Are You Buying Black, White or American?

Maggie and John Anderson of Chicago have drawn an interesting line in the sand. According to this article on FoxNews.com, the Anderson's made a decision four months ago to only patronize black-owned business for one year. They are calling it the "Empowerment Experiment" and their first affiliate chapter has launched in Atlanta.

Gregory Price, chairman of the economics department at Moorehouse College says, "it would be nice to see some real, hard data. Otherwise it could just be an episode of ethnic cheerleading." I agree, in part that it could be "ethnic cheerleading", but frankly it goes beyond that. Of course, you have to give Price credit for coming up with a euphemism for racism.

What is ironic is that if a white couple did this, especially if it were a white, Christian couple that only wanted to patronize other white, Christian-owned businesses, it would be deemed extreme racism, intolerant, homophobic and blasted through the media. Heaven forbid, white Christians take care of each other as opposed to wherever they can get a good deal or good service....like they normally do.

Hoever, Italians in the U.S. don't care if they patronize only Italian-owned restaurants. Nor do the Irish or the Germans - not that you see many German restaurants. They also don't care if they patronize "white-owned" doctors or grocery stores.

What they do expect is quality. A restaurant with great food and service. A doctor who graduated from a good school and has a great bedside manner. A grocery store that is clean, has a good selection, convenient hours and friendly, helpful staff.

This country was founded by people seeking to escape religious persecution, taxation without representation and the idea that "all men are created equal". (Read the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence here - We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness).

While we had (past tense) the issue of slavery impact our country, and there are still some people who are racist, the majority of people in this country don't think that way anymore. They want quality goods and services and who that comes from is irrelevant.

It becomes irrelevant until people like the Andersons start a local-turned-national campaign for black people to only patronize black-owned businesses. The attitude that Maggie Anderson carries, "my people have been here 400 years and don't even have a Walgreens to show for it" is the attitude that offends whites, Latinos, Asians, etc.

It is that very attitude that would get whites accused of being racist. It causes white people, especially, to say things like "I didn't own a slave. No one in my family owned a slave. It is simply because I'm not black that you don't want to patronize my business?"

That type of response is what prompts quiet social and racial lines to be drawn in the sand. It causes people to think that black people don't like white people, or Asians, or Latinos.

My company will never do business with the Maggie Andersons of the world. Not because I don't want to. Not because our goods or services aren't good enough. Maggie and John Anderson would rather patronize a black-owned business that may not be as good as mine based on the simple fact that my business is not black-owned.

I'm not old enough to have lived through the civil rights movement, so there are some things I can only understand by reading and learning from older friends of mine. I will never understand what it is like to be black. I'm not going to try.

What I do believe is that what the Andersons are doing is unAmerican and racist. They may be nice people if you meet them face-to-face, but what I have read about their platform is that they wouldn't want anything with me or my business...because I'm white.

John would rather go for days with a stomach ache because he wants to find a black doctor. I just hope that black doctor is in a building that he/she owns or is owned by another black person - and that the bank the building owner got the loan from is a black-owned bank or mortgage company.

I don't think that way and I'm not teaching my children to think that way. I'm personally hopeful that Sean Hannity or someone else smart at FNC decides to challenge the merits of what the Andersons are doing.

I'm going to keep living life the American way. I will seek out the best financial deal possible and get the best service I can get and whether the owner is black, Latino, Asian, or white doesn't matter. I've never had a conversation with anyone where the race of the owner of a business affected the purchase. It sure won't start now.

The United States of America has always been a melting pot of religions and cultures. To draw lines in the sand is not healthy for us. It creates division. Division that is not good for a country, especially now, that is working to get up out of economic challