Change registers: Coalition asks people to buy from black-owned Sacramento businesses

Protests over the death of George Floyd have flooded downtown Sacramento for the last week. Now black business owners want people to march into their stores.

A movement called Buy Black Saturday is encouraging people to shop at black-owned Sacramento businesses Saturday. Organized by California Urban Partnership, Black Friday Coalition, Black Blue Printz clothing designs, Sac Cultural Hub, Build. Black. Coalition and a slew of business owners, Buy Black Saturday aims to translate grassroots support into financial gains.

Sac Black Biz has curated a view-only Google Sheet of more than 275 local black-owned businesses, while The Sacramento Bee has identified more than 45 restaurants with black owners. Buy Black Saturday movements are also underway in New York, London, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., said Berry Accius, a local activist who owns Hidden Gems Thrift Store with Passion Bailey.

“If you believe black lives matter, the best (way) to practice that belief is to pour into black businesses,” Bailey said.

A recent Washington Post analysis found the black-white economic divide is just as stratified today as it was in 1968, with median black households having just 8.7 percent of the wealth their white counterparts enjoy.

Black business owners face their own set of challenges including weaker banking relationships than whites, a consequence of redlining practices that kept financial institutions from lending to people of color.

“To those folks who keep on asking ‘how can we help the black community?’ Well, the way the black community needs to be served and the way the black community needs help is ... boosting our economics,” Accius said. “If we’re going to have an uprising, it needs to be economical as well.”

That lack of connection has proved especially difficult during the coronavirus pandemic, Nubian Family Beauty Supply co-owner Nasir Muhammad said, as businesses vied for competitive low-interest loans. Meanwhile, the City of Sacramento’s $1 million loan program largely ignored underserved communities, Capital Public Radio reported.

With little economic relief and haircuts and braiding banned for two months, Nubian Family Beauty Supply ended up carving up its products to survive shelter-in-place. Muhammad, his wife Faith and sister Anissa cut up Kente dresses and shirts imported from Ghana and Mali and repurposed the fabrics as face masks.

The store in Florin Square shopping center sold 1,000 masks at $10 apiece in the first month despite only being open for curbside pickup, Muhammad said, and was able to drop the price to $7 upon reopening in early May.

“A lot of the businesses out here, especially black businesses, we didn’t really get funding and we had to endure,” Muhammad said. “If it wasn’t for these masks, we probably would have shut down ... they saved us.”

Protests over Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on Memorial Day have brought a new energy to the fight for black equity, including significant interest from non-blacks in supporting businesses owned by people of color. Dozens of people began following pop-up sweet shop Terri Does Desserts on Instagram in the last couple days, owner Terri Littleton said.

Catering orders must be placed 48 hours in advance and Littleton isn’t planning a pop-up for Saturday, so Terri Does Desserts won’t see an immediate benefit from Buy Black Saturday. The surge could boost other businesses, she said, but they’ll all ultimately need prolonged support to succeed.

“A big part of it is not just this push, it’s sustaining it. Don’t just go out there and buy from a black businessperson one time to say you did it. Keep doing it,” Littleton said. “A lot of us have really good products, really good customer service and we try to make our prices fair.”

Buy Black Saturday falls on the same day as a protest outside Golden 1 Center led by the NAACP, Assembleywoman Shirley Weber and former Sacramento Kings players, among others. Accius said the two events are not connected.

This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 1:13 PM.