One day, Teri Williams, President and CEO of Florida's only Black-owned bank OneUnited Bank, was talking to local artist and muralist Adonis Parker. He asked her a personal question.
“Who are you? How did you get here?”
Williams began answering with an outline of her resume, describing that she went to Brown University, majoring in economics, worked at Bank of America and then went on to Harvard University.
Parker said that’s not what he was asking. Confused, Williams began to describe her experiences with a little bit more detail and, she thought, clarity. She highlighted that she went to Ivy League schools and was at the top of her class.
Again, Parker said that was not what he was asking. Williams paused —and surprised even herself when she said maybe it was her great-grandmother.
“Like, that is the first time I said that in my life,” she said. “I was like, 'I think it was my great-grandmother, that we used to call Ma Honey. And I think she owned all these businesses … I think that's how I got here.'"
Adonis’ question is the catalyst behind Williams' new show Who’s Your Ma Honey?, where she and Suzan McDowell, CEO of Circle of One Marketing, talk to guests about the shame they held that actually helped them on their journey to success. The ten-episode series drops new episodes every Thursday on YouTube and podcast platforms.
Williams calls it “undeserved shame.” She felt ashamed of her roots.
She grew up in Booker Park, Indiantown. It was segregated, with Black and white residents living on opposite sides of the railroad tracks. When you would go across the railroad tracks, down the road and around the corner into Booker Park, right there on that corner was her great-grandmother Ma Honey’s candy store.
Ma Honey was an entrepreneur. She also owned a juke joint, a barbecue pit, and right around the corner from the candy store were all of the rental properties she owned. Williams would walk with Ma Honey down the lane, helping her collect that month’s rent.
Williams worked in the penny candy store for as long as she could remember, and she loved it. She didn’t realize that at the time, she was drawn to the business aspect.
“ I put 'em on the counter, they pay me the money, I give them the bag of candy … it was transactional, and I loved it,” she said. "But I didn't realize that I was learning business, it was just hanging out with my great-grandma, hanging out with Ma Honey.”
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She earned a full-ride scholarship with a stipend to attend Brown University. It was an opportunity to leave town and get an education, which she took. But what she didn’t expect was the culture shock. She didn’t know she was going to an Ivy League school. Most of the students were already well-connected because they were second or third-generation students.
She didn’t struggle with academics at all. Williams’ economic courses came easily to her partly because of her childhood.
But she was ashamed of her roots and hid that very background, not realizing that her upbringing with Ma Honey played such an important role in her life.
" She did not deserve my shame," said Williams, "she deserved for me to give her flowers, to say, 'Thank you for how you raised me.'"
Williams uses this story to relate to her guests on Who’s Your Ma Honey? who may find it difficult to express the source of their “superpower."
“ It helps them understand the question, because people are so used to being asked, 'Who inspired you?" That is a different question,” she said. “They see me open up, and I think it helps them open up.”
She doesn’t want guests to feel their shame all over again, but to instead share the pride they now have in things they once felt embarrassed about.
As the owner of OneUnited Bank, she regularly comes across customers who are ashamed of their financial literacy, who might not believe that they deserve to own a home or start a business.
Williams remembers learning about finances in her home economics classes in school, but they don't teach those classes anymore.
" How are you supposed to know about money, where are you supposed to learn it?" she said. " They don't teach it anymore, so you shouldn't feel ashamed that you don't know everything."
She hopes this series takes off — but her one wish for Who’s Your Ma Honey? is that it does not age well.
“ That's my true wish, that we solve it, and that people do not feel shame, or they recognize undeserved shame, and it doesn't derail them,” she said. “I hope this show does not age well, that the next generation looks back and says, 'We don't know what you're talking about.'"
