The Struggles of Supporting Black Owned Business

Recently I’ve watched several videos by My Cousin who promoted the idea of supporting Black owned Businesses. Her just like many other Black Business owners discuss the amazing buying power of $1.1 trillion (as of 2015) of Black consumers annually. A study by the NAACP conducted in 2015 shows that in the Jewish Community the dollar is circulated approximately 20 days, the White Community the dollar is circulated about 17 days and in the Black Community the dollar is circulated about six hours. It also shows that out of all of the spending habits in the Black Community only about two cents per dollar counted is spent with a Black owned business.

In yesterday’s World this would’ve been a slap in the face. In the modern World the use of promoting a need to support a Black Business is obsolete and for no other reason than the fault of the Black Community as a whole.

This isn’t the Black Community that it once was. Shopping at Black owned businesses won’t change the mindset of the internal hatred that exists in our race….especially in the impoverished areas of town where it is so dangerous and far from profitable to own a business that caters to the lower class that foreigners are the only ones that could be successful at it. The only reason why they are successful is because they don’t practice the same habits nor the same frame of mind as their customer base.

The Black Community used to be a Community based on village concepts. We’ve all heard the elders talk about how they’d be trusted to discipline the neighbor’s kids. We went to church together, we lived peacefully among each other being that at the time our enemy was out there waiting to brutally murder us. The Young respected the elders and the neighborhoods were a safe haven for Blacks to live in. Once upon a time We needed each other.

Before integration it was Your local Black owned businesses that stood as the pillar in the Black Community. Black schools taught Black Students how to survive in the World, Black grocers knew the economic struggles of some Black Families and formed lines of credit in their stores and it was Black Doctors that seen to the sick in the Black Community. Often segregated restaurants would employ Black cooks to keep them in business. When these cooks learned the trade, they’d open shop in the Black Community where some of their White customer base would follow.

Because there was so much money pooled together in Black Businesses in the days of old, the Black grocer could take the risk of affording to extend a line of credit to a family in need. The Black Doctor could afford to render services to his patients with an extended bill and the Black owned Restaurant could become a food place of choice for all communities.

Then something bizarre happened. There was a dream that was shared with the Black Community that was the prelude to a nightmare. Chasing that dream of integration didn’t mean that We were anywhere close to becoming equal on the playing field with the Middle to Upper Middle Class Whites but was a subtle and successful attempt to extending the class of the lower class Whites with Black faces.

Black businesses slowly folded being that they couldn’t compete with the corporations that drew consumers in with catchy TV ads and discounts on their products. The model from these integrated businesses weren’t to give friendly customer service because they enjoyed what they were doing but simply because they enjoyed getting a paycheck.

House-nigger influence from Black leaders at the time is what sold out the Black Community as they were encouraged to spend their dollars in areas of town that they were once not welcomed in. The Selma Bus Boycott is a prime example of this. The lack of the Black customer base for the bus system to operate had crippled it’s business to the point that the bus system had to comply with the demands to allow Black passengers the freedom to sit anywhere on the bus….not because it was the right thing but it was the profitable thing. This would’ve been the golden time for the Black community to build their own transportation system or even see how valuable their dollars were as a community to become innovative in building more power structures in their own communities.

You must remember one thing…A community is as strong as the economy in that community. The Chinese who were brought to America as slaves and built the great American railroads doesn’t sit around and hold protests for their status of citizenship nor do they feel the need to conform to Eurocentric ideologies. They commerce within their own communities and built their economic structures to an impressive monstrosity. Mexicans invest in their communities and this provide them with a financial stronghold. The Jewish and the Italian Communities all do the same. All aforementioned groups had their share of being on the center stage in the worldwide tour of American oppression.  

These internal business structures creates jobs in their communities for their Young, Middle Aged and even provides care for their Elderly. After begging to be integrated into White society this is a business model that would be a discriminatory practice if Blacks opened up businesses and hired only Black employees.

Crossing the tracks over into the Black Community it is the Indians (from India), Asians and Middle Easterners that see the value in the Black Dollar and they setup their businesses there as well. They are the ‘Middle Man Merchants” that knows how not so frugal that Blacks are with their Money especially at tax time and payday.

In these stores You’d see all of the food and products that caters to the impoverished community…malt liquors, cheap cigars used for smoking marijuana, rolling paper, cheap canned meat, soda, snacks and cigarettes (some sold illegally individually).

These stores have a track record of illegally accepting food stamps in exchange for the purchase of alcohol, cigarettes and non-food items. This is what kind of shit businesses that has taken place in the lower class Black Community.  

For lack of better words, the Black Business owners were fucked by their own community to the point that in modern times Black Business owners experience more of a headache dealing with a Black Customer base that they’d rather deal with a Middle to Upper Middle Class White Customer base.

Promoting the use of Black owned businesses to promote the economy and heal the mind frame of the Black Community would be like trying to build strong walls in an already collapsed structure.

The Black Business owner would be held to more White Guilt by the lower class Black customer base than Whites have ever experienced. By higher class Blacks, the Black business owner is held under a microscope where criticism more than likely awaits his methods of doing business.  Black businesses for the most are held to the standards of corporate White owned franchises and is condemned for having the brick and mortar building structure of a Mom and Pop business…yet the customer base demands the caring and nurturing of a Mom and Pop business.

Black businesses can’t support the economic building of a Black Community anymore being that there is no such thing as Black Communities once classes are elevated. When a Black family reaches a certain level of income and want to do better for their families usually they’ll integrate into a multi-cultural neighborhood. They do this for reasons of comfort and safety with higher return of investments on their property value being icing on the cake.

Black owned businesses only means that the business is Black owned. The lower class Blacks will see this as a place where they can go jockey for the ‘hookup’ or an undeserved discount.

In lower class Black communities where Middle Man Merchants sell discounted shoes, clothing and bootleg movies is a dangerous job. Being that the merchant is known to carry liquidated cash on him he’s more than likely to be robbed for his goods and his money and would be lucky if he can still claim his own life afterwards.

In this new world of commerce being Black owned is no longer a legitimate incentive for doing business. It’s all about the quality of the product that is being sold. I once worked for a Black owned car dealership and none of the customers that came to Me Black or White purchased a vehicle because the owner was Black. They purchased because of how they were treated and they liked the product.

I will end by saying this to My Dear Cousin (who I will not mention) who inspired Me to write this post. I believe that Your intentions are genuine and not once am I disrespecting Your stance. The world has changed. Yes, as a People We should be looking out for one another but the sad reality is that We don’t. If history has taught Me anything when trying to cater and uplift the impoverished people of our community it will tell Me one thing…They will Kill Me. They will kill Me after strong efforts of liberating them. Nobody comes to You because You are Black, My Cousin. I've seen Your work. People come to You because You're the best at what You do. 

As a Salesman it isn’t about the color of the merchant. The brass tacks is three things. Treatment, product and price.