The Value of a Dollar
By Byler E. Henry
Why is money so important and why does it have such power? After all, it’s only a piece of worthless green paper. Many of our people in the Black community don’t understand the power that’s being held in their wallets. When you need appliances, groceries, or other items, do you go to Walmart or do you go to the mom and pop stores that are not too far from you?
In our community the small Black owned businesses need our help to thrive and survive. Everyone has at one point shopped at Walmart; you may have thought that Walmart has everything you need; you name it they got it.
Did you know that Walmart’s revenue for 2015 was $485.7 billion? Have you ever wondered about the revenue of the local small store around the corner?
There are a few Blacks who want to set up their own business in the community, but they need our help to be everlasting.
Every other community keeps money flowing in their community longer than ours, and they support their own kind. Why can’t we? Instead of driving past the store to go across town why not stop and lend a hand?
With your help and support the store could grow with time. Think of it as a seed, the more water and sunlight it gets the bigger and healthier it gets.
The small business is the seed and our money is the water and sunlight; the more we spend our money there, the more it can grow and flourish.
Some of us are quick to spend our money at Wal-mart, Target, Winn-Dixie, and all these other major corporations, but they would look past the businesses that are right in front of them.
Supporting our own reminds me of Black Wall Street. If you have heard of it, this is just a refresher, and if you haven’t here’s a chance to learn something today.
Back in the area of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, there was a neighborhood with Black owned and operated businesses that were thriving and operating quite well. It was a beautiful town, and now nothing is there but a monument of what once was.
What happened to it you ask?
In 1921 I believe around June 1, it was bombed from the air and burnt to the ground. A once Black operated town has been reduced to ashes in no time.
If we invested our money into our own community, with time and patience improvements can be made. All great monuments were not built overnight. It took belief, time, and patience. If we support our own community, little by little we can build another Black Wall Street.
Although it won’t happen overnight it can be done. We just have to realize how much money we spend elsewhere.
