Why should you support black owned businesses this festive period?
Have you ever purchased from a black business before? Maybe you always do, maybe you never have or maybe you simply do not know! Whatever the case, it’s still clear that many people do not necessarily understand why it’s important / necessary that they make the effort to support black businesses
When it comes to personal and business finance, a person’s race can have a significant impact on their ability to build wealth, whether you’d like to acknowledge it or not. Today’s wealth gap has many roots, one of which can be rooted back to practices in the Jim Crow-era, such as job discrimination and red-lining, which dis-allowed black people (African-American’s) from having access to opportunities such as home-ownership, higher paying jobs and living, working and being educated in certain, more affluent areas of the States. This crippled their ability to build wealth in the same way that other communities were able to do so freely and trickled across the world like a plague, holding back generations of people in the black community and ensuring very few could actually thrive like those around them.
Years later and the impact can still be seen and felt globally and surprisingly these practices are still very much being used. A 2017 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition actually found that banks were twice as likely to provide business loans to white applicants than black ones, plus three times as likely to have follow-up meetings with white applicants than more qualified black ones.
Although many will argue that is not their problem to solve, if you are someone who sees themselves as an advocate for change or someone who simply, as a human being of any race, cares about and wants to see positive change for the black community, having been made aware of the above disparities, then you should know that simply adding purchases from black businesses to your weekly shopping routines could be a great first step towards change, with significant impact over time! It is a true fact that when small businesses start to do well, their communities will also begin to flourish.
It is also a fact that for many people of colour around the world, it is merely ‘second nature’ to buy from Caucasian / white owned businesses. This owing to them being wider promoted and spread across media, television channels, radio airwaves and the high street. Many black businesses also, again by default, purchase much of their wholesale goods from China and other parts of the world, just like everybody else. So it should be noted that black businesses asking the world to check out their brands and see what they have to offer too, is not them asking for a handout. On the contrary they are simply asking the world to return the favour and make it ‘the norm’ to buy from everyone, just as the black community have been doing themselves for many years.
Visibility has definitely been an issue for many black businesses, again connected to lack of finance to use the bigger channels available for promotion of their business services and this is where platforms for women in business and female entrepreneurs like She Inspired Her come in and save the day, pushing out the brands, businesses and services of people from all communities to a wider audience and ensuring that their efforts are seen and heard.
You may assume that a black owned business will not have products for you? I am sorry to say this would be a silly assumption! We all wear clothing, we all eat, we all like puzzles, games and toys and we all buy into fashion, beauty and wellness! All businesses of all colours sell all services! Get this into you head and next time you see a black owned business, why not take a look! You may just find something you love!
So there you have it! Lets GO!
Click here for some amazing black female owned brands you can support
Connect with them, buy from them, SHARE AND SUPPORT THEM!
Article by Crystal Emmanuel of She Inspired Her
