Maggie Anderson drives 14 miles to buy groceries, which might seem curious given that she lives in bustling Oak Park. She and her husband, John, patronize gas stations in Rockford and Phoenix, Ill. They travel 18 miles to a health food store in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood for vitamins, supplements and personal care products.
The reason? They want to solve what they call “the crisis in the black community.” They want to, as they say, “buy black.”
The Andersons, African-Americans who rose from humble means, are attempting to spend their money for one year exclusively with black-owned businesses and are encouraging other African-Americans to do the same. It is part experiment, part social activism campaign.
They call it the “Ebony Experiment.”
This reminded me of the Christians who try to shop at Christian owned businesses, there are even directories that list businesses that Christian’s own. I wonder if there is a listing of black owned businesses to make this experiment easier?
Limiting yourself to stores based on the criteria of race and not quality of service or merchandise is, of course, racist but also runs the risk of supporting stores that might not be worth saving. That’s one of the reason I avoided the Christian stores, I would rather base my purchase on quality, not some claim to kinship that may or may not be true.