Jerome Johnson BUILDING A PLATFORM
For many African-American businesspeople, Hawaii is a double-edged
paradise. Economic opportunities abound, but it can be a tough place to
gain a foothold. Jerome Johnson thinks the four-month-old
African-American Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii can help
turn things
around. "Most African-Americans are outsiders coming in, so
automatically they face initial resistance," says 39-year-old
Johnson, the group's first president. "In addition, because
our numbers are not large in significant areas of business, we
don't have frontrunners there to speak for us." Johnson, a
business consultant with Grant Thornton who came to Hawaii from Detroit
in 1982, believes the new Chamber "will give African-Americans a
profile in the community, and a platform to display that we are doing
business in Hawaii, and what our contributions are and can be."