In light of the recent Black Lives Matter protests following the death of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile, the Black community has teamed up to show just how much Black lives matter. The Black community has thus far transferred nearly $1 million dollars into Black owned banks.
Protests have been circulating through text messages and social media calling for the boycotting of many large companies and urging the Black community to “buy Black.” With the help of celebrities like Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, over 8,000 people have transferred at least $100 into Citizen’s Trust bank alone. That is over $800,000 dollars transferred into one Black owned bank in the last five days.
Boycotting began as a method to bring awareness to the importance of Black lives across the world. Following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s 1968 speech, “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop”, the idea behind the boycotting of non-Black owned businesses and banks are to show that Black money is essential to the economy. According to the Nielsen Company, more than $160 million were spent on products alone by the Black community. It also reports that national advertisers spend over two billion dollars in marketing geared toward Blacks.
Black Enterprise recorded the Black community spent $1.1 trillion dollars alone last year. Their buying power is essential and projected to reach $1.3 trillion dollars by 2017.
