THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BLACK BUSINESS AND
NEGRO BUSINESS
By: Deric Muhammad
Over 300 years of chattel slavery in America nearly totally destroyed Black people’s natural desire to do-for-self. After Abraham Lincoln issued the two executive orders known as the Emancipation Proclamation, Black slaves were declared free yet were given few opportunities to make a living to feed their families. Many slaves immediately returned to their slave masters' plantation. They did not know what else to do.
For three centuries most slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write. However, the slave master made certain they knew how to count. How else were they to keep up with their daily cotton quotas on the plantation? Many slaves utilized the skills that they had mastered as plantation workers coupled with the study of the businesses that they were tools of and begin doing business for themselves. As a matter of fact many slaves had already begun doing business and became economically strong enough to purchase the freedom of some family members. A price was paid for us to be able to do Black business in the U.S.A.
Our companies, small and big, thrived in this country when we understood the urgency of moments in time like “Reconstruction”, the Great Depression and Jim Crow. We knew that if we did not support one another we could not survive. Prior to integration whites refused to do business with us. But as soon as word came down from Washington that Blacks would be served at the white wig shop the Black wig shop closed down.
These days it is difficult to keep a Black business open. According to statistics Black-owned businesses open and close faster than any other ethnic group in America. Yes we have a huge blur in our focus to support the businesses in our community before taking our dollar elsewhere. However, I contend that we have a worse problem on our hands. It is a commercial disease called NEGRO BUSINESS.
I recently attended a community event with a prominent U.S. Congressman. I excused myself to a nearby Black-owned restaurant to use its latrine (a.k.a. the toilet). As I attempted to exit the restroom I was hit with a painful reality. I was locked inside the toilet. After about fifteen minutes of trying to “break free” I, embarrassingly, called someone from our entourage. They sent an employee from the restaurant to come and rescue me.
I heard the footsteps coming down the corridor and I was relieved until I saw a silver butter knife slid underneath the door. “Jimmy it with the knife, he said. No, no, no….right there in the center. You almost got it.” There was nothing else for me to do except accept his coaching and free myself from the restroom of an apparent negro establishment.
I do not wish to expose the name of this establishment. I plan to write them a personal letter about my butter knife experience in hopes that they will correct the problem and continue to attract the support of the community. I am only giving us an example of one instance where Black businesses, who complain about us believing the white man’s ice is colder, fails miserably to provide goods, services and amenities in a way that keeps customers coming back.
As a community activist I hear horror stories about how hard-working brothers and sisters pay Black contractors to do a job that never gets finished. You sometimes show up at a coffee shop or restaurant and they are closed when they are supposed to be opened. Too often, we say that we will have a service completed by Friday and it is not complete until next Friday. Then there are the excuses like I have to get my baby to the daycare so I’ll be late everyday. Sometimes Black businesses close themselves down.
Now let’s flip the coin to the Black business customer. Too often Black businesses cringe at doing business with our own people, because we are always looking for “the hook-up”. There are good Black contractors who finish jobs and get paid with a rubber check. We show up at the Black coffee shop just to use the internet and then go buy a latte from Starbucks. We drop off our boyfriends clothes to the cleaners. We end up breaking up with him and leave the clothes to be donated to the Salvation Army. Sometimes Black business owners just give up or move to the suburbs because doing business in the hood proves emphatically challenging.
These business snafus are not only relegated to Black businesses. You can go anywhere in town and find a lack of customer service. However, if we are to survive during the economically strenuous times in America we must get back to the basics of nation building and self-development. We must support Black businesses that are serious about doing business and eliminate negro business that poisons the pond that we all must drink from.
In order to do business we must show character. We must open and close when we say we will open and close. We must treat the Black customer with the same regard that we would treat a dignitary. It does not matter whether the brother or sister spends 5 dollars or 5 thousand if you treat us like kings and queens we will return to do business with you once again.
We need a Black business bureau in every community that is empowered to monitor Black business/customer relations. We must be honest and trustworthy in our dealings with one another and when we make errors with one another we must quickly correct ourselves and move on. These are a few keys to the survival of Black business in America.
Also, do not assume that just because you are a Black-owned business in a Black community that your customers will know how to jimmy a lock with a butter knife. And to the business aforementioned, I hope that you threw that butter knife away. We cannot have you cutting pound cake with the same knife that your customers use to get out of the toilet. Let’s get it together brothers and sisters.
