Today is July 7th and is a Blackout movement that the Black community has been asked to not purchase anything unless it’s from a black owned business. The purpose of the movement is an economic boycott to end police brutality and racism towards Blacks in America. It will show the nation the power of the black dollar, but I also believe it will show the black community how we can empower ourselves.
Before it was a thing, I have always made sure my money flows into black owned businesses. I admire anyone who takes a chance to pursue entrepreneurship and feel it is my duty to ensure I support their dream because I desire to see people win in life. In learning my Black History I discovered many towns like Tulsa, OK, Rosewood, FL, and even in my home state Wilmington, NC that were independent, thriving economic prosperous communities that were destroyed by white mobs because of economic anxiety and propaganda of the threat of blacks to whites. This more than ever fueled my desire to make extra effort to support black owned businesses because I want to see once again black communities thriving with economic prosperity. My effort to support black owned businesses is just my part in ensuring my people get a piece of the pie that there is more than enough to go around.
The tragedy of the recent deaths of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arberry has found many black owned businesses with an increased amount of support that has been long overdue. Even myself the other day bought toothbrushes from a black owned dental hygiene company I came across on Instagram because you can never have too many toothbrushes. There are so many ways to find black owned businesses from social media, Beyonce’s directory, and even Yelp has a symbol indicating a black owned business. You can also check out my articles on on to Buy Black and Buy Black Literature and Art and Literature Matters which feature black owned businesses I use regularly and have supported.
I urge you to Buy Black because this movement to end racial injustice and police brutality will require more than marching protests, but also economic protests which also were very much a part of the Civil Rights movement. Also when you buy black upload your receipts to MyBlackReceipt, and this site is quantifying the amount of support being given to black owned businesses.
This movement is a marathon and I encourage you to participate in the Black Out on today, July 7th, but also regularly support black owned businesses.
.png)
Comments