We Are Not Looking For Your Sympathy.
Across major urban cities in America, a line is being drawn, sides are being chosen and citizens are beginning to outline their demands. The chant of “Black Lives Matter” is more than a call out to the world that the African American body is not disposable. It's a reminder to an amnesiac capitalistic society that BLACK DOLLARS MATTER, TOO.
When I was little, my father had a phrase he used when my brother and I would apologize for something stupid we did. “We’re sorry daddy,” we would cry.
I always believed that the sadder I appeared, the quicker my parents would “forgive me” and relieve me from the shame or embarrassment I felt in “being caught” or “being called out.”
My father would look deep into my tear-filled eyes and say with great authority...and a subtle warning, “I don’t want you to be sorry. There are enough sorry people in the world. What I expect is for you to be BETTER.”
This is where Black people are: We don’t want an apology from Ouzo Bay, Choptank, Vince’s Crab House, or any of the hundreds of other establishments, businesses and organizations across this country who don’t give a shit about Black people.
On Monday, the Atlas Restaurant Group apologized to a black boy and his mother for denying them service at Ouzo Bay. June 2020
As James Baldwin would say, “We can no longer afford that particular romance.”
In fact, we do not need it, either.
I mean, honestly! While whites comprise the largest share of the U.S. market, they have the slowest percentage rate of buying power growth. Guess who spins the world? Yup, it’s the Black dollar. We have an estimated $14.8 trillion in buying power nationally and produced the biggest percentage gains.
Would you care to guess where those Black dollars are going? Yup, they’re going to the Ouzo Bays, Choptanks, Vince’s Crab Houses and the hundreds of other establishments, businesses and organizations across this country who have been called out for bias and don’t give a shit about Black people. And, please, don’t get my message twisted. One of my weaknesses is the LOCH BAR. I could eat their mussels with garlic, white wine and maitre’d butter for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
But, if any company can sit by and watch Black and brown people be discriminated against, lynched and murdered, and they in turn continue to enforce the same bias and “bullshit” policies this hate stems from...then, I would suggest that citizens of our “63% African American city” would do better to invest our share of the $14.8 trillion buying power in Black-led companies who care.
This is an excerpt from Malcolm X's speech "The Ballot and The Bullet," which he delivered on April 12, 1964 at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.
If you or someone you know owns a Black-led business, organization, restaurant or retailer and they ARE NOT listed on CLLCTIVLY.com, please add your listing, for FREE!
And, if you are an individual with the expectation of fair and equal treatment for yourself, your family, AND OTHERS, then please join #MyBmore as they support CLLCTIVLY to raise money to provide micro-grants to Baltimore’s Black-Led businesses.
CLLCTIVLY has provided 50 micro-grants of $500 already to Black-led businesses impacted by COVID-19, and has raised the goal: Together, we can help provide 100 grants or more!
Here’s the link to support this vital mission: https://MyBmoreProject.com/support
Let’s stand together to tell the world not just with chants but with dollars that Black Lives Matter.