Black Lives Matter Movement Driving Customers to Black Businesses

Screenshot_2020-06-22 Roslyn Karamoko YOUTUBE - Google Search

[Black Business]
Of the 5.7 million US firms with paid employees, about 124,000 — or a little more than 2% — were Black-owned in 2017, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of the Census Bureau’s most recent survey of US businesses.
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Black business owners, like Roslyn Karamoko, have seen an upsurge in business linked to the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd’s murder.

Sales at designer Roslyn Karamoko’s upscale boutique on Detroit’s main business thoroughfare already had started to slow before Covid-19 hit and shut down Michigan’s economy.

In mid-March, she shuttered her store, Détroit is the New Black, and sent home her five employees, believing she might never reopen.

“Then, came Black Lives Matter,” she said, and a rush of sales as customers raced to support Black businesses following the coast-to-coast uprising over the death of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

Karamoko’s online business quickly tripled.

The national reckoning on race triggered by Floyd’s death — and Covid-19’s disproportionate toll on people of color — has brought fresh attention and new business to Black companies and causes. Major corporate brands have signaled their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s called for Americans to “dismantle white supremacy.” Bank of America has pledged $1 billion over four years to address racial and economic inequality. Quaker Oats decided to retire its 131-year-old Aunt Jemima brand. NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its events and properties.

On a smaller scale, social-media influencers have turned over their Instagram accounts to Black business owners. Google sheets of restaurants and shops owned by African-Americans abound online.

“We’re in the middle of a strong watershed moment,” said Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “It seems like everyone is unambiguously saying, ‘Here’s where I stand. Here’s where my company stands. Here’s my plan to support the Black community and Black Lives Matter and social justice.’ “

But for small, Black-owned businesses — already hard-hit by the pandemic — this new world poses challenges of its own. And some fear any business gains from this moment of public soul-searching over racism could prove ephemeral if the country — and customers — move on.

Sustainable business model?

While Karamoko is grateful for the new interest, she no longer has employees to help her fill orders and juggle customer-service questions. In addition, the social-distancing requirements imposed by the pandemic have slowed production at the printing companies that help produce her trademark “Détroit is the New Black” t-shirts and totes.

“Logistically it’s kind of a mess,” she said. “I’m overwhelmed. I don’t mean to sound like it (the increased business) is a bad thing. But it highlights the fragility of a lot of our businesses.”

And Karamoko and other business owners say they also worry about misjudging this moment and expanding too quickly. “Where is the line between white guilt and building a sustainable business model?” she asked. “Can you accurately project your business based on this surge?”

At Mahogany Books, a Black-owned bookstore in the nation’s capital, business is booming with online orders for titles such as “How to Be an Antiracist” by historian Ibram X. Kendi and “Between the World and Me” by journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

(The store’s recent online event with Kendi reading from his new board book for young children, “Antiracist Baby,” drew participants from Brooklyn to Boise, Idaho, and dozens of questions about how to talk to children about racism.)

Co-owner Derrick Young plans to roughly triple his normal staff to meet the growing demand but says the staff build-up may be temporary.

“That’s definitely a question for us: How to scale up without over-extending ourselves?”

Black business ownership

Of the 5.7 million US firms with paid employees, about 124,000 — or a little more than 2% — were Black-owned in 2017, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of the Census Bureau’s most recent survey of US businesses.

For the rest of this CNN story log on to:https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/20/politics/black-owned-businesses/index.html

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