Supporting Black Business Month.
Raise your hand if you were aware that August is National Black Business Month in the United States Of America. My guess is that only a handful of people out there are able to say that they knew that. Now I have no intention to shame anyone here the reality is that the lack of awareness surrounding this nationally themed month simply illustrates the ongoing systemic racial inequality in the USA.
What is the cost of this racism? Some answers lie in the wealth gap. Black communities have been historically marginalized, and the consequences are very evident.
The median wealth for Black families in the United States is $17,000 while White families hold a median wealth of $171,000—a ratio of 10 to one. In addition to this racial wage disparity in America affects generations: Black children are three times as likely to live in poverty than White children. The value of homeownership for Black Americans also differs greatly from that of Whites: 42% own their homes compared with 73% for Whites. Schools play an important role in this cycle too—the pipeline from schools to prisons means that incarceration rates among Black Americans are six times higher than that among White Americans. This is even further evident in mortality rates where Non-Hispanic Black Americans have a life expectancy 3.6 years lower than non-Hispanic White Americans.
Simply put, Black communities are plagued by a cycle of poverty that continues to perpetuate systemic racism in our country.
The United States is a country made up of many people from different backgrounds and that could be a point of pride for our nation, But until we as a country decide to acknowledge communities that have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, communities who have faced oppression and discrimination throughout the country’s history, of which there are many. we have little hope of breaking our entrenched and oppressive cycles. Black Business Month offers us an opportunity to do just that and in this blog post, we will discuss how.
What is Black Business Month?
How about we start from the top. The concept of Black Business Month is easy enough to understand: support Black-owned organizations to cultivate, abundant economic freedom for the Black community. Additionally, I’d argue that it is our patriotic duty to create a more hospitable environment for Black-owned businesses to grow as a step towards fulfilling our nation’s most basic values as they are taught to every school-aged child, those of life, liberty, and freedom. It is nothing short of a tragedy how easily we fail to realize these values as many school-aged children are forced to reconcile the discrepancy of learning what our country claims to stand for as they face the circumstances of their daily lives as outlined above.
What is the Landscape of Black Business in America?
According to the most recent United States Census reports, Black - or African American-owned businesses “account for 9.4 percent of all firms, which is still below the 13.1 percent Black or African American share of the U.S. adult population.” The census data is reporting growth and Women are at the heart of it. The census data depicts that there were 900,000 Black and female-owned firms in 2007, which grew to 1.5 million in 2012, and that 59% of Black-owned businesses are operated by women.
Now, this growth is great but no one reading this should feel as though we can rest on our laurels because the trend is moving in the right direction. This is especially true after the firestorm the pandemic has put everyone through. The reality is that it hands down COVID-19 has affected minority communities on a far greater scale.
National Geographic reports that researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz discovered that the COVID-19 outbreak disproportionately hurt minority businesses—with Black-owned businesses taking the lion’s share of that fate. They report that 41% of Black-owned businesses had closed due to the pandemic, an astounding difference to the 17% of white-owned businesses.
Ok, So What Can We Do?
Small businesses can actually generate substantial support for each other, especially when friendly competition is utilized as a catalyst for good and a means to establish a business community that supports one another and takes the opportunity to promote and spotlight minority-owned businesses. Each day of August is an opportunity to create a supportive and thriving business community. Here are some tips to help you build what will hopefully become a regular practice during Black Business Month:
Local, local, local – Every small business has an overhead of some kind or another, office supplies, cleaning service, food, or other internal items. Instead of putting dollars toward big-box corporate chains, small business owners can source these items from black or minority-owned businesses.
How do I find a Black-owned business? – Try resources like WeBuyBlack and Where U Came From to find Black-owned businesses that can assist you in meeting your business needs.
Where are those company vehicles at? – HuffPost reports that car repair and maintenance shops account for 20% of Black-owned businesses. are your vehicles in need of an oil change or regular maintenance? Bring the company cars to a Black-owned shop.
Use the hashtags – Used Intentionally, social media platforms have the power to be an awesome resource. Use hashtags like #Blackmakers, #Blackowned to find businesses to support. Even consider using your social media platforms to engage your customer base and help amplify the reach of these hashtags like #SupportBlackBusiness, #NationalBlackBusinessMonth, #ShopBlackOwned, to drive further support and awareness. As a small business time only allows for CR-WK to work with a certain number of clients in any given month. We intentionally do this in order to preserve the quality and effectiveness of our service. During Black Business Month CR-WK is using these hashtags to locate Black-owned businesses that offer equivalent services to ours, and offering these listings to any potential client whose needs we cannot meet.
Create a new relationship – Small business owners can strengthen both their own and a local Black-owned business by partnering with them on a project or special offer and creating a new business relationship with potential for further joint endeavors. As CR-WK operates in a B2B fashion we will be offering “pay what you can” on all of its services for Black-owned businesses through the month of August.
Be an ally – For those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept an ally is someone who is not a member of an underrepresented group but regardless takes action to support that group. Truly it is up to people who hold positions of privilege to be active allies to those with less access and to take responsibility for making changes that will help others be successful, experience inclusivity, and ultimately ensure their privilege is shared with those around them. Syracuse University and The Muse have great resources that can help you become acquainted with the idea of being an ally and practices to help you grow in that journey.
Create space – Likely a big part of your business is about generating positive attention and engagement. As we are still navigating the turbulent waters of the pandemic and reporters reach out to businesses for a statement or quote about the struggles COVID-19 has presented your business rather than take the interview, you could provide the names of a Black-owned business and effectively share the spotlight to help bolster their recovery.
In Conclusion
The Above is meant to provoke awareness and outline practices you can employ to the best of your abilities throughout the month of August to support National Black Business Month. However, in many respects, this is only a start of the work ahead of us, and more than anything my hope is that this blog gives you a foundation from which to build upon and create an elevated consciousness for your business to operate from, leveraging its position as a catalyst for creating a mindset of abundance while cultivating an inclusive business community.
