The dopest thing about entrepreneurship is that you get to make it what you want. You get to dream up new ways of doing things. You get to infuse your values, your inspirations, take responsibility, and learn and grow when things don't go according to plan. It's a wild and unpredictable ride, and everyone is transporting in a different whip.
My whip moved a little slower.
I mean, the apparel industry has an insatiable appetite. It treats time like a barrier. So when I pivoted into doing it on my own, outside of the industry, I wanted to take my time (plus, there was a little fear there too, if I’m honest). But when it came to time, I wanted to think of it as regenerative, and embody the principles of Black Quantum Futurism.
Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) asks us to use our ingenuity, innovation, and discovery to investigate the past, present, and future. Rasheedah Phillips, the mother of BQF, holds onto our spaces and traditions through this method. She asks questions like:
"What happens to the memory in a place when you change the name of a street? What happens to a neighborhood when you demolish 13,000 homes? What happens to a community that is continually pushed out by a growing university? What happens to art, public monuments, and murals depicting Black people and Black historical events when they are constantly destroyed and erased, then replaced by condominiums and other luxury housing?"
With BQF, this type of questioning becomes a way to exchange skills and spark collective imagination. She explains that industries have invested deeply in strategies that condense time, disrupt communal temporalities, erase public memory, and challenge access to the temporal domain of the future [Phillips, p.10].
In designing Black Earth United, I ask similar questions:
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What happens to cultural memory when a style’s origins are erased or distanced from the community that birthed it?
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What happens to the skills, craftsmanship, and traditions within the Black community when garment factories move overseas, stripping away not just jobs, but intergenerational knowledge that sustains local economies?
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What happens to independent Black designers and makers when global brands expand, pushing them out of markets, spaces, and opportunities?
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What happens to Black cultural expression in fashion when traditional styles, symbols, and histories are appropriated, erased, or replaced by luxury brands that profit without acknowledgment?
Regenerative design challenges the mono-capital trajectory most businesses are on. Mono-capitalism reduces the value of business to a single form, money. A regenerative business, by contrast, actively builds life. It sees business as a living system: dynamic, interdependent, and diverse.
As Roland & Landua write:
“In the current extractive economy, material capital is mass-produced, homogenous, and disconnected from its place. Cultivation of material capital in a regenerative context leads to material goods and structures that are handcrafted, beautiful, directly connected to their place, and full of life.” [p. 26]
Over the past 7 years of studying BQF and 3 years of applying Regenerative Enterprise Theory, I’ve found deep intersections that continue to anchor the vision and operations of my business.
Black Earth United is growing.
We are hiring 3 sewing artisans, part-time administrative support, and marketing/branding support. As we grow, it's imperative that we outline our capital flows so we don’t lose our way. It's also critical that the questions we ask don’t stop at the BQF level, but also remain regenerative in nature:
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Am I drawing from an already-depleted well—in myself, in my team, or in the land?
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Am I trying to force a regenerative system to move at a reckless speed designed by capitalism?
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Am I treating myself as if I can endlessly give without replenishment?
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Are people just buying the product—or participating in the practice?
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Am I sharing my wisdom in ways that replenish both me and the community?
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Where am I leaking energy, value, or care in ways that are out of sync with the regenerative and BQF rhythm I’m building?
Regenerative Business Through a Multi-Capital + BQF Lens
(8 Forms of Capital)
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Experiential Capital (25%)
Our founder’s lived experience as a designer, community leader, and Black American woman is the foundation of the business. This embodied knowledge shapes the approach to design, systems, and leadership. -
Financial Capital (20%)
Grants, product sales, and reinvestment strategies fuel operations. We ensure artisans are paid fairly and that money circulates in our community. -
Cultural Capital (18%)
Our designs hold ancestral knowledge, Black stories, symbolism, and aesthetics. We actively protect and share culture through our work. -
Social Capital (12%)
Relationships with collaborators, artisans, funders, and community members create trust, opportunity, and shared value. -
Intellectual Capital (8%)
We apply regenerative design thinking, anti-capitalist frameworks, Black Quantum Futurism, and educational tools to inspire and lead. -
Spiritual Capital (8%)
The business is guided by purpose, presence, and connection to something larger, nature, spirit, ancestors, and intention. -
Material Capital (5%)
We use fabric, tools, and physical resources wisely—prioritizing deadstock, reuse, minimal waste, small-batch production, and a work-from-home model that reduces our carbon footprint. -
Living Capital (4%)
We care for the well-being of people and the planet, integrating regenerative values into sourcing and storytelling.
I hope you learned something new or it sparked something in you by reading. I hope you feel more connected to what we are trying to grow. Below are the two publications I reference in the blog.
- Space-TIme Collapse II: Comunity Futurisms Black Quantum Futurism by Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Philips
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Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-Capital Abundance Version 1.0 by Ethan C. Roland & Gregory Landua
--Wishing you joy,
Jocelyn Rice, Founder of Black Earth United