Why does it take racism and tragedies for Black people to (pretend to) support Black businesses?

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

Recently, Gucci was found to be selling racist apparel, so some celebrities and people on social media have started a boycott. T.I. said to stop buying Gucci for three months. Soulja Boy changed his Gucci headband to a Fendi headband. Spike Lee says he won't support Gucci until they hire Black designers.

Spike lee boycotting gucci and prada till they hire black designers
T.I. & Big Soulja Drako says “Gucci is Cancelled, Im appalled “
Soulja says Gucci is cancelled, only Fendi and Fashion Nova from now on

None of these tactics will work. And then you have normal people who say they will boycott racists companies and support Black businesses instead. These boycotts are usually quickly forgotten.

Whenever an unarmed Black person is shot by a cop and it becomes national news, people suddenly start saying to support Black businesses.

Why does it take disrespect and murders for people to pretend to care about Black businesses? I already know the answer: Because it's easier to continue to patronize the known businesses rather than seek out businesses from our own communities, and it's easy to say you support Black-owned businesses while not buying anything from those businesses, which is the "support" that they actually need. It takes a lifestyle change to make an honest effort to spend money with Black-owned businesses, and I don't think that most people are willing to do that even if they say they are. We have to change our spending habits permanently, not just for a short period of time until we are no longer upset.

Will we as Black people ever move forward in this situation? Will we ever actually support our own businesses again so we can start becoming more self-sufficient as a people and move from the bottom of the economic ladder?

 

[Cynic]

Recently, Gucci was found to be selling racist apparel, so some celebrities and people on social media have started a boycott. T.I. said to stop buying Gucci for three months. Soulja Boy changed his Gucci headband to a Fendi headband. Spike Lee says he won't support Gucci until they hire Black designers.

Spike lee boycotting gucci and prada till they hire black designers
T.I. & Big Soulja Drako says “Gucci is Cancelled, Im appalled “
Soulja says Gucci is cancelled, only Fendi and Fashion Nova from now on

None of these tactics will work. And then you have normal people who say they will boycott racists companies and support Black businesses instead. These boycotts are usually quickly forgotten.

Whenever an unarmed Black person is shot by a cop and it becomes national news, people suddenly start saying to support Black businesses.

Why does it take disrespect and murders for people to pretend to care about Black businesses? I already know the answer: Because it's easier to continue to patronize the known businesses rather than seek out businesses from our own communities, and it's easy to say you support Black-owned businesses while not buying anything from those businesses, which is the "support" that they actually need. It takes a lifestyle change to make an honest effort to spend money with Black-owned businesses, and I don't think that most people are willing to do that even if they say they are. We have to change our spending habits permanently, not just for a short period of time until we are no longer upset.

Will we as Black people ever move forward in this situation? Will we ever actually support our own businesses again so we can start becoming more self-sufficient as a people and move from the bottom of the economic ladder?

These boycotts come with no leverage... look at what happened to Dolce & Gabbana in China
Or H&M in South Africa for example to see what real leverage looks like

 

[Macallik86]

Why does it take disrespect and murders for people to pretend to care about Black businesses? I already know the answer: Because it's easier to continue to patronize the known businesses rather than seek out businesses from our own communities, and it's easy to say you support Black-owned businesses while not buying anything from those businesses, which is the "support" that they actually need. It takes a lifestyle change to make an honest effort to spend money with Black-owned businesses, and I don't think that most people are willing to do that even if they say they are. We have to change our spending habits permanently, not just for a short period of time until we are no longer upset.

Will we as Black people ever move forward in this situation? Will we ever actually support our own businesses again so we can start becoming more self-sufficient as a people and move from the bottom of the economic ladder?

I've read your post a few times before I started writing my reply. I do think you are a tad pessimistic in your analysis. I understand that you want change to happen and that progress is slow, but you have to acknowledge that you are requesting that African-Americans become altruistic to a degree that other races simply are not.

I know everyone brings up the Chinese communities but it is worth pointing out that there are other issues outside of race that force Asian Americans to keep money in their communities such as issues integrating into the general populations due to language barriers or temporary citizenship for example. These members that stay within their communities aren't doing it out of loyalty to their race, it is out of necessity and issues assimilating. If you break down the black race, their are pockets of African American communities that have similar kinship through necessity (The Somali community in Minnesota for example) but again, that is not out of the goodness of their hearts that they keep their money local. It is for a combination of reasons that (imo) are all revolving around self-interest.

It is kinda like having an all inclusive food + drinks package on a cruise ship that is visiting Jamaica. Yes, the people are technically in Jamaica, but the majority of guests will eat & drink on the ship... not because of loyalty to the cruise ship company but because of 'selfish' reasons such as not having to spend 'extra' money, decreased chance of something going wrong, etc.

With African American dollars historically remaining in the community longer in the 50s and 60s, it wasn't because we cared about the black community more then than we do now, it was because we were not given the opportunity to integrate into society due to racism and segregation. "We have the right to not serve black people" was a thing and so we spent our money where we could.

With regards to the typical white American, to my knowledge, I haven't seen race as a contributing factor on a large scale when it comes to their purchasing patterns. I have seen people base purchases based off of price and convenience and other 'selfish' reasons. Typically, thanks to racism and segregation, the more established businesses are often white. White people don't shop at Target and Walmart to support white business, they do so because those brands offer low prices or quality that they can appreciate.

Since we are talking about Gucci and other high fashion stores, I think we have, over the last few years, reached a point where African Americans have a lot more say and power and personal brands in the (material) world of high fashion and so there are alternatives available that are being more established when it comes to asking for an exorbitant amount of money for unnecessary clothing and accessories.

I type all of this to say that you are holding African Americans to a standard that has not previously been seen in the US on a large scale. You want African Americans to put the needs of their community ahead of their own personal convenience. That hasn't been seen on a large scale as far as I'm aware and so I think there needs to be a bit more thought into how/why people can support black business outside of this oversimplification that "other races did it, why can't we"

 

[MMS]

Recently, Gucci was found to be selling racist apparel, so some celebrities and people on social media have started a boycott. T.I. said to stop buying Gucci for three months. Soulja Boy changed his Gucci headband to a Fendi headband. Spike Lee says he won't support Gucci until they hire Black designers.

Spike lee boycotting gucci and prada till they hire black designers
T.I. & Big Soulja Drako says “Gucci is Cancelled, Im appalled “
Soulja says Gucci is cancelled, only Fendi and Fashion Nova from now on

None of these tactics will work. And then you have normal people who say they will boycott racists companies and support Black businesses instead. These boycotts are usually quickly forgotten.

Whenever an unarmed Black person is shot by a cop and it becomes national news, people suddenly start saying to support Black businesses.

Why does it take disrespect and murders for people to pretend to care about Black businesses? I already know the answer: Because it's easier to continue to patronize the known businesses rather than seek out businesses from our own communities, and it's easy to say you support Black-owned businesses while not buying anything from those businesses, which is the "support" that they actually need. It takes a lifestyle change to make an honest effort to spend money with Black-owned businesses, and I don't think that most people are willing to do that even if they say they are. We have to change our spending habits permanently, not just for a short period of time until we are no longer upset.

Will we as Black people ever move forward in this situation? Will we ever actually support our own businesses again so we can start becoming more self-sufficient as a people and move from the bottom of the economic ladder?

When black folks stop distrusting each other so much and actually pay market prices, those black businesses will find success

It's hard to compete with big brands when your customer base is cheap and/or hard to work with. Ultimately many businesses (white, asian, hispanic etc) use this to discriminate on the basis that they'd rather not take our money at all.

I hate it because now that I'm on this side it's pretty plain to see