This is the same issue we talked about on my talk show from 1994 to 1997. I’m not trying to come down on Black storeowners; I’m just trying to figure out the same thing that I tried to figure out 20 years ago. Case in point, a friend of mine tried to go to a Black-owned store in the Strip District right after Christmas. All the other businesses were open and booming, but when she got to the Black-owned store the doors were locked and no hours were posted in the window.
Those are the things that bother me. Irregular hours, no phone listing and, in some cases, no idea of how to run a business. We always romanticize the Black-owned businesses of yesteryear. You know, those businesses that thrived because we were not allowed to go anywhere else. Right now I’m reading “The Book of Luke” by Luther Campbell. He was really a good businessman, mostly self-taught and he gave his spin on Black businesses like this, “I was breaking the rules of how business worked. Up until that time, Black-owned businesses were allowed to thrive in America as long as they stayed in their place. Black-owned beauty-care companies were allowed to sell beauty products, but only to Blacks. A Black man could own a hotel that served Blacks, but only in Overtown or Harlem. John H. Johnson could print Ebony and Jet for Black readers. But Black companies didn’t serve Whites and they didn’t take business away from Whites: that wasn’t allowed especially in the music industry.”
Here, Campbell is talking about his clubs in Miami and when his records started to cross over to a White audience. Campbell was way more than a part of 2 Live Crew.
I want to buy Black, but I want to buy the things I need and I want good Black restaurants. Chitterlings and champagne anyone?
(Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com)
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