Today is Black Friday and you know what that means for a lot of us… shopping, shopping, and more shopping. Now, don’t get me wrong, shopping is not bad, especially if you are shopping conscious and deliberate about your buying power as an African-American.
The recent incidents of racial profiling that occurred to black clients shopping at Macy’s and Barneys New York should serve as vivid, palpable reminders that we should clutch our collective purse and take our buying power—projected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015—, out of these stores and through the doors of businesses that respect our money and our community.
And some of these businesses—the ones that we overlook in favor of those larger, “upscale” brands—are owned by people that look just like us. Patronizing brick-and-mortar black-owned businesses or online sites like BMWK that offer you quality services and products that actually improve your lives is an excellent way to reclaim the “black” in Black Friday.
Because as we stand, despite all of the consumer power that we wield as a community, our money does not stay in our community long enough to build and sustain structures to establish generational wealth. According to the Harvest Institute, a Washington, DC-based think thank, income circulates within the Black community a mere zero to one time. On the other hand, income circulates unlimited times in the White community, at least twelve times amongst Jews, at least nine times with Asians, and at least six times in the Latino community.
If Black America were a nation, we would be the 16th richest in the entire world, so let’s start acting like it. Before you pull out that wallet or swipe that card, think about how our collective economic power and how your purchase is working in service to building smarter consumers and wealthier communities for this holiday season and beyond.
BMWK—How are you taking back the “black” in Black Friday?