CHAPTER 9
Regenerative versus Exploitative Systems
The first loan I ever attempted to make was to a group of Black farmers in Alabama. Tuskegee University was providing administrative and technical support for the farmers’ cooperative, and I was working to provide the debt capital. Even though I spent months doing interviews and codesigning the terms of the loan fund, the farmers were not using the loan product. At the time, I was mystified. I later learned that their reasons for not borrowing money from me were more complex than I could understand.
Mr. Roberts helped to bring me along. Having grown up sharecropping in Sumter County, Alabama, Mr. Roberts was 88 years old when I met him. He worked the land and didn’t talk much. But I’m grateful ...
Get Believe-in-You Money now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
