Business
Could supporting black business help reduce black unemployment
Many Black communities in the United States are suffering from unemployment, underemployment and many other negative economic indicators that impact the quality of life for individuals living in these communities. Given that recent models of economic transformation do not appear to be yielding the desired results for Black communities, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate some historical perspectives on how best to bring economic prosperity to Black communities.
According to James Clingman Jr. in a 2010 article titled “Buying Black – the Ebony Experiment,” there is US$850 billion moving through Black consumers’ hands each year, with 90 percent of that amount going to businesses owned and controlled by non-black businesses. That is a vast amount of revenue that never makes its way to the African American community. Could there be a connection between the economic health of a community and the amount of money spent in the businesses within that community by its residents? Examples of successful ethnic enclave models around the country suggest that, at some level, residents within a community do indeed economically enhance that community when there is a significant amount of patronage of local businesses.