Nat Irvin calls himself a "futurist". I'm not sure what that means besides making public appearances touting his vision for the economy of tomorrow. I do know Nat's a smart guy -- an assistant dean for Wake Forest University's MBA program -- with an interesting label for future generations of African-Americans. He calls them "thrivals", a generation not bound by many of the old limitations that previous black generations were, nor preoccupied with race as a potential barrier to their accomplishments.

I met Nat last week in Boston -- he's headlining the National Black MBA Association's "Living, Learning and Thinking in the year 2025" tour, which wraps up in San Francisco May 4 -- and wanted to ask him if being a 30 year-old, college-educated black male who writes about business for the mainstream media qualified me as a thrival. I couldn't stay long enough to get an answer, but that shouldn't stop you from checking out his defining work on the subject. Great food for thought, especially if you care about black folks' future.