BLACK PEOPLE BUILDING & ACCUMULATING WEALTH IN SPITE OF RACISM – COLLECTIVELY

We can only build and accumulate wealth, and bridge the gap between Black and White wealth if we work together as a community, and this can only happen when we focus on the UNITY in community. We can differ on any and all other elements that exists, but when it comes to Black Economics and empowering ourselves as a people, we must unite. There is no other way!

Yes, we are going to talk about racism. Two of the many woes that racism has imprinted on us, is division and self-hate. Firstly, division. Everything our ancestors set out to build for us, they – using the construct of racism – tore it down. So, we don’t get to inherit generational wealth as is passed down to Whites and other Non-Black people from their ancestors – en masse, and to this day we are constantly working individualistically to accumulate all we can – at whatever cost to each other, and viewing each other as the competition who is looking to take everything for him or herself. Secondly, self-hate. We have been taught very well, to hate ourselves. And so when many of us look in the mirror, we are not happy at what we see. We blame ourselves for everything – including being Black, and we treat anything or anyone that look like us – with disdain. Racism did that! And those are the two barriers to progress – as a people, that we must demolish entirely in order to advance economically which is a precursor to everything else we need in order to live and enjoy the same benefits as do everyone else.

But racism has done and continue to do much more than the above-mentioned. Here is an excerpt from an article that articulates the system of racism and its inner workings:

After reading that excerpt you can tell the entire system is stacked against us Black people, and it’s going to take all hands on deck and a united mindset to dig ourselves out and get to a place where we can have leverage to effect consequences for all the woes set up in the system of racism against us. And the only thing we have in our arsenal to use against this system that has been so carefully crafted against us, is our collective resources pooled together which involves buying from Black owned businesses first, banking with Black owned banks exclusively, and employing each other first.

We must direct as much of that $1.4 trillion we spend annually, to Black businesses and thus the Black community. Sure we have to spend with Whites and other non-Black businesses whether we like it or not. The system is set up that way. They own most of the essentials we use on a daily basis – electric, gas, water, food sources. But what we can and must do, is to ensure each time we shop – for anything, we check first to see if that item is offered by any Black owned business. Websites like ours www.blackconvergence.com and www.webuyblack.com makes it easy to find the items you need. Webuyblack.com is literally like a mini Amazon.

Of course we are not saying that all your experiences shopping with Black businesses will be pleasant and exhilarating; like any other business there will be unpleasant experiences and some bad exchanges. But what we should not do, is allow the few bad experiences we have with a few Black owned businesses to block us from shopping with the thousands of other Black owned businesses where most of them offer great products and exceptional services. As a community, we have to keep our goal at the center of everything we do, and not allow anyone or anything to derail us.

Big name brands brag about how Black people are their most loyal and reliable customers, yet they have a tendency to mistreat us when we go to their establishments to shop. We sacrifice our dignity to give them our money, and they take our money with entitlement and back to their community, leaving us disheartened and further widening the wealth gap.

We are doing ourselves and our community a disservice to continue ignoring us! They sit by and watch us be abused by a system set up to benefit them, and minimally put forth a few standard lines such as “We do not encourage discrimination against anyone…” when they see us protesting and raising hell with our marches in the streets – such as is happening right now in 2020. Their show of support is futile, lacks substance, and is not sincere at all. But they do it anyway. Why? Because they know that a good portion of Black people will believe them, accept it, and continue to give them their money.

Wealth building is a key area of struggle for us as a community and the lack of that wealth aggregate leaves us defenseless – as a people, in America (and the world at large). But we can fix that, and we must! Buying from Black owned businesses and Banking with Black owned banks will: a) help them to stay in business b) help them expand their businesses c) get more Black people employed d) allow for more money to be deposited in Black banks e) provide the resources so more Black people can start new businesses f) allow Black banks to have more money to invest in us and our community g) provide us with the economical force to use as leverage to command the change we seek for our community – politically and otherwise, and effect consequences to the horrific way in which we are treated here in America (and other places in the world) if our demand for equality, equity, and justice are not met.

If you’ve been following the federal loans and grants that was set aside for small businesses because of the pandemic and consequently the shutting down of the economy, you know that only 5% of Black owned businesses were approved for those loan grants. According to a survey by The Center for Responsible Lending, 95% of black business owners were denied funds from the Paycheck Protection Program which was launched by the federal government to help such business owners. What happened? You guessed. The people who were tasked with distributing those loan grants, were predominantly non-black, and systemic racism gets to play out here – again. Black business owners were excluded! In addition, surveys have shown that only 3% of loans distributed by banks in 2019 went to Black business owners. And if that is not enough to make us think “group economics”, it is estimated that 40% of Black owned businesses will close their doors permanently in 2020 due to the shutdown and lack of funding. So, us Black people seeking out and supporting Black owned businesses first before going anywhere else will help sustain those businesses so they can remain in business and continue to improve our community’s economic power – via the savings those businesses will bank with Black banks.

If we all bank Black, then the Black banks will be able to have enough money in their possession to grant us loans as needed so we can finally access the capital necessary to own more properties and businesses and build up an economic force. As mentioned above, Non-Black banks are not loaning a significant number of us business loans, and so we have to make loans a possibility for us by putting our savings in Black banks which will – without hesitation – grant us the loans we need to advance our economy.

The more Black people employed, the higher the probability that more of us will live better, but most importantly, is the possibility that more money will be poured into Black banks as Black people begin to have more to save.

We don’t have the luxury of doing one thing at a time. We have to attack everything that is coming at us from all different directions – simultaneously. Some of us are going to be working on different elements of our causes at varying times (as is happening now with the marches, protests, and advocacy for Black lives), but what we all must work on together constantly – is buying Black, banking Black, and putting Black first when we are in positions to make changes that can help our cause such as, seeking to hire Black people for available positions in a Firm – first.

One of our very own scholar Dr. Claud Anderson, has been advocating for Black people to put each other first for decades. He developed principles and strategies to counter racism’s effect on us, and laid out a guide for Black America to become a more economically and politically competitive group in America in his book PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America.

We don’t have 228 years to bridge the wealth gap. We must act now! We cannot continue to pour all our money out of our community to White and non-Black communities. We must change course now! Again, let’s leave something for our children to build on instead of starting from scratch. Let’s leave a world where our children have the resources to command equity in all aspects of society.