"We've had a surge," said Teri Williams,
OneUnited's president. "When I say surge, I mean people lined up outside
the door of our branches to open accounts."
Her bank is not alone.
After the shootings of Alton Sterling and
Philando Castile, black activists nationwide organized boycotts of major
banks and retailers — including an economic boycott
of a Baton Rouge mall and Walmart the weekend of Sterling's death.
Activists have called on African-Americans to patronize black-owned
stores and banks, to use the hashtags #BankBlack challenge and
#MoveYourMoney, and to circulate a mass text thread to engage citizens.
And, in a seemingly unrelated Facebook movement,
activists, called on more than 8,000 people to participate in "Day of
Absence Pt. 1," encouraging its following to restrict purchasing goods
from select retailers and restaurants and essentially any businesses
that are not minority-owned.
"It is high time that we stop talking about our purchasing power and show our true value in all areas of life," the Facebook page stated.
Such efforts, black business owners say, have resulted in an uptick in business.
"As we say internally," Williams said of her bank staff's mantra, "black dollars matter."
Black buying power has a major influence on America's economy. The 2015 Multicultural Economy Report
from the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth
estimated black buying power to be $1.2 trillion in 2015, with potential
to reach $1.4 trillion in 2020.
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