Since the pandemic started a great deal of people have gone into work for themselves – everything from selling plates to selling clothes. Whether it be selling plates or selling clothes.
According to usafacts.org, Black Americans make up 2.2% of small business owners despite being only 13.4% of the country’s population. That is in comparison to more than 30 million new small businesses since the start of 2020. However, there is one demographic that is slowly but steadily tipping the charts – Blacks/African Americans.
The reason these small black businesses are so important dates back to the Jim Crow Era.
“After Reconstruction, state and local governments doubled down on these efforts by enacting Jim Crow laws, which codified the role of Black people in the Southern economy and society. States such as South Carolina enacted strict “Black Codes” that fined Black people if they worked in any occupation other than farming or domestic servitude. If they broke these laws or abandoned their jobs after signing a labor contract, they could be arrested and, thanks to a loophole in the 13th Amendment, forced back into unpaid labor on white plantations.”
Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity
By Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro
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With that being said, there isn’t much of a debate about the racially incited wage gap. However, the startup of these new Black businesses could be the end of that. Still today Black households make roughly $20,000 less than their white counterparts a year but those plates and clothes being sold are starting to make up for it.
So, what will that mean for the non black business owners? It means that we’re all going to gain financial freedom sooner or later. Statistically speaking, we support our own more than others because that’s just how we are. No shade to anyone else. And eventually the money will start to recycle back into the Black community.
Think about it like this – If you support Lisa’s startup boutique then when she gets to where she’s going then she’ll hopefully support Tom’s small bike shop and so on and so forth until the support gets back to you. Even if it doesn’t, what’s the harm in supporting your fellow brethren? It doesn’t necessarily even need to be by purchasing anything. A positive review, share or even a like can go a long way.
With that being said, we would love to support you and gain your support. Please subscribe to our blog and if you own a black business email us at [email protected] so that we can arrange an advertisement deal for you.
As always, thanks for sojourning with us.
