Black Business is Booming/ Black Dollar is Losing

By Tyler Doggett

Black entrepreneurship is at an all-time high in American with our queens leading the charge. But, why doesn’t the number of Black wealth reflect the ambition of our generation?

For decades, Black America has suffered from a self-destructive ideology when it comes to supporting our own businesses from the perpetuated belief and practice of systematic racism towards ourselves.

Roots of the great Black division can be traced back to slavery days through colorism, elitism, and other key strategies used to create seperation amongst our communities. Fast forward to 2018, and the same toxic mentality plagues still our culture.

Unlike other minorities that learn from their oppressors and bring that knowledge back for the overall advancement of their communities, it seems many of our people get lost on the way back to our community.

According to Best-selling author of Our Black Year, Maggie Anderson, less than 3 percent of our $1 trillion in buying power makes its way back to our community via our spending with our business and the companies that engage our business.

“We can vote Black, go to church Black, go be members of all these wonderful Black institutions, but unless you are spending Black and buying Black — that’s the best way to demonstrate your love and pride for the community,” Anderson said.

So, with this information clashing with the business statistics of 2018, what can we see?

Connie Evans, President and CEO of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity tells the Huffington Post that Black business is the key to bridging the gap of wealth depravity.

“Researchers found that the gap in average wealth between Black and White adults decreases from a multiplier of 13 to 3 when you compare the wealth of business owners by race” Evans stated. And with 2.58 million Black-owned businesses in America today, minor changes like employing 2 more people would have an incredible effect on the market.

The acceptance of negative black business tropes and common stereotypes attack the possibility of black economic success amongst our own people. While some blacks hold black owned business, (especially Start ups,) to an impossible standard aesthetically comparing them to businesses that’s been established for millennia, others keep a 0 tolerance persona when it comes to service demands. Some Blacks feel that Black entrepreneurs take advantage of their race to over-price items that you can commonly get from Wal-Mart for a fraction of the price.

Through all of the stigmas that’s coming with black businesses understanding that Unity equals wealth she push our people to support each other. If we stick together and build each other up, establish our community as the economic powerhouse that we are instead of the easily marketable consumer that we are perceived to be, and empower each other with our own revenues circulating within our own communities, we could create a utopia of Black excellence.

This article first appeared in African American News & Issues.