity, the firm is able to make dreams possible for business owners, their employees and their communities.

In what ways does supplier diversity create value for companies?

Supplier diversity provides corporations with access to innovation. Diverse businesses often bring new perspectives and solutions to business problems. They also know how to operate efficiently with limited resources, and are agile enough to tailor their services to suit your business needs. Secondly, supplier diversity contributes to talent acquisition and employee retention. Prospective employees, particularly millennials and members of Gen Z, are very interested in corporate citizenship and will leave a company that isn’t aligned with their values. Third, supplier diversity generates wealth in diverse communities. Diverse suppliers tend to hire within their local areas, providing jobs and incomes, lifting the overall economy. A prosperous and thriving community is good for business.

How are you re-thinking the way to approach supplier diversity, and what about this approach do you think would make supplier diversity more sustainable?

The formal practice of supplier diversity began in the mid-20^th century within a manufacturing and government procurement context. Supplier relationships were driven by pricing and product or service delivery.

However, an important component of supplier diversity is supplier development. Small and underrepresented businesses often don’t have access to the same resources, financing and contacts that large majority-owned companies do. Taking the time to build deeper relationships with these businesses enables you to identify other ways to support their growth including creating connections to networks that lead to contract opportunities, capital and other resources. Additionally, you should work closely with them as they navigate your organization. Reducing the complexity of working with a large company goes a long way in enabling the supplier to deliver their services successfully.

By moving away from framing procurement in transactional terms, not only do we grow diverse businesses, but we also drive value for corporations by increasing the number of strong, agile and innovative companies in our supply chains.

It’s also time to consider diverse businesses in a wider range of purchasing categories including technology and professional services. An intentional focus on leveling the playing field in future-facing industries enables us to identify businesses that are positioned for rapid growth, and higher profit margins, which could help close economic disparities in underserved communities, including the racial wealth gap.

How are you amplifying the impact of supplier diversity across the wider business community?

We have mobilized over 100 of our top suppliers, known as “Gold Suppliers,” to mirror the firm’s commitment to supplier diversity by enhancing their own supplier diversity programs and their efforts to include more diverse businesses in their supply chains over a three-year period.

Understanding that different companies have different levels of diversity program maturity, we are meeting them where they are and providing them with mentoring, coaching and education so they are better equipped to run a successful supplier diversity program of their own.

While we’re measuring spend increases, the larger purpose is to have these companies develop sustainable programs that will generate opportunity and growth for decades to come.
Over the last two years, nearly 90% of our Gold Suppliers have committed to spend increases generating more than $6 billion in new spend with underrepresented businesses. Additionally, 85% of the Gold suppliers enrolled in the firm’s supplier diversity mentorship program launched new supplier diversity programs in 2022.

How would a diverse business get started to work with large companies like JPMorgan Chase?

For businesses interested in providing services to companies in the private sector, the best first step is to become certified by a diverse business certifying organization. While many business owners are familiar with government diversity certifications, there are also certifications that are well recognized by private-sector corporations, such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council, which certifies businesses that are at least 51% owned and operated by an ethnic minority (Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American). Another organization is the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) which certifies woman-owned companies. They each have affiliates across the United States that provide services locally. There are also organizations that certify veterans, such as the National Veterans Business Development Council (NVBDC); businesses owned by people with disabilities (Disability:IN) and members of the LGBTQ+ community (National LGBT Chamber of Commerce). These organizations do more than provide a certificate. They provide a network of corporate executives and other diverse business owners who can help foster business growth.

However, certification alone will not ensure success. Business owners have to begin developing relationships with prospective corporate clients. Two ways to get started are: 1) leverage the certifying organizations. Throughout the year, they host conferences, matchmakers, seminars and webinars – all designed to provide business owners with information and enable them to meet and network with corporate executives. 2) Register with each prospective corporate client. Companies with active supplier diversity programs often have online registration portals through which they invite business owners to share their company history and capabilities. JPMorgan Chase has a Supplier Diversity Network which is a searchable database for our supplier diversity and sourcing teams to find new diverse businesses when contract opportunities come up.

Business owners should be prepared for the time it will take to get from first contact and registration with a corporation to actually executing a new business contract. It may take months, and even a year or two. Corporate purchasing is driven by business need so entrepreneurs should be prepared to develop a long-term strategy and cultivate relationships with procurement teams and supplier diversity leaders who can provide insight into upcoming opportunities.

For more, visit JPMorgan Chase’s Supplier Diversity Network

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

The post Diverse Suppliers Are Good for Business and the Community first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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COMMENTARY: Jim Crow 2.0 at the Pentagon

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

Published

3 weeks ago

August 3, 2026

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Pete Hegseth insists that he is restoring “merit” to the United States military. But after months of dismissals, blocked promotions, and ideological purges, the evidence tells a different story. His campaign against so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has become something far more dangerous: an assault on equal opportunity that falls with particular force on African Americans, while also targeting women, Latinos, gay Americans, and transgender service members.

