The Invisible Black Dollar

Vernon R. Heard

April 2015

We all know that C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Moves Everything Around Me) but it seems that many corporations don’t even acknowledge how much of their revenue comes from the Black community. It could be that they don’t respect the Black consumer enough to give us our props. I’ve read that the mentality of some corporate marketing departments is that Blacks will “buy anyway”, without pandering to the community for support. Without reinvestment in the area. Nothing. I’ve even read about corporations stating their disdain for Black patrons while raking in profits from Black dollars by the fistful. The way the Black dollar goes unacknowledged it’s as if it’s invisible. It’s green like everyone else’s. It spends like everyone else’s. It’s deposited like everyone else’s but there is little reinvestment in the Black community. The percentage of profits from the Black community reinvested in the Black community is dismal. Also invisible.

What if the tide of buying trends was steered to more Black Owned Businesses? What if more communities did what the neighborhood in northeast Greensboro, North Carolina did and banded together to open their own neighborhood grocery store. You Can read about it here. The Black community has power that it does not acknowledge or wield. Just like our heritage as kings and queens, the power is laid aside and unused and underappreciated. It’s no wonder that businesses don’t bother to have a presence in the community except to pick up their money. If you could get the same money with absolutely no effort as you could going out of your way to prove that you care, which would you choose to do?

"We want a co-op" is the mantra of the residents of the southeastern Greensboro, NC neighborhood that banded together to open their own neighborhood store.

Here's what plenty of companies see when they look at the Black consumer.

The most effective way to make the invisible Black dollar ‘visible’ is to remove it from the equation within 'corporate' businesses in our community. The beauty supply shop, the corner store, the liquor store, Walmart, franchised businesses in the community with no Black ownership, management… the list goes on.

Redirecting Black spending speaks volumes and would be heard from the local retailer to manufacturers to the legislature and beyond. A first step could be to go out of your way to patronize Black businesses and entrepreneurs. I know, I know… it’s the same old song we’ve all heard. Problem is I haven’t heard much about the concept being implemented.

Good news is that there are a number of credible websites and apps that provide Black buyers with information to connect with Black-owned businesses. They can be the seed to creating a network of retailers, vendors and services to spend with. A small sampling can be found here….

- Small Black Business Directory - In the Google store...

- Around The Way App – http://aroundthewayapp.com/

- Black Owned Businesses by Black Trade Lines (APP) - On iTunes

- Ask B.O.B. (Launching in April 2015) - Get info HERE

A community of Black entrepreneurs gather at egrassrootsbusiness.com See a small selection of the 29,000+ members HERE

Shifting away from the usual buying habits should start from the top down. It makes sense that the more financially secure in the community can exercise their options to direct their dollars more readily than the financially strapped. There is more flexibility to buy at your own pace and where you want if you have money. Financially strapped community members have less choice in their environment. So the message should start from the top. There’s really nothing to do but stop spending and write retailers' corporate offices to let them know why. Let them know who you are, where you live, and what your message to them is. That we need investments in our community, in our school systems, and for special program funding, we need need scholarship sponsors, we need management opportunities and training (sans the glass ceiling), we need opportunities for franchises of our own in our own community.

There’s always the option of taking the $137 billion we spend elsewhere and buy out the stores in our neighborhood and replace ‘em with our own like the folks in Greensboro. I’ll bet those invisible Black dollars would make their mark then.

Black Wall Street anyone?

V. Ray

#positiveblack