NEGRO BUSINESS
By: Deric Muhammad
Over 300 years of chattel slavery in America nearly totally destroyed Black people’s natural desire to do-for-self. After Abraham Lincoln issued the two executive orders known as the Emancipation Proclamation, Black slaves were declared free yet were given few opportunities to make a living to feed their families. Many slaves immediately returned to their slave masters' plantation. They did not know what else to do.
For three centuries most slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write. However, the slave master made certain they knew how to count. How else were they to keep up with their daily cotton quotas on the plantation? Many slaves utilized the skills that they had mastered as plantation workers coupled with the study of the businesses that they were tools of and begin doing business for themselves. As a matter of fact many slaves had already begun doing business and became economically strong enough to purchase the freedom of some family members. A price was paid for us to be able to do Black business in the U.S.A.
Our companies, small and big, thrived in this country when we understood the urgency of moments in time like “Reconstruction”, the Great Depression and Jim Crow. We knew that if we did not support one another we could not survive. Prior to integration whites refused to do business with us. But as soon as word came down from Washington that Blacks would be served at the white wig shop the Black wig shop closed down.
These days it is difficult to keep a Black business open. According to statistics Black-owned businesses open and close faster than any other ethnic group in America. Yes we have a huge blur in our focus to support the businesses in our community before taking our dollar elsewhere. However, I contend that we have a worse problem on our hands. It is a commercial disease called NEGRO BUSINESS.
I recently attended a community event with a prominent U.S. Congressman. I excused myself to a nearby Black-owned restaurant to use its latrine (a.k.a. the toilet). As I attempted to exit the restroom I was hit with a painful reality. I was locked inside the toilet. After about fifteen minutes of trying to “break free” I, embarrassingly, called someone from our entourage. They sent an employee from the restaurant to come and rescue me.
I heard the footsteps coming down the corridor and I was relieved until I saw a silver butter knife slid underneath the door. “Jimmy it with the knife, he said. No, no, no….right there in the center. You almost got it.” There was nothing else for me to do except accept his coaching and free myself from the restroom of an apparent negro establishment.
I do not wish to expose the name of this establishment. I plan to write them a personal letter about my butter knife experience in hopes that they will correct the problem and continue to attract the support of the community. I am only giving us an example of one instance where Black businesses, who complain about us believing the white man’s ice is colder, fails miserably to provide goods, services and amenities in a way that keeps customers coming back.
As a community activist I hear horror stories about how hard-working brothers and sisters pay Black contractors to do a job that never gets finished. You sometimes show up at a coffee shop or restaurant and they are closed when they are supposed to be opened. Too often, we say that we will have a service completed by Friday and it is not complete until next Friday. Then there are the excuses like I have to get my baby to the daycare so I’ll be late everyday. Sometimes Black businesses close themselves down.
Now let’s flip the coin to the Black business customer. Too often Black businesses cringe at doing business with our own people, because we are always looking for “the hook-up”. There are good Black contractors who finish jobs and get paid with a rubber check. We show up at the Black coffee shop just to use the internet and then go buy a latte from Starbucks. We drop off our boyfriends clothes to the cleaners. We end up breaking up with him and leave the clothes to be donated to the Salvation Army. Sometimes Black business owners just give up or move to the suburbs because doing business in the hood proves emphatically challenging.
These business snafus are not only relegated to Black businesses. You can go anywhere in town and find a lack of customer service. However, if we are to survive during the economically strenuous times in America we must get back to the basics of nation building and self-development. We must support Black businesses that are serious about doing business and eliminate negro business that poisons the pond that we all must drink from.
In order to do business we must show character. We must open and close when we say we will open and close. We must treat the Black customer with the same regard that we would treat a dignitary. It does not matter whether the brother or sister spends 5 dollars or 5 thousand if you treat us like kings and queens we will return to do business with you once again.
We need a Black business bureau in every community that is empowered to monitor Black business/customer relations. We must be honest and trustworthy in our dealings with one another and when we make errors with one another we must quickly correct ourselves and move on. These are a few keys to the survival of Black business in America.
Also, do not assume that just because you are a Black-owned business in a Black community that your customers will know how to jimmy a lock with a butter knife. And to the business aforementioned, I hope that you threw that butter knife away. We cannot have you cutting pound cake with the same knife that your customers use to get out of the toilet. Let’s get it together brothers and sisters.
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