The latest example is both troubling and infuriating.

Once again, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly blocked the promotion of an exceptionally qualified woman—Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt. Bauernschmidt is no ordinary officer. She became the Navy’s first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one of the most demanding leadership assignments in the world. Her career reflects decades of exemplary performance, operational excellence, and leadership under extraordinary pressure.

Yet once again, a distinguished military career appears to have been subordinated to an ideological agenda masquerading as “merit.”

I call BS!

The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

The pattern has become impossible to ignore.

General Charles Q. Brown Jr., only the second African American to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was dismissed despite a career that placed him among the most accomplished military leaders of his generation.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman ever to serve as Chief of Naval Operations, was removed despite decades of distinguished command experience.

Reports have documented interventions that blocked or delayed the promotions of Black officers and women selected through the military’s rigorous promotion system.

Now Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt joins the growing list of highly accomplished officers whose careers have been derailed for reasons that have never been persuasively explained.

Where is Congress?

Its silence has become deafening.

Congress has an independent constitutional responsibility to oversee the armed forces. Instead, too many lawmakers have watched silently while one of the nation’s most respected institutions is subjected to ideological litmus tests and political interference.

This is not military reform. It is testosterone-fueled performative masculinity disguised as a philosophy of military excellence.

The irony is impossible to miss. Hegseth repeatedly invokes “merit,” yet his rhetoric begins with the assumption that Black officers, women, and other historically excluded Americans must somehow justify their achievements in ways that white male officers are rarely required to do.

That is not meritocracy. It is prejudice wrapped in patriotic language.

No one is asking that anyone be promoted because of race or gender. Americans simply expect that promotions be based on demonstrated competence, leadership, integrity, and service. The officers being targeted have already proven themselves repeatedly under one of the world’s most demanding evaluation systems.

Their records speak for themselves.

The attack on African American military leadership has been especially pernicious.

For generations, Black Americans fought in segregated units, earned decorations while denied equal treatment, and repeatedly demonstrated loyalty to a nation that often failed to extend them full citizenship. They broke barriers not because standards were lowered but because excellence finally overcame institutional discrimination.

Today’s campaign against “diversity” threatens to revive old assumptions under new slogans.

The implication that Black generals and admirals somehow owe their success to affirmative action rather than extraordinary performance echoes some of the ugliest stereotypes of the Jim Crow era. Yesterday’s segregationists claimed Black Americans were inherently less qualified. Today’s culture warriors simply employ more politically acceptable language while inviting the same suspicion about Black achievement.

That is why Hegseth’s campaign increasingly resembles Jim Crow 2.0.

The targets may now wear stars on their shoulders instead of military patches on segregated uniforms, but the underlying message is hauntingly familiar: Black excellence is presumed suspect, while white excellence is presumed earned.

America’s military became the finest fighting force in history because it opened its doors to talent wherever it could be found. It grew stronger after President Truman desegregated the armed forces. It became stronger when women assumed greater command responsibilities. It became stronger when every qualified American was given the opportunity to serve to the fullest extent of their abilities.

Diversity is not a concession. It is a strategic advantage.

The nation’s adversaries do not fear an American military because it is racially homogeneous. They fear it because it draws upon the talents of more than 340 million Americans whose diverse experiences, perspectives, and abilities make our armed forces unmatched anywhere in the world.

Every politically motivated dismissal of a distinguished officer sends a chilling message throughout the ranks: excellence alone may no longer be enough if you belong to the wrong demographic group.

That weakens morale. It weakens recruitment. It weakens retention.

And ultimately, it weakens national security.

Pete Hegseth has every right to pursue military readiness. He has no right to redefine merit in ways that repeatedly cast suspicion upon the accomplishments of Black officers, women, and others who have devoted their lives to defending this nation.

America deserves better. The men and women who wear the uniform deserve better. The Constitution deserves better.

And unless Congress finds the courage to exercise meaningful oversight, history may well remember this period not as a restoration of military excellence, but as the moment political ideology attempted to resurrect, in modern form, the old poison of exclusion.

Jim Crow did not strengthen America. Jim Crow 2.0 will not strengthen America’s military. It will only diminish it

Wade Henderson
Strategic Advisor
Civil and Human Rights
wade@wadejhenderson.com

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New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial

By Emilie St. John (Contributor) Karmelo Anthony will return to court next month in his first step to overturn his murder conviction. Anthony was found guilty last month in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team has filed motions seeking the recusal of State District […]
The post New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

3 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

Oakland Post

By Emilie St. John
(Contributor)

Karmelo Anthony will return to court next month in his first step to overturn his murder conviction.

Anthony was found guilty last month in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team has filed motions seeking the recusal of State District Judge John Roach Jr. from overseeing the appeals process.

Two hearings have been scheduled on the motion for Aug. 9 and 10 in the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas, according to Fox4 News.

On July 14, Senior Judge Sid L. Harle of the 226th District Court was assigned to preside over the defense’s motion to recuse Collin County Judge John Roach. The assignment took effect immediately and authorized Harle to handle all matters related to the recusal request, the filing read.

The Collin County District Attorney’s Office continues to defend its handling of the case by issuing a statement to NBC 5 DFW.

“The defendant’s new lawyers have filed a motion containing several inaccurate characterizations of the trial proceedings. The entire prosecution team and I conducted this trial ethically and in full compliance with the Court’s rulings and any agreements with defense counsel. We look forward to addressing these claims thoroughly in a Court of law in the coming weeks. The jury heard extensive evidence over the course of the trial and returned a unanimous verdict. We remain confident in that verdict and the fairness of the proceedings.”

Anthony’s new legal team, made up of appellate, civil rights, and criminal defense attorneys, was retained following Anthony’s conviction.

“Our responsibility is to determine whether a legal error occurred and to ensure that every issue supported by the record is fully and vigorously presented on appeal,” the team said in a statement.

“We recognize the profound loss suffered by one young man’s family and the uncertainty facing another, and we extend our respect to everyone whose lives have been forever changed by these events,” the release reads.

Anthony was charged with the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf during a track meet in Frisco, Texas, April 2, 2025. Anthony has long maintained it was an act of self-defense.

The attorneys are representing Anthony pro bono. The nearly 200-page notice of appeal seeks a new trial because his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated.

“The cumulative and practical effect of these provisions was to exclude members of the public from proceedings at every stage,” the filing reads.

The filing also focused on an alleged “handshake deal” that kept Anthony from taking the stand in his defense.

The defense filing said the agreement was that the jury would not hear that Metcalf and his twin brother had been accused of racism and bullying in the past. In exchange, they also would not see Anthony’s cellphone records or his school disciplinary record, according to court documents reported by the Dallas Morning News.

Anthony’s former defense attorney, Mike Howard, said the defense relied heavily on that deal. The team chose not to ask certain questions of witnesses or call on a separate expert witness based on that agreement. It also abandoned plans to introduce testimony and evidence about the allegations against Metcalf and his brother.

Appellate attorney Russell Wilson is now handling post-trial proceedings and Anthony’s appeal. He recently sat down for an interview, stating, “The court committed multiple errors during the June murder trial, preventing him from receiving a fair trial.”

“You know, we file motions that we expect to prevail on, but we understand that there’s two sides to every story. And at the end of the day, it’ll be a judge that has to make these decisions, but we feel confident in the positions that we’re taking,” Wilson said during an interview with WFAA. “There were substantial issues that we thought a reviewing court needed to look at. We thought these were constitutional irregularities, and we could have them addressed now. And so, we put them into a motion for a new trial.”

Bree West, a former Dallas County Assistant District Attorney, found it startling that so little time was given to Anthony’s team for such a serious “life or death” situation.

“I do think that it’s really challenging that potentially a court decided that you have 10 minutes to make that level of decision when it has the potential of being life-altering,” said West during an interview with Fox 4 News.

Judge Harle is no stranger to high-profile cases, having presided over the prosecution of a police officer charged in connection with the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

Anthony was convicted on June 9 of the murder of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The post New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump!

WESTSIDE GAZETTE — The author criticizes Donald Trump’s rhetoric, noting his use of terms like “Dumbocrats” and “Communist” to describe Democrats and democracy. The column asserts that Trump’s current strategy involves creating doubt about midterm elections due to a lack of Republican agenda.
The post COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump! appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

3 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

Oakland Post

Frankly Speaking

Wow! Wow! Wow! The swamp drainers have truly stepped down to new levels of stupidity. You remember Weapons of Mass Destruction? We now have Weapons of Mass Distraction. Trump has introduced Dumbocrats and Communists into the conversation about Democrats and Democracy.

Trump lies so much, and his current strategy is to set up doubt about midterm elections because he and Republicans have no agenda!

He has no “Trump “ card, but Iran has a strait! He called it a skirmish; it’s now a War. He said five days; now it’s five months. He said few casualties; now it’s 18 deaths. He knew nothing about Project 2025 but hired its architects! Trump lies about the lies and often forgets these little inventions called cameras and phones

We see and hear and then see and hear the inconsistencies.

I didn’t like 45 and dislike 47 even more!

The post LSMFT! Lord Save Me From Trump! appeared first on The Westside Gazette.

Based on reporting by Westside Gazette.

The post COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump! appeared first on BlackPressUSA.