By Aswad Walker
We’re all familiar with the common refrain about needing Black dollars to stay in Black communities.
But how do we make that happen specifically? And what are the actual benefits of circulating Black dollars in Black communities?
Multiple economists are pushing back on the idea that a dollar circulates in the Black community for six hours, compared to 17 days in the white community, 19 days in the Jewish community and 28 days in the Asian community. Some, like former President Obama’s Labor Department official William Spriggs, call that assertion an urban myth.
Still, it’s no myth that 43 million Black people in the U.S. have about $1.6 trillion in spending power, according to a Nielsen study. Couple that fact with the documented spending habits of Blackfolk on goods and services provided by companies we don’t own, and it doesn’t take a Ph.D. or multi-year survey to know that so much of Black wealth misses Black businesses and Black service providers.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Even if we simply started by focusing on Black service providers alone, that would improve our economic reality tremendously.
Despite the dialogue that says Black people are horrible about spending money with Black businesses, there’s a growing movement to support Black-owned businesses, leading to increased spending.
In Houston, in the wake of the murder of Michael Brown in 2014, Nailah Nelson, head of the Shrine of the Black Madonna’s Cultural and Event Center, founded the Buy Black Marketplace.
Since then, several other Buy Black venues have come online, BLK Market being one of them. These venues allow those who want to direct their dollars to businesses owned and run by Blackfolk to do so.
Still, the lion’s share of our $1.6 trillion goes into the coffers of “other-owned” businesses.
Black service providers
One strategy we could deploy in 2025 is to make a concerted and targeted effort to up our spending with Black service providers: healthcare professionals, attorneys, plumbers, interior decorators, landscapers, freelance writers, mechanics, etc.
Just looking at the positive impact of utilizing Black doctors alone should be enough to convince us that when it comes to service providers, regardless of the industry, we should do like Wesley Snipes said in the movie Passenger 57, “Always bet on Black.”
Black patients may have better health outcomes when treated by Black doctors, including lower mortality rates and increased life expectancy. Black patients report having much better communication with Black doctors, who hear and relate to their concerns. This level of cultural understanding leads to improved health outcomes, greater patient/doctor trust and greater patient satisfaction.
Additionally, in study after study, it has been found that Black patients receive far less preventative care, fewer care options, fewer medicines for treatment and on and on. Black patients of Black doctors, however, are far more likely to receive preventive care, such as blood tests and flu shots, recommendations on multiple treatment paths and more.
Nearly 60 percent of today’s medical school students still believe the myth that Black people feel less pain than whites. This means Black people often receive diagnoses from non-Black doctors that leave Black patients in more pain and in danger of worsening health outcomes.
In every way, when Black patients utilize the services of Black doctors the existing health disparities are reduced. There is no reason to think that the same overwhelmingly positive results wouldn’t happen if and when more Blackfolk utilize other Black service providers.
How to get started
Find a listing of Black-owned businesses and Black service providers in your city (Houston has several: Black Book Houston, the Houston Black Pages and Houston Buy Black), then employ them.
But it doesn’t stop there. Be a cheerleader for the work of Black-owned businesses and Black service providers. And if you experience some bumps in the road, give Black businesses and Black service providers the same grace we traditionally give “other-owned” businesses.
Some families and households set spending goals. This is a great way to include your children in the process of making this support a habit that transcends generations.
Additionally, thought leader Lurie Daniel Favors mentioned a report that says Black people spend three cents per dollar with Black businesses. But if we raised that to spend merely one dime out of each dollar with our own, those businesses could afford to grow, hire more staff and scale for increased success.
So, with everyone, from the White House to Walmart to the NFL and a gazillion other “other-owned” entities turning their backs on Blackfolk, let us turn our dollars’ backs on them and direct them back to us.
This op-ed was originally published by The Houston Defender.