5 Reasons to Support Black-Owned Businesses
Money is a powerful tool, and where and how you spend it can impact the world. For example, where you choose to invest your money can uplift communities, build up economic vitality, and even promote a settled lifestyle and productivity. This is why there have been several campaigns urging people to spend money on black-owned businesses. Buying black is essential for a sustainable economy that is inclusive of all. Here are a few reasons why you should support black-owned businesses.
Closing the racial wealth gap
Racial wealth disparity traces its roots back to the Jim Crow era where the alienation of black people from lucrative business and employment opportunities and even homeownership began. This trend has gone on for decades leading to today’s median wage between black and white households to be a whopping 12 times less. To give you a better perspective, one in four black families have nil or negative network compared to the white household average of less than one in ten. For black communities, black entrepreneurs have been the source of wealth. Therefore, keeping more money cycling among them would mean better opportunities, better credit, financial services, and eventually generational wealth.
Boost local economies
When you buy a black-owned product and thus boost the business’s profitability, the immediate benefit goes to the community around it. It is indeed true that banks will provide better business loans to businesses with better cashflows; hence building the local black-owned business is a way of engineering racial equity. This way, black businesses will access equal financing opportunities and build local economies. This will come with the added benefit of circulating money within the community, attracting better financial services and financial literacy, which build a robust economic system in black communities.
Job creation
Buying from a local black-owned business will increase their production capacity. This benefits the community from jobs arising in the production and selling of the items as well as other support services. Most black-owned businesses are found in black neighborhoods, and the impact of the pandemic means that the economic depression is felt within the community because they employ a large chunk of the population. But also, because many black businesses cannot access good financial opportunities, it is better to buy black and have the money circulate within the community. Growing employment opportunities means that businesses can expand beyond the community. This is the kind of investment needed to build financially stable black communities.
Celebrating the black heritage and community service
By buying black, you support black culture, black pride, and everything that unites us. While the concept sounds abstract, it serves to inspire other upcoming black-owned business owners to established businesses and shows that there is a market for black items. It also means that black culture is not eroded but kept intact. Black entrepreneurs are the power needed to fight for racial equity, and the more there are, the better it is in the fight against systemic racism. Economic power is the best weapon in the fight for social and economic justice, and it’s even better if we are united by the same things, e.g., culture.
Attract other services
Successful black-owned businesses are proof of the concept that a place is economically viable for other services. For example, the reality is that all of America is open for anyone to do business where they want and if several black businesses in an area flourish, other supporting or competing businesses will come. This could be anything from banks, recreational facilities, storage companies, etc. These are all opportunities the local community would have missed out on had they not invested in black-owned businesses. True diversity will come not from segregation but integration and cooperation at a mutually beneficial level.
You have an opportunity to encourage change in the world and it is as simple as directing your dollars to a black-owned business. Take action today, and let’s all work towards nurturing an all-inclusive economy and society.