What Does Being a Black Owned Business Mean to You?
Deon Egenti
This past August was National Black Business Month and we took a moment to put the spotlight on one each day for the rest of that month. We wanted to show appreciation to all the Black owned businesses by saying “We See You.” Afterwards, we spoke with some of the businesses that were highlighted and asked them one question: “What does being a Black owned business mean to you?” These were their responses:
“Being a Black owned business means a lot. We are happy that we can give people the opportunity to express themselves through fashion not only Black women but to all women in general. Our biggest goal is to make women feel pretty inside and out.” — Be Bold Boutique
“Being a black business to us means taking pride in our culture and consumers.” — Black Girl Sunscreen
“We want to tell our grandparents that we figured it out… We can’t survive in a capitalist environment without capital, especially when our ancestors were the seed capital for the American dream. We know that the wealth gap cannot be addressed by education, Black consumerism, budgeting, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, or talking white. We must fight for reparations as we work with what we have where we are to improve the condition of our people.” — CRWN Mag
“It’s simple. Equity. Ownership. In our society, economic mobility is built and accelerated through ownership of assets. Whether you have equity in your home (because you own it), equity in your business (because you own it, as a shareholder), or you’re an investor in public and private equity (i.e. you own securities like stocks, bonds, etc), we believe that it’s these opportunities that can most quickly transform our communities. So to us, being a black-owned business means doing our part to change the narrative, change our family’s lives, and to change our community.” — Dollaride
“Being a Black owned business means being able to bring quality products and customer service to our own community and to all customers and consumers! We’re here to make products that work for everyone but we are always aware of making products for our community” — The Honey Pot Company
“Keeping money in the Black community, and empowering other like minded entrepreneurs who would like to do the same thing.” — The Nokk Shop
“Being a Black owned business gives us a sense of pride — but also responsibility to lift other Black owned businesses and the Black community as we climb.” — Partake Foods Cookies
Here is our Twitter thread of all the Black businesses that we highlighted in the month of August: https://bit.ly/3c0JrOY
