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Did you ever try to answer why African American consumers don’t buy from African American businesses. I’m certain you have and if you are like most people you might have a clue yet are not sure of the answer. Well, if you think you can tolerate knowing why, the answer is give below.
To appreciate the answer you must understand that control of Black peoples wealth and resources is the force behind their behavior.Consequently Black political leaders were murdered, imprisoned, brutalized, harassed, and scared off. Black leaders in other areas faced the same.
Economically, Whites government went on the attack using, among many actions, the IRS against Black business owners. Black businesses found themselves falsely accused, stymied, harassed and scared. White government on all levels partnered with White businesses to generate ways of steering Black wealth into White hands. For example, White banks financed the creation of shopping malls and ‘super stores’ as a way to help White businesses create larger businesses, offer lower prices, lore Black consumers and eliminate Black businesses as a competitor, all the while denying Black business owners and entrepreneurs access to loans or any support.
Consequently African American businesses across the nation began to fail as African American consumers bought the hype of ‘lower prices’ and ‘integration’. Cointelpro successfully defeated African Americans on all major fronts - political, economic, education, social, cultural, etc.
By the 1980’s the control of Black labor and wealth was securely back in the hands of White people. To ensure that the control would be a lasting one, Whites escalated their war of racist propaganda against Black people in all areas of media, and especially in the schools. There, references to African American achievements and ambitions were eliminated from the curriculum, while images of Whites in business as owners, creators, and bosses were projected to Black people (again) without end.
Twenty years later, without leadership, with a generation of spending with White people, with a generation born into the ideas and beliefs that only Whites can do it, and that it is all right to spend with Whites and boycott Blacks businesses now see Black people spending their wealth (glaring examples are athletes and entertainers) and seeking lower-level employment (in spite of degrees and experience) with Whites (and others) unchecked.
Today all major political, social, economic, educational, recreational, and legal institutions that impact Black life are, in spite of Black symbolism, safely in the control of White hands.
Today fewer Black people than ever know or understand why they spend their money with White people, or why they would rather work a menial job for Whites than own their own business. Many more Black people than not accept the situation of economic domination as though it were their god-given fate. Often enough we hear: “ Well, that’s just the way it is”.
In summation African Americans consumers don’t patronize African American businesses because we lost the war (political, social, and economic) that says we should.
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