Supporting Black-Owned Businesses in Your Community
Why Support Black-Owned Businesses in Your Community
It can be quite easy to dismiss calls for equity as being mere lip-service or pandering. However, when you think about the way that most urban communities are organized, supporting your local black-owned businesses makes good sense for everyone. For one, when people of color and other minorities are empowered to create stable businesses, they create jobs, reduce the school-to-prison pipeline by offering good-paying careers, and they allow communities to grow and prosper without losing cultural identity. Think the “opposite” of gentrification, which pushes minorities out of their communities and makes small business ownership practically unaffordable. More jobs and more opportunity means more options for young people and less crime. Finally, with growth in business opportunities, we see higher tax shares and a more equitable system where the residents are less affected by rising property taxes. Schools are able to improve by increasing salaries and making structural improvements, due to increased tax revenues within the community. Truly, it is a win/win scenario for everyone.
Supporting Online Businesses
But being an ally to minority communities is not just something you can do on Main Street. You can also do it online. As Sophia Conti explains, “Black businesses are impacted more deeply than Caucasian businesses by COVID-related closures, due to the long history of racial inequality that’s now exacerbated by the ongoing state of emergency.” COVID-19 certainly has taken an overwhelming and disproportionate effect on people of color and urban communities. Therefore, she has compiled a list of 181 places where you can support black-owned businesses through online patronage. Perhaps now is the time to begin rethinking how all of us show support. Like the old adage goes, ‘put your money where your mouth is.’ Here at Crossroad Legal, LLC, we are proud to support minority owned businesses in our local community and online. We encourage all of our clients and readers to do the same when possible.