You stood on lines for hours. You made phone calls until your voice went hoarse. And your commitment paid off: Due to your unyielding activity and, most importantly, your vote, President Barack Obama will be in the White House for a second term. It was a powerful demonstration of how WE can turn individual action into collective clout.
As proud as I am about our insistence to stand up and be counted at the polls, I’m equally disappointed in our approach to proactive economic advancement. Let me make it plain: We fail to support black-owned businesses, and our inaction threatens the basic viability of our communities.
Black businesses overwhelmingly tend to be sole proprietorships. Of the 1.9 million African American enterprises, only a bit more than 100,000 had paid employees, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners. And all but 14,500 had receipts of less than $1 million. Our focused lack of support means these companies will never grow in size and scale. That creates a ripple effect in which they don’t have the wherewithal to hire African American employees–as our businesses are inclined to do–therefore black communities and institutions receive fewer resources. This pattern simply does not represent a model for self-sufficiency.
Over the past few years, Black Enterprise has covered Maggie and John Anderson’s Empowerment Experiment (www.eefortomorrow.com), in which they pledged
to spend 100% of their income with black-owned businesses for a year. The Andersons found that in diverse or predominantly white suburban communities, the dollar was recycled for more than seven to 29 days, while, on average, consumer dollars stay in the black community just six hours.Unfortunately, I am not all that surprised. Whenever I gain the opportunity to address a group of African Americans, I ask whether they routinely employ the services of a black doctor, dentist, attorney, accountant, insurance agent, auto dealer, florist, financial planner, caterer, or dry cleaner. Audience members, on average, use two of 10 such businesses. Even those with the highest scores generally top out at 50%. If you happen to achieve that same level, please don’t puff your chest out with pride–as I recall from my school days, 50 is a failing grade.
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We must engage in “conscious consumerism.†In other words, let’s vote with our dollars. Quite
frankly, it’s in our individual and collective interest to reinvest in our communities. That’s why we include the following tenet among our 10 Wealth for Life Principles: I will support the creation and growth of minority-owned businesses. I urge all to engage in this practice on a local and national level. Regardless of what you’re seeking, it’s possible to find an African American company with quality products and services as well as top-notch customer service.Commit to subscribing to publications such as Black Enterprise and EBONY; vacation or hold events at black-owned hotel/resort facilities such as Florida-based Innisbrook Resort; purchase beauty products manufactured by black firms such as Carol’s Daughter; or invest your dollars in mutual funds operated by asset managers such as Ariel Investments.
To see what we can
accomplish, look at radio host Warren Ballentine’s grassroots “Community Reinvestment†campaign, which encouraged individuals and organizations to make deposits at Durham, North Carolina-based M&F Bank. By the end of the initiative, the be 100s bank gained more than $1 million in deposits and, in turn, matched that sum to create a $2 million investment fund that provided loans for area businesses and residents.It is outrageous for a race of people with buying power of close to $1 trillion to not reinvest in each other while standing around witnessing our own destruction. We must be as protective and vigilant in using our consumer dollars as we are with our vote. By doing so, we’ll find the campaign to support black-owned business will fully deliver on its promise.