The Black Lives Matter movement has caused a surge in support of Black Owned Businesses. Some businesses went from having orders of 50 a week to 50 in one day. Amazing, right? Yes it is. But there’s another side of that coin that some aren’t understanding. While the immediate demand for Black Owned products is great, some business owners are having difficulty keeping up with the sudden pace but we can’t cancel them out.
Can you blame them? If your inventory was based on 50 sales a week, then 50 in a day may be hard to accommodate. But this does not mean that we shouldn’t support. However, it does mean that we should extend grace to an already struggling market due to the pandemic and more. We should still place orders. We should wait longer than 5 minutes in the line. We should be ok if one size is sold out. We do this all of the time for larger, mainstream chains.
If giving our Black Dollars is really of importance then we can collectively work together. That collective work can result in placing orders regardless of the shipping time frame. That collective work can result in having greens with your soul food meal if the yams are sold out until the shipment arrives later on in the week. Let’s extend patience. It is very challenging to be a small business owner. Maintaining supply and demand changes may take some getting use to but it is well worth the wait.
Our Black Dollars are needed. Our Black Dollars can affect change. Our Black Dollars are the sum of the Black Lives Matter movement that we must uphold. It will not happen overnight. There’s no magic or trickery involved. Our motivation for change must allow our grace for the culture. Support Black Owned Businesses today, tomorrow and the years to come. It starts with you.
Writer, C. Scott, is a mother of one; author, social worker, early literacy interventionist and entrepreneur.
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