Support Local Black Businesses, The Future of Black children In Canada depends on it

In the last month there has been a black awakening. Only 2 months ago black twitter was arguing about who’s better African Americans, Africans or Caribbean’s, something that personally vexes me because its so stupid. The black community has been focusing on the wrong things for a long time.  And by this I don’t mean we haven’t been standing up against injustice and the killing of our people because we have… they just weren’t listening. As much as people scream “no violence, protest peacefully”, something I would have been saying only a few months ago, the violence somehow caught their attention and now they’re ready for some political reform. Key word, some. In Kentucky the Breonna Taylor Law has been passed which bans no knock warrants, and in Minneapolis city council has voted to defund their police. In Canada, Trudeau claims he is currently working “very quickly” to dismantle systemic racism? Well I am personally going to need him to work faster. As Martin Luther King stated, “violence is the language of the unheard” and they might be finally hearing us.

It was so satisfying seeing online discussions in the GTA shifting from things like Debby and Chromasz? to now supporting black businesses.

This is something I strongly believe in. For the black community to succeed in Canada we need to support black businesses. The number one reason to support black businesses is because small business ownership is an important mechanism that helps minorities and immigrants escape labor market disadvantage. And guess who is the most disadvantaged? Black people in Canada have a low rate of self-employment and a high rate of unemployment; these two things go hand in hand. Black Canadians are also paid much less than the rest of the population with some provinces having a wage gap that's higher than $20,000. We need to have businesses so we can offer other black people an equal opportunity to employment and fair wages.

Migrants that stick together and support one another are usually able to develop tons of businesses, which allows them to gain an advantage in the labor market. In Canada this can be seen with Chinese, Japanese and South Asian businesses. Look at Brampton, South Asians are completely dominating the economy and when us as black people look to work for these businesses we are discriminated against. For example some Sunrise franchises in Brampton are now owned by a South Asian man. All the Caribbean people who worked there are no longer there and have now been replaced by young South Asian people. Now I understand South Asians selling South Asian food, but how are they going to sell Caribbean food? The same thing with Markham, East Asians are leading the economy and we face discrimination from them as well, when looking for jobs or to rent property. These communities' support for one another has allowed them to build revolving loan schemes, community based entrepreneurship programs and  business mentorship programs for their youth.

To be clear these places of power were not simply attained from supporting one another; Asians are also supported by white people who then watched them flourish and started to believe that they were the 'model minority'. For those of you that have not heard the term model minority, this refers to a minority demographic (which is usually Asian people) that is perceived to have or has reached higher levels of socio-economic success than the general population, therefore dismissing the fact that systemic racism is a hindrance to the success of other minorities like... you guessed it, Black people.  These ‘model minorities’ benefit from white supremacy which gives them advantages that many black business owners do not have. For example, a study conducted in 1996, found that when applying for a business loan 47% of black business owners in Toronto were able to secure business loans in comparison to 84% of Chinese business owners. Out of those who applied for a loan 53% of Black people reported having difficulties with attaining their loan in comparison to only 16% of Chinese people.  Black business owners continue to face discrimination from banks today which means they usually have to save large amounts of money to start their businesses. I applaud Asian communities for supporting one another, employing their own people and building together, however, a majority do play a part in harming the black community by playing into white supremacy and also discriminating against black people.

For black people to succeed as a whole in this country we need to support one another. This means supporting our neighbors, our friends, our cousins, that girl from school who’s now a nail tech, your friends cousin who sells shirts, your friends moms store or bakery, whatever it is, just support. This doesn’t mean buying something from someone simply because they're black. This means when you want to get your nails done take the time to find a black nail tech or when you need to get your car fixed, find a black mechanic. You may have to pay a little more than you would from a big business but remember, small businesses and especially small black businesses do not have equal access to capital or cheap labor... the service they’re providing is not cheap to provide. If we cannot even support our own businesses how do we expect others to do so? Do not ask for discounts. Do not complain about the prices. Just support. The future of black children in Canada depends on it.

Sources

Do, D. (2020, February 25). Canada’s Black population: Education, labour and resilience. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2020002-eng.htm

Hossein, C. S. (2020, June 09). Banking while Black: The business of exclusion. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/banking-while-black-the-business-of-exclusion-94892

Uneke, O. (1996). Ethnicity & Small Business Ownership: Contrasts Between Blacks and Chinese in Toronto.Work, Employment & Society, 10(3), 529-548. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/23746649