I dunno, most the brothers who don't work have the same haircuts as brothers who do.
Business is Business. White people love green more than they hate black.
We don't have to "play up" to any boss, black, white or yellow. Kissing butt doesn't work for brothers anyway, for if that's all you bring a white woman or a sister can do that and will look much better doing so since she's doing it in a skirt.
If we bring undeniable value, unquestionable excellence in our skills, then we carve out a seat for ourselves, without compromising our essence, long enough to learn what we need to do our own thing.
If we're mediocre, only as good as the next guy/gal, we got problems.
I agree many VERY talented brothers make a conscious decision not to deal with corporate America or legal enterprise of any kind.
Our problem is not enough have mastered the skills to make this a deliberate choice with a viable alternative rather than a forced one, with no compelling alternative.
Also not enough of those who've carved out seats are getting up from the table to start businesses employing brothers, which is also difficult, since the pool of skilled and willing brothers who'll work for black business is even smaller than those who'll work for white ones.
Solutions?
I dunno, I always come back around to education....
We can't have young brothers graduating high school at <50% so that it becomes "normal" to be a black male dropout, especially when even american college graduates are miles behind global competition.
A massive cultural transformation is needed; it can't continue to be cool to be a grown black man mostly broke and milking 4 or 5 women plus momma as a primary means of income.
When I was coming up I remember any slacking off would bring out a stern-faced pops coming with the "You're going to have to be TWICE as good..." speech. We've lost this cultural urgency and we do so at our own peril given the radical changes coming in the global marketplace.
A new economic model for trade between black folks could also help. Figure out a way to get rid of the dollar and come up with a bartering system.
If black people could live most of their lives comfortably exchanging goods and services with other black people, without ever exchanging a dollar, capitalisms power over us is crippled.
The education and skills requirement is not lessened however, so we have to find a way to educate and discipline our sons for manhood before we do anything.