It is always a double-edged sword when an academic comes down from the ivory tower. Sure, it's entertaining to view our ordinary lives through their high-powered lens, to get a metaphysical explanation for a mundane stop at Starbucks.

Yet every now and then, the egghead descends speaking a harder truth. They bring down a mirror, show us ourselves in a harsh, unflattering light, and ask us to rethink, redress or even remake something that, to most folks, may not seem like much of a problem.

A couple of months ago, Ron Carter, the president of Johnson C. Smith University, embarked on what seemed to me a lonely - if not futile - quest: to figure out why, even in its best days, Charlotte produces so few successful black businesses, and how can we do better.

Carter told me earlier this week the study, conducted by a couple of JCSU business professors who surveyed some 200 local black business owners, was complete and a white paper outlining the findings will be released later this month by JCSU and the nonprofit Urban Business Network.

I give kudos to Carter. Since he took the helm of JCSU in 2008, he's brought a rare blend of guts, glam and gravitas to the role. In short order, he's become a ubiquitous figure around town; you see him unveiling plans to develop the tough neighborhoods around JCSU, hunkering down in skull sessions with black business owners and professional strivers of all stripes, or whisking into another black-tie gala, the dashing newcomer charming Old Charlotte with his regal baritone and courtly manner.

"I love this city, and I want it to succeed," he says. "We have a great will here; we come up with great ideas but then we let those ideas peter out."

Carter's got a lot riding on this study. Under his stewardship, JCSU hopes to better leverage its intellectual assets, as well as its physical proximity to the central business district, to play a bigger role in shaping the city and culture.

While demurring on discussing the study's conclusions, Carter did say: "I'm really concerned that the vision for Charlotte has not been articulated within our changing demographics. We are not preparing for the minority to be the majority."

What Carter means is this: Our demographic future is pretty much in lockstep with the nation's: By 2050, census projections show, minorities will make up 49.9 percent of the U.S. population. Yet that group is mostly sidelined in driving our local economy.

Of course, we've heard some of this before. In 2007, the nonprofit Crossroads Charlotte released a highly publicized study that raised the specter of becoming a "Fortress Charlotte," by 2015 - polarized along race and class lines if local trends in crime, school poverty and homelessness were to continue unabated.

The racial chasm has widened since then, Carter says, and by ignoring the frustrations of Charlotte's current black business owners, we put at risk our ability to attract talented minority entrepreneurs and small business owners from elsewhere.

"This group is very clear that they will not be excluded from gaining traction," Carter says. "And they can create problems for the way this city is seen. We don't want them to be shaking the foundation; we want them to be building it."

Call it Our New Reality 101.