Windflier. I’m referring to new immigrants (mostly Asians) who pool their resources to start small businesses, invest in real estate etc. ... not rely on only their group to buy from their business.
A good example is the Vietnamese ‘boat people’ who resettled in various areas of the US and within 10 years were owning small businesses, real estate etc. Family members from several families worked at low-wage jobs, saved like mad, then pooled money and leveraged it to buy a small business ... a carwash, a nail salon, a coffe shop. Then everybody in the family works in the business until they make enough to split off another business, etc.
They also pool their money to send the brightest children to college and in turn, that college kid returns the money invested in him by opening up a business that employs more of the family ... or he/she loans money to the family group to start another small business. Gradually, as they all prosper, the families start to live more separate economic lives.
In Hawaii these arrangements are called hui (hoo eee).
Well, that's a time-honored way for any family to prosper. I'm aware of Asian families doing just what you described.
Charles Sherrod's ideas about keeping the money in the black community aren't quite the same thing. If he'd described what you just did to his audience, I would have applauded him.
I guess the Founding Fathers’ mistake was they got the slaves from Africa.