Who's REALLY "Buying Black"?

It has been said that you don’t have to put a lid on top of a bucket of crabs. Simply because as soon as one gets close to the top, the others will pull it back down to the bottom. The same has often been said about the black community. There have been statements made about how whites ideally don’t care about blacks. Has anyone ever stopped to think maybe blacks don’t care about their own people? James Clingman Jr. wrote an article in 2005 addressing this question, in this article he uses the comment rapper and producer Kanye West made about our former president George Bush not caring about black people. Clingman says, and I quote “So now that we really know what George Bush thinks about us, let’s look internally to see what we think of ourselves. Frankly, I am more concerned about what we think - and do - than I am about Bush. He is doing quite well and will continue to do well, as far as wealth and resources – economic empowerment – are concerned. But what about our people? Are we doing what we must do to protect, assist, and strengthen one another with the resources we have?” In this article Clingman basically asks if blacks refuse to prepare for tragedy then is it really whites that are holding them down.

This could effect where black business owners open their businesses. Most black business owners like James – A black jeweler- firmly believes that blacks are less likely to support black businesses. James gives his opinion on why blacks do not support black owned businesses. “Well I strongly feel it's because a lot of us as black people are "RACIST" towards each other mentally, physically, as well as financially.” This was specifically said by James in this article giving his opinion of why blacks support other races more than they do black owned businesses. James goes on to say “I'm a black business owner "JEWELER" and if it were not for my pro black athlete clientele, the majority of my clients would be other races of people. I don't know why we as black people want to talk about what rich black rappers endorse for free for the "WHITE BUSINESSES" to make them rich, when we do the same things ourselves? it doesn't matter to me whether a rapper is being paid or not for his or her endorsement of jewelry, alcohol, cars, or locations they have traveled to, because in my "OPINION" they're the fools for not getting paid for their endorsements of these material things, not me?”. This quote basically calls black people biased. It also states that if were not for the black athletes, James would have a very small amount of black clientele. This shows that there is such a large amount of black people not supporting black businesses that the owners almost expect not to have any black customers.

While majority of black people in the black community are doing everything but “buying black”, one family living in Oak Park, IL is vowing to spend a year buying the things they need from only black owned businesses. An article written by Ted Gregory on March 9th tells this family’s story. This article tells how mother and wife, Maggie Anderson drives 14 miles to buy groceries from Farmers Best Market – a black owned grocery store-. This family is traveling far and wide to make sure that they buy only from black owned businesses. The Andersons are doing this to put money back into the black community and also to invest in their people. This shows that all hope is not lost for blacks. Hopefully the Anderson’s dedication will be looked at as inspiration for blacks to start investing in the black community. If we as black people do not invest in ourselves, then who will?