Buy Black: Let's Go ALL OUT!
The Covid-19 pandemic forced 460,000 out of 1.1 million Black businesses in the United States to close from February to April, reported the National Bureau of Economic Research. The 41 percent drop could be a huge setback for Black businesses if they are left to fend for themselves.
“In order to stop the bleeding, let’s go ahead and let us increase our support exponentially and get everybody to come out one time and let’s go ahead and flood these businesses with support, of course being socially distant and being safe all at the same time.” — Cassiopeia Uhuru, Co-Founder of The Black Mall, and online directory that spotlights and supports Black-owned businesses across the country.
Stacey Pitts Caldwell, center director and owner of SMP Creative which offers branding services to small businesses, said that the initiative encourages consumers to keep circulating the Black dollar despite the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
“The Black community has spending power, that’s something that we know, that’s something that corporations know. The biggest shift in my opinion is that when we had the killing of George Floyd, that was a different moment in time,” Ms. Caldwell said.
“This one in particular we saw some really big companies stand up and I think that’s the shift that’s happening so, at the same time, in parallel as Black communities and Black businesses, we have to use our spending power with our Black businesses,” she added.
The ongoing protests against police brutality after the death of George Floyd caused many larger businesses and corporations to update their policies in “solidarity” with the Black community. This shows the power of the Black dollar, continued Ms. Caldwell.
“To be able to identify other Black businesses who either I can work with or I can find use as vendors is really important,” she continued. “It’s really the piece about collaborating,” said Ms. Caldwell.