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Happy Thursday!
Today is our first conversation that looks at the economics of racism – and how black businesses have been disproportionately impacted by systemic oppression. Today we'll review a little about the history and significance of Tulsa and how you can support black businesses as part of your practice.
I'll be testing our texts today, so if you want alerts, text ARD to my cell: 718-715-4359. And as always, contributions are greatly appreciated! You can give one-time on PayPal, start a subscription on Patreon, or send Venmo to @nicoleacardoza.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
1. Sign the 15% Percent Pledge Petition to encourage major companies to pledge 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.
2. Choose something you've bought in the past week. Find a black-owned business that offers a similar product / service. Plan to buy that product again (or something else) from this retailer.
GET EDUCATED
Why is it critical to support black-owned businesses right now?
It's not easy being a Black business owner in the U.S. With limited access to capital and connections for their work to be seen and celebrated, Black businesses are just as impacted by racism as black people, making it difficult for their products / services, employees and communities to thrive.
And because of COVID-19, black-owned businesses have been particularly struggling this year. A recent report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that “the number of African-American business owners plummeted from 1.1 million in February 2020 to 640,000 in April," a 41% decrease. Overall, the United States lost only 22% of total business owners over the same period, showing a disproportionate impact on African-American individuals. Center for Responsible Lending Study
Part of this was fueled by the inequitable Payroll Protection Program, which aimed to support small-business owners through the pandemic. However, its structure illuminated some of the larger systemic disadvantages people of color, especially Black people, face in business. It initially prioritized people with existing relationships to commercial lenders, but Black people are twice as likely to be turned down for business loans than their White counterparts. It also prioritized those with employees, but "businesses headed by people of color are less likely to have employees, have fewer employees when they do, have less revenue, and have a smaller share of revenue compared to white-owned businesses". Center for Responsible Lending Study
Although Black people account for 15% of the population, there are few Black-owned brands carried by major retailers. Today's call-to-action is a small practice to counteract generations of harm against Black business owners through individual action and calling for collective change.
To fully understand the impact of systemic oppression on Black owned businesses, we have to talk about Tulsa.
“It’s so important to support black-owned businesses right now, because we are doing the work. It’s supporting the actual communities where injustice occurs.”
― Danielle Mullen, owner of Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery in CNBC
The Tulsa Race Massacre
Trump recently announced that he is hosting his first presidential rally post-COVID-19 in Tulsa, OK. He's also hosting it on Juneteenth, which we'll be discussing in full next week, but you can read about its significance here. And people (including myself) are not happy.
Tulsa, OK has deep cultural significance to the civil rights movement. In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street, was "one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the United States". O.W. Gurley, a wealthy African-American from Arkansas, moved to Tulsa and purchased land that he only gave to other African-Americans, leveling the playing field in a deeply segregated community for his community to thrive. Black businesses were thriving, a sustainable community that did not need dominant culture.
According to this article in JSTOR, "the average income of black families in the area exceeded 'what minimum wage is today.' As a result of segregation, a 'dollar circulated 36 to 100 times' and remained in Greenwood 'almost a year before leaving.'"
But this all changed when a black man was accused of assaulting a white woman in a neighboring town. The white community nearby attacked the community – on foot and by plane. Over two days, thirty-five city blocks went up in flames, 300 people died, and 800 were injured. Reports showed that local police actively participated in the rioting. The entire event was omitted from history records for decades, and will be included in Oklahoma state school curriculum for the first time this fall. Reported property damages estimate the total destruction at $1.8 million in 1921, a $25 million loss for the community in today's dollars.
With this type of outrage on the growth and development of Black wealth in our history, paired with consistently named barriers for our community to access funding and opportunities as businesspeople, it's critical we all do our part to support Black-owned businesses however we can.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
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