At Miami conference, Black business professionals react to news of Trump’s reelection
At Aventura’s JW Mariott Miami Turnberry Resort and Spa this week, Black businessmen from around the country networked and traded advice during a three-day conference called Black Men XCEL.
For many attendees, the event could not have come at a more important time. During a panel discussion Thursday, former NBA player and HBCU alumnus Kyle O’Quinn emphasized the need for the ballroom full of Black men and scattered Black women to focus on building community in the wake of a presidential election many of them were displeased with. Exit polls show 77% of Black male voters supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, compared to 21% for Republican Donald Trump. Black women voted even more overwhelmingly for Harris, who got 91% of their vote.
O’Quinn pointed to that consensus to show unity in the Black community that he said will become more important than ever for conference attendees on a professional and personal level during the next four years.
“You don’t know what the future holds,” said O’Quinn, 34. “We don’t know where the world is right now. I think we doubled down as Black people, household by household, and came together as a true community.”
O’Quinn said he hoped that sense of community would remain “because we’re not protected based on what we have to be faced with in the White House.”
The conference began Wednesday, mere hours after Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, something that cast a shadow over an otherwise jubilant gathering at a beautiful hotel. Politics were not at the core of the event but were inextricable from the conversation for the Black business people in attendance as they considered their future work.
Entrepreneur Prince Trinidad, the owner of FLIGHT By Prin¢€, a Little Haiti-based barber service, said that the outcome of the election was sobering. He believes that he has to be the best possible version of himself as a Black professional in order to make a difference in his community, and the election result only affirmed that.
“My mindset remains the same because I’ve been extremely adamant about equal representation in our government,” said Trinidad, 42. “We definitely don’t have equal representation there. We have to continue to work harder. Unfortunately for us, we have to be twice as good to get half as much. It’s not a fair deck of cards that we were dealt with. But it’s the reality, and we have to face it.”
Fort Lauderdale entrepreneur David J. Castro II, the owner of headwear and apparel brand DungeonForward, does not see Black people as a monolith, yet he noticed a general sense of disappointment throughout the conference attendees Thursday.
“I think it would be ridiculous to assume that every single person in this room has the same political beliefs,” Castro said. “However, I don’t think it would be ridiculous to assume that the majority of these people in this room were disappointed with the results. I think that’s a sentiment that has been shared and has been exclusively exchanged between people in private conversations and in open conversations.”
While the presidential result somewhat recalibrated his mindset at the start of the conference, Castro said he appreciated the sense of camaraderie he felt with other Black men by making new connections.
“What’s been incredible is an identification of the idea around being each other’s keeper and really focusing inward on that and understanding that nobody’s coming to save you,” he said. “And I think if you take ownership of that, then the way in which you do outreach, the way in which you connect with one another and the way in which you build business with one another, I think that changes. And I think it’s been refreshing to hear that and refreshing to hear a focus on really reaching inward to community to provide opportunities to folks that may have business to do with you.”
Keynote speaker R. Donahue Peebles, a real estate developer and a former chairman of the board of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation who previously served on President Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee, on Wednesday posted on Instagram that “There will be great opportunities under President Trump’s 2nd term” and that “America needs his presidency to be successful,” a sentiment that was met by mixed responses from followers.
At the conference, he encouraged attendees to support the Black community through their work as best as they can and to be open to the possibilities for growth under a Trump presidency.
“I’m not championing Donald Trump, and I’m not saying he’s a wonderful person, but I am saying he’s an incoming president of the United States and will be the most powerful man in the world for four years,” he said Thursday.
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