'Black Dollars Matter': Bank-Ins May Be The Way to Empowerment

 

By Ko Bragg

According to the president of OneUnited Bank, which bills itself as the first black-owned internet bank, after the wake of recent protests over police-involved deaths of black men, business has increased tenfold.

"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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Source: NBC News