01 Sep 2026 Dr. Tino Smith: Mamdani Wants Government to Own the Grocery Store. Black Entrepreneurs Should Own It Instead.

Is the purpose of government to increase the capacity of people, or to replace their capacity?

In the commentary below, Project 21 Ambassador Tino Smith, Ph.D., lauds the entrepreneurial spirit of black Americans, and says New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is writing the wrong prescription with his plan for city-owned grocery stores:

Government officials should care when communities lack affordable, nutritious food. But recognizing a problem does not automatically mean government should become the grocer….

If a community needs a grocery store, I want black children growing up believing they can own that grocery store. I want neighborhood entrepreneurs to have access to the capital necessary to open it, employ local residents, perhaps own the property beneath it, and create wealth that can remain in the community and pass to another generation.

Read Dr. Smith’s commentary in full below.

Too often, black economic history is told beginning with what was done to black Americans rather than what we’ve built.

Dr. Tino Smith

Our economic history did not begin with government dependency, Jim Crow or redlining. Our history also includes entrepreneurship, property ownership, skilled trades, farming, commerce, churches, banks, schools, mutual-aid societies and communities built by black Americans. Black Americans have created businesses, institutions, and economic ecosystems despite extraordinary barriers.

While that progress was repeatedly restricted and sometimes destroyed through slavery and its aftermath, discriminatory laws, racial violence, Jim Crow, exclusion from financing and markets, restrictive covenants and redlining, black enterprise has endured.

This history matters when considering socialism and Mayor Mamdani’s city-owned grocery-store initiative.

Food affordability and access are legitimate concerns. Government officials should care when communities lack affordable, nutritious food. But recognizing a problem does not automatically mean government should become the grocer.

Before government opens a grocery store, I want to ask a series of questions:

Why isn’t private or community enterprise succeeding there?

Is financing unavailable?

Are taxes, regulations, operating costs, crime, or lack of access to property and capital discouraging investment?

What could government do to help entrepreneurs, existing grocers, cooperatives, farmers, churches, nonprofits and community organizations meet that need?

My first instinct is not to ask what more government can own for black people.

I want to know what black people can own for ourselves.

If a community needs a grocery store, I want black children growing up believing they can own that grocery store. I want neighborhood entrepreneurs to have access to the capital necessary to open it, employ local residents, perhaps own the property beneath it, and create wealth that can remain in the community and pass to another generation.

Government can help create those conditions without necessarily becoming the enterprise itself.

Government-owned businesses also raise legitimate questions about competition. A neighborhood grocer must pay rent, taxes, insurance, payroll, utilities, inventory and other operating expenses. When government enters the same marketplace with taxpayer-supported advantages, we should consider what that does to existing businesses and future entrepreneurs.

Do black Americans have anything to gain from more government control of our communities?

Government has a legitimate role. It should protect public safety and property rights, maintain infrastructure, enforce laws fairly, provide essential services and create conditions in which citizens and businesses can prosper. Government, businesses, churches, nonprofits and community organizations can also partner to address difficult problems.

But partnership is not the same as control.

The better question is whether government is increasing the capacity of people or replacing that capacity.

I want to see more black business owners, homeowners, entrepreneurs, investors and property owners; greater access to capital and financial literacy; stronger community institutions; and more families accumulating assets they can transfer to the next generation.

Black ownership is not a new experiment. Black entrepreneurship is not something government recently created for us. Building businesses, churches, farms, schools, professional practices and communities has long been part of the black American story.

Discriminatory policies restricted that opportunity and destroyed wealth, but those injustices should neither become the starting point of our history nor the limit of our imagination.

And this principle, while applicable to black Americans, ultimately reaches beyond race. Economic freedom, entrepreneurship, ownership, dignity and the desire to leave something for the next generation are American aspirations.

My concern about socialism is therefore not rooted in fear of government. It is rooted in confidence in people.

The goal should not be greater government ownership of our communities. The goal should be greater ownership by the people who live in them.

Project 21 Ambassador Tino Smith, Ph.D., is the CEO of Kingdom Builders Worldwide, a transformative organization that fosters global empowerment and community development.