A team of basketball legends are getting together to help build Black wealth in Oakland.
Celtics star and University of California, Berkeley alumnus Jaylen Brown and Dallas Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd have partnered to launch Oakland XChange.
“Giving resources back to our community and allowing them to have opportunities, I think is key,” Brown said. “The wealth gap is widening in other places of the US not just Boston, so to be able to invest in our community is important.”
The East Bay mission is forming off the back of Boston XChange, which aimed to bring Black Wall Street to Boston. The hope locally is to generate $5 billion for historically marginalized communities by investing in real estate and providing support, resources and programing to entrepreneurs.
“Being able to teach people how to run a business, how to grow a business and how to start a business,” Kidd said. “When you talk about the different programs from A to Z there is going to be everything under one roof, and that just doesn’t happen.”
Additionally, Oakland XChange will partner with Oakstop, a group dedicated to the redistribution of wealth, to carry out its mission.
“It’s imperative to create narrative change to show that the community can build itself up and create opportunities and create those bridges that have not existed before,” said Trevor Parham, founder and CEO of Oakstop.
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The group is looking at raising $10 million to begin investing in real estate and building programs.
“What they can fund is acquisition of real estate assists which brings the cost of space down significantly by owning those assets,” said Parham. “[It] also allows us to invest in those spaces knowing that they will be in the community in perpetuity.”
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The partnership has also caught the attention of politicians across all levels of government.
“It means we want economic opportunities to be part of this fight for justice and freedom because we deserve also to live the American dream,” said Rep. Barabra Lee.
Brown said he hopes change will come to the city as the initiative grows.
“I think the violence and crime can kind of extend from the lack of opportunity, directly extends from the lack of opportunity here so being able to create opportunity and resources can hopefully create a trickle-down effect,” he said.
