The Power of The Black British Pound series was created to encourage the black community to acknowledge the power of being a conscious consumer as well as share the experiences of black British people, as we need more black British voices and experiences to be heard and shared.
The first guest for this series is Blogger Jason. Jason puts his passion and deepest thoughts into his writing, addressing some uncomfortable and incredibly necessary conversations. You can read all of this pieces on his website; JASON-RT.COM
From food and clothing brands to electronics and vehicles, purchasing the things we need and want has always been an inevitable part of our lives. But what are the implications of buying Black?
A quick definition: Conscious consumerism is driven by making purchase decisions that have a positive political, social, economic, environmental impact.
As an individual, it may be hard to see the benefits of being a conscious consumer. Nevertheless, what does buying from Black business or boycotting a company known for using sweatshops or refusing to hire Black people in senior leadership positions do in the long run?
I would hope, you’re supporting companies and producers that would be more willing to:
- Pay workers living wage
- Give more opportunities to other Black people
- Engage in environmentally friendly and provide workers with a healthy working environment
The impact doesn’t stop at you and just spending money and/or using the product. There’s a whole process that takes a product from the raw material stage to being displayed on shelves obviously, what happens to it after it comes to the end of life.
Along with price and quality, I more than understand why you might not want to invest but this is exactly how these big corporate companies started out. We need to support our people. These big companies do not care about us but our money. Once they realise, they’re losing money, that’s when we will see a change in society. That’s what other communities do it, Jewish, Asians and obviously, the Caucasians. They collectively invested in certain careers and focusing on internal growth and welfare. The only way we see a change in our community is to show strength, both financially and physically. That is buying food from solely Black businesses, no more Chinese, Indian or unseasoned British food. Obviously, there aren’t enough Black-owned groceries stores, so until we get there, your normal shop will do. Does Nike need your money for their latest trainers or tracksuit, no! We need to start hitting the pockets of these companies, who really do not care about us.
Review your transactions from your bank statements to see what businesses you regularly shop at, then do some research. You can start with UKBlackOwned or Webuyblack.com and if the business isn’t listed, there are other tools such as Twitter and IG that can help you learn more about your Black brands, businesses and companies. Unfortunately, if you find a company you don’t want to support or has bad customer service with, you can no longer shop there.
Don’t be quick to out these businesses for likes and viral moments on social media. Email the management nicely and hopefully, they can help with your query. If it’s still bad, simply do not shop afterwards, they won’t last long if that is their business model anyway.
Investing our money until Black Businesses not only keeps the money in our communities, it’ll create the changes we all want to see in society and globally. It’ll allow them to invest in us in more productive way. This is not to boycott other communities’ business but this is just another way to show how Black Lives Matter and it’s not to just to stop social injustice but also to stop killing us, otherwise, there won’t be any of us to buy anyway!
I understand, trying to research every single company you could financially support, can be time-consuming and overwhelming to the point of apathy, (trust me I know) but we need focus on where you spend your money most. Which is why I am fully focus on companies like;
- BBnatualsuk – Hair company – Found on IG
- Winny’s Meals – Found on IG (Caribbean Food)
- Lakey Apparel – Found on IG
- Independent Music artist – Apple Music
All Black owned!
You can say, I am not THAT invested (I am working on it) but I always on the lookout to expand my list if / and when I come across them. But if you know any that I should 100% be supporting then let me know either on Twitter or IG I’ll be happy to support our own.
Huge thank you to Jason for sharing his knowledge and words of wisdom with us all. If you enjoyed this piece then please do support a Brother and read his latest piece – ‘Enough #BLACKLIVESMATTER‘.
SAABIRAH LAWRENCE 
Some great points raised by Jason
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It really is a great post! Thank you for your comment.
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