NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The organizers for a Nashville-based group stressed at a meeting Thursday there’s strength in diversity, not just in business but also when it comes to conservative politics.
The organization, the Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Business Group, held their Winter 2018 Quarterly Forum at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.
TIMBG Co-Founder Dr. Ming Wang told The Tennessee Star that Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans are still majority Democrats — but they could change their minds on that, if persuaded.
“Groups like this cannot be ignored, though,” Wang said.
“Family values, freedom, and less government matter to these groups of people too.”
The point of the organization, Wang said, is to bring together immigrants and minority business groups.
And as it pertains to the business world, America is changing and turning more diverse, Wang said.
Added together, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans make up 44 percent of the U.S. population.
In 10 to 15 years this group will become the majority in the United States, Wang said.
“One in every three business owners in Middle Tennessee today are either immigrants or minorities,” Wang said.
“They represent the fastest-growing sector of our business community.”
John Mickner, the TIMBG’s chief operations officer, said that’s where his organization gets into gear — to bring in diverse groups of people.
“What we try to do here is bring the nations together from a business standpoint,” Mickner said.
“We use each other’s skills and resources so that people coming into the area, in particular, will have a place to be able to reach out and get acclimated quickly.”
And there are economic advantages to having new and diverse businesses, Wang said.
“If you look at countries with a lack of diversity, such as Ireland or Iceland, the economic growth has been stagnant, and innovative ideas have been lacking,” Wang said.
“In a country where people are most diverse, America is the best example. America is a country of immigrants. If you look at Nobel Prize winners half of them are Americans and a majority of them that won the prize were not born here. That is the best example.”
Wang said people ought not buy into what he called a “dangerous prevailing thought that diversity is bad.”
“We want to show through diversity that change is good,” Wang said.
As reported, Wang is also involved with the 917 Society, which has given out pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution to eighth-graders around the state.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
