Juneteenth and Emancipation Day: How the 'Buy Black' movement is addressing economic inequality
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Thursday, June 15, 2023
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Juneteenth — a portmanteau of June and nineteenth — celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
Key Points:
- Juneteenth — a portmanteau of June and nineteenth — celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
- It officially enforced the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas and granted freedom to all remaining enslaved people in the U.S. Emancipation Day holds similarly significant meaning in Canada and other former British colonies.
- Both Juneteenth and Emancipation Day are powerful celebrations that honour the vibrancy and resilience of Black communities.
Buying Black and showing it
- In response to ongoing challenges about market exclusion, the My Black Receipt initiative emerged as a dynamic social movement.
- My Black Receipt is a digital collective that encourages consumers to support Black-owned businesses.
- The movement uses social media, media appearances and a website to educate consumers about the benefits of buying from Black-owned businesses, including supporting Black employment, causes and wealth generation.
New type of online market
- For example, it partnered with online review site Yelp to help businesses self-identify as Black-owned, allowing consumers to search for and support Black businesses.
- These outcomes are a testament to the success of the My Black Receipt collective.
- My Black Receipt represents a new type of online enclave that brings together Black consumers, their allies and business owners and transcends geographic boundaries.
Helping My Black Receipt thrive
- We conducted an online ethnography study with our colleagues to examine the My Black Receipt movement.
- To facilitate co-ordination and showcase the collective impact of their efforts, organizers established a dedicated platform on the My Black Receipt website.
- Through these practices and initiatives, the My Black Receipt enclave thrives, fostering a sense of community and empowerment while driving tangible change in support of Black-owned businesses and economic equity.
Closing the racial wealth gap
- These arrangements work together to bring and retain more wealth within the Black community, aiming to address the significant wealth gap between Black and white Americans.
- Black Americans possess as little as US$4 in wealth for every US$100 accumulated by white Americans, and Black Canadians earn, on average, $12,000 less than their non-racialized counterparts.
- By fighting against discrimination through market intervention, these movements create wealth within the Black communities.