Step #4 to Building the Black Community

I hope you enjoyed Professor Black Truth’s important video essay focused on Black people patronizing one another’s businesses. It is imperative for us as a community to do this if we are to be economically successful.

I live near an Asian community that I visit frequently. One thing that I’ve noticed about this community is that it is chockful of Asians who patronize one another. This behavior is not something that is forced; it’s actually quite a natural part of their lifestyle and is something that they perform as effortlessly as they breathe. The great thing about communities like this is not that the money exchanges multiple times before leaving their community, but that they also employ one another including family members, friends, neighbors, etc.

My mother has a doctor with a medical practice in this same Asian community. The doctor is a second generation, meaning he was born in the United States, and he operates in this same effortless manner of others in his community of working, trading, and exchanging money within his community. Whenever I’m there with my mom, the doctor’s office is always bustling with patients, Asian mostly, but also patients outside of the Asian community.

Decades ago, there were many Black communities that traded with one another. Because parts of the U.S. were under Jim Crow Laws and many white- and non-black businesses that weren’t under Jim Crow areas would not serve Black people in their establishments, Black communities were created out of necessity. When integration began in the 60’s, many Black people were excited about the prospect of working, living and being accepted by the dominant culture, and abandoned their communities and businesses. As a result, the number of thriving Black communities today pale in comparison with the number of Black communities from decades ago.

I blogged earlier this year about a negative experience my brothers and I had with a Black contractor we had hired to remodel our late aunt’s home who performed shoddy work. In that blog, I gave a challenge to Black people to step up their game when it came to operating their businesses. Our economy is tanking and 2024 may be even worse economically speaking than it has been in 2023. We as Black people have got to take seriously the business of creating our own communities and businesses that work together, buy, sell, and employ one another as other groups do before it’s too late.