About 8 years ago I read a book called “Our Black Year” It basically chronicled one family’s journey and commitment to buy Black for a year. This family and I had one thing in common we’re Black. But, our lives diverged in many different ways. They were married and had kids, I’m single and without littles. They lived in Chicago a city with a significant Black population and I lived in Denver. At the time they were doing really well financially and let’s be clear, I was not. However, we did have another thing in common we were focused on value based spending. In the years since that book was published a number of things have changed and I thought that it would be a great time to explore how and why shopping Black 365 days a year is so important. By the way, buying Black is not an anti-white movement. Just think of it as American Capitalism at work. I buy at white businesses almost every single day. So anyone who’s in their feelings about this episode get over it.
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Show Notes
- One of the aspects of the “Our Black Year” experience that I remembered very vividly was how the Anderson family’s personal values and interests impacted their spending. They needed a dry cleaner and were only able to find one Black owned dry cleaner in the city of Chicago at that time. I don’t need a dry cleaner.
- Why am I even interested in bringing up buying Black as something to think about? Because in the past couple of years I’ve seen a significant shift in people interested in how they can lead a value driven financial life.
- I do plan on recording another shorter episode about how to live a value driven financial life but for the purpose of this episode I want to really focus on the idea of “Buying Black” and why technology has made it easier for consumers to do it.
- You don’t have to be Black to support Black owned businesses. In fact, I know quite a few people who are very intentional about doing the following:
- Spending locally
- Supporting entrepreneurs who would normally not get as much support or investment dollars
- Supporting causes that are aligned with how they would like resources used
- I moderated a panel for FinConX that was held in 2020 that covered value based investing and spending. The panelists brought up the fact that value-based economics is not a new concept. In the past 50 years we’ve seen the following value-based spending movements:
- Divesting out of South Africa because of the Apartheid System
- Overseas boycotting of the US by citizens who didn’t agree with 45’s administration. I have a number of international friends who confirmed this boycotting over and over again.
- Avoiding the purchase of Blood Diamonds
- Supporting women owned businesses or other unique cultural groups.
- In my personal life intentional spending looks like the following:
- Understanding what I value and enjoy.
- Knowing the owners of the businesses that I like to spend at.
- Creating a spending plan for special products goods and services.
- Shouting out these businesses whenever possible and sharing how to connect with them
- Why buy Black?
- You’re more than likely supporting a Black woman entrepreneur and her employees. Black women are one of the fastest growing segments of entrepreneurs in the US.
- Disrupt the flow of money from big box stores to independently owned businesses. Big box stores are documented to hasten the closing of small local businesses.
- Validate products that would otherwise not be produced by other companies. Not everyone understands what you may want or need.
- Why not?
- What makes Buying Black and with intention easier in 2021 and beyond?
- Technology! I may be alarmed by the acceleration of automation in production of goods. However, technology enables people like me to intentionally shop Black when products, goods and services weren’t available in my immediate vicinity. Here’s what buying and supporting Black looks like for me. I should mention that I use the same process to buy local.
- Sharing products, goods and services in my social media
- Interviewing entrepreneurs on my podcast
- Intentional spending for example:
- I would like to buy candles soon-I’m looking to purchase them from a POC company. I’ve found a great Etsy profile that I would like to buy from. You literally just have to type in Black Owned Etsy Candle Shop
- Hair products-I found a company called Melanin Haircare
- I would like to support a pay what you can restaurant that acts as a social good. We have one in Denver and I found a restaurant in Alabama run by a black family that does the same thing. I can send a one time or recurring donation to their operating costs. The name is Drexell and Honeybee
- I haven’t picked up a bottle of wine in awhile but I’m going to pick up a bottle of Black Girl Magic from the McBride Sisters at my local Trader Joe’s.
- There are local Facebook groups that have been created to help connect people with goods, products and services.
- Google “Black Owned Products” and be clear. If you’re looking for tea companies Google “Black Owned Tea Company”
- Apps such as the BBLK app developed here in Denver, Black Business Green Book, SunUp in New York City, Chez Nous Guide, and EatOkra a restaurant app
- Technology! I may be alarmed by the acceleration of automation in production of goods. However, technology enables people like me to intentionally shop Black when products, goods and services weren’t available in my immediate vicinity. Here’s what buying and supporting Black looks like for me. I should mention that I use the same process to buy local.
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Shopping at Black owned companies. Choosing a company because of the skin color of the owner. Sounds pretty racist to me, doesn’t it? Imagine someone shopping in a shop because it belongs to white people. What a scandal. Can’t see no difference when replacing “white” by “black” in such sentence. And I thought we’d be about to put skin color behind us when it comes to selections and preferences. But I was wrong. 2021 and people still select by skin color. Nothing learned. Nothing.
You’re hilarious. I also shop Colorado owned businesses as a practice and let me tell you-the majority of those businesses are White owned and awesome. In fact, I highlight them on my Colorado website and podcast. Calm down.