TO be young, gifted and black... young, gifted and broke, more like. The list of young British moneymakers silently shouts the truth - that in spite of the warmer climate of race relations in Britain

TO be young, gifted and black... young, gifted and broke, more like. The list of young British moneymakers silently shouts the truth - that in spite of the warmer climate of race relations in Britain, we still aren't making it. It would be easy to say that this is yet another example of institutional racism in the business world; but since the colour that matters most to business people is green, and there are so many young Asian entrepreneurs on the list, this surely can't be the whole answer.

Most of the list have made their fortunes at the end of an internet link, where no one can see your colour or hear your voice, so racism among the customers doesn't quite wash either.

The normal explanation for black failure in business usually lies in three areas: educational under-achievement, discrimination by lenders and an absence of role models. All of these factors suggest why young black people would be at a disadvantage, but convincingly explains their complete absence from the list.

A combination of educational failure and discrimination is clearly responsible for there being relatively few black professionals. But since many successful entrepreneurs leave school early, it's unlikely to be a major factor in business. Prejudice on the part of financial institutions is. Stereotyped images of black people - lazy, less than competent, unreliable - mean that the trust and confidence needed to support a growing business is hard to come by. However, many Asian business people share the same disadvantages, and it is hard to believe that there are no bank managers or entrepreneurs who can see through the veil of prejudice.

So what about the role models? Their absence may be a factor. But are we to believe that no black people see themselves as entrepreneurs because they don't have a high-profile example? We would all have to be astoundingly unambitious for this to be an explanation. And it still would not answer the question as to why it is that, even in fields where black people are hugely successful as performers, they never make the transition to mogul.

Without wanting to take any of the focus off the issues of current discrimination, it may be that some of the reasons lie elsewhere, in the baleful legacy of the African and Caribbean colonial experience. One problem may be the domination of the Caribbean and African economies by foreign (including Asian) businesses. Typically, immigrant entrepreneurs have started by trading with their country of origin. But because black people were, unlike Indians, never permitted to set up businesses in the colonies, the relationships that many Asian entrepreneurs have depended on were never available. For example, while British Asian business people could buy textiles cheaply through family connections in India, Caribbean entrepreneurs would have to deal with British or American land owners if they wanted to exploit the tourist potential of the islands.

But it's not all someone else's responsibility. Every black family is familiar with the expression "get your paper first". It is the traditional admonition to any child who expresses the desire to do something unconventional - get qualified in a solid profession. The idea of risk is abhorrent to many of the older generation - understandably so, since there were no welfare state cushions for failure in their young days. This attitude, as well as the strong, underlying Protestantism, has made the black British community a deeply conventional group of people. It may be that, at heart, we are a people too hidebound by our past to take the risks involved in making large amounts of money. Pile on top of that inclination the mountain of prejudice that any black entrepreneur has to face and ask yourself - is it worth taking the chance? For most of us, the answer has got to be no.