From L to R: Flavia Moore, CEO of Crawling Crab; Marlon Austin (on left), Managing Principal, Three Vegan Brothers who co-founded Bespoke Couture with Mark Austin (on right); Erica Hallman, Economic Development Specialist, Beyond Housing; Dr. Andre Perry, Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and author of “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities”
Even though we are currently in a pandemic, the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, and more have led people to take to the streets. Protests and marches around the world have sparked a renewed uprising for Black lives and when looting and vandalism began to impact large chain stores and small Black businesses alike. Many began asking how can they support small Black businesses during this time and people began following campaigns such as #BuyBlack, #BankBlack, and #BlackoutDay2020 to uplift Black businesses and communities that have been devalued and poverty-stricken for years. In this episode, we hear from two small Black business owners about what’s like to own a small business during this time and we ask an economic development specialist and a scholar of race and structural inequality about what’s at stake if we continue to devalue Black businesses in the midst of an uprising for Black lives and beyond.
