Supporting Black Owned Businesses: Why It’s Important and How You Can Help

In a society like ours, which is so heavily reliant on businesses, money talks. Where we spend our money and what we buy dictates who we are. Our purchases and consumption are our voice— so we need to view it as such. 

Step 1: identify harmful businesses you contribute to

Many big businesses take part in the prison industrial complex, a system which essentially allows modern-day slavery to exist. The 13th Ammendment didn’t completely outlaw slavery in the United States: rather, it applied to all citizens “except [those who were serving] a punishment for crime.” This means that the 2.3 million people who are currently incarcerated, who encompass almost 1% of the US population, can be ‘enslaved’. Bearing in mind that the majority of incarcerated individuals are the descendants of slaves and that mass incarceration disproportionately effects BIPOC,  we can see that slavery essentually still exists in America. 

Prisoners create products for big corporations and make between $0.12 to $0.40 (the guardian). They work for almost nothing and for people who genuinely don’t care about their wellbeing. 

Below is a list of businesses which use prison labor:

Many of these businesses sell products manufactured with prison labor, use prisoners to manage their customer service lines, manufacture their frozen food, create their uniforms, or package their products.

Victoria’s Secret	Texas Instruments	Fruit of the Loom	Koch Industries	Fidelity Investments	Koch Industries	Fidelity Investments
Walmart	Microsoft	Starbucks	Nintendo	BP	at&t	Target
Unicor	Dell	Edie Bauer	Kmart	Boeing	Macy’s	Wendy’s
Verizon	McDonald’s	Revlon	JCPenny	Sprint	Honda	Intel
Nordstrom	Motorola	Pfizer	Sara Lee	Avis	Exxon	Nortel
Bank of America	Procter & Gamble	Whole Foods	Hewlett-Packard	Johnson & Johnson	American Express	State Farm Insurance
Caterpillar	IBM	GlaxoSmithCline	Cargill	Mary Kay	United Airlines	Honeywell

Step 2: understand what you can change, and what you can’t.

For most people, it is impossible to completely stop using the products made by these companies. However, it is possible to limit their presence in your lives. Many products produced by these companies are non-essential and have various replacements. If you have the money to do so, look into altering your lifestyle to promote more ethical values. As consumers, our purchases are our voice. When enough of us show that we refuse to monetarily support brands who use prison labor, we send a message to them that we won’t stand for such a blatant disregard of human life. 

Many of the companies listed above create medicine which have generic alternatives. Many of the companies listed above are food chains who you can easily live without. Many of the companies listed above are stores who have similar competitors. What you buy is an extension of yourself, so use this as a reflection of your own morals. 

The prison industrial complex must fall, so you need to do your part in this. 

Step 3: find black-owned businesses near you!

Big brands frequently abuse human rights simply to earn profit. Small businesses, on the other hand,  often focus on quality over quantity and carefully analyze the production of these products. Here’s how you can buy small and buy black.

Use directories to find black owned businesses online or in your area: 

• https://officialblackwallstreet.com/directory/
• https://www.supportblackowned.com/
• https://www.eatokra.com/
• https://post21shop.com/
• https://cheznousguide.com/
• https://www.blacknation.app/

Black owned restaurants in NJ

Delta’s (New Brunswick)	Vonda’s Kitchen (Newark)	Corrine’s Place (Camden)	Jameson’s Southern Cooking (Neptune)	Simply Southern Cuisine (Belmar)	Kelsey’s (Atlantic City)	Rick’s Backyard Barbecue and Grill (Hamilton)
1911 Smokehouse BBQ (Trenton)	Taste of Flava (Union)	Saveur Creole (Montclair)	First Republic Lounge (Elizabeth)	Olaide’s Kitchen (Parlin)	Mesob Ethiopian (Montclair)	Pimento Grill (Maplewood)
Ada’s Gojjo (Asbury Park)	Black Swan Espresso (Newark)	Coffee and Cornbread (Teaneck)	Blueberry Cafe Juice Bar and Vegan Grill (Newark)	The Big Easy (Trenton)	Health is Wealth (Trenton)	Café Du Pain Bakery (Lawrenceville)
Arlee’s Raw Blends (Princeton)	Soon C Deli (Asbury Park)	Uncle Ralston’s (Freehold)	At The Table (Asbury Park)	Morgan’s Island Grill (Hightstown)	Norah’s Irie Jamaican Restaurant (Long Branch)	The Gingered Peach (Lawrenceville)

Step 4: understand that little things can go a long way.

It might not seem that changing one small part of our lifestyle can make a large impact, but it really can. Adopting the mentality that a little thing can go a long way can apply to many parts of your life. Without various contributors of varying sizes, a movement can’t survive. Movements are built on several individuals making small changes. When all of these changes build up, it makes a huge impact.

You don’t have to organize a protest or completely dedicate your life to social change. Just a simple alteration in your day-to-day life can still make a resounding change. 

by Laasya Gadiyaram