A coalition of activists is aspiring to reclaim and rejuvenate black economic power. The “Million Dollar Black Spending Power” campaign wants all African-American consumers to spend $20 a more a week at black-owned retailers. Bob Law, a radio personality and entrepreneur, estimates $1 million being spent in black American communities if we all support this effort.
Law penned an open letter to the Congressional Black Caucus urging the organization to see the impact of fiscal irresponsibility on the black community.
He wrote in a release, “From the corporate community to other ethnic groups, every community seems to benefit from Black spending except the Black community. We fully intend to renegotiate the Black community’s financial relationship with corporate America and others doing business in the African-American marketplace. We believe however that a significant starting point is for Black Americans to first take control of our own spending.”
Our spending has the potential to sustain black-owned businesses. In September 2012, the Nielsen Company released “The State of the African-American Consumer,” a report that projected that Black Americans’ buying power could exceed $1 trillion by 2015. The report confirmed the economic clout of the black dollar, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) found only 2 cents of every dollar a Black American spends is given to black-owned businesses.
Law and other campaign organizers plan to combat this by establishing nationwide programs, including Recycle Black Dollars shopping tours, Buy Black Meetup Groups, and community forums. Consumers can also use the “Around the Way” phone application to locate black-owned establishments within a five-mile radius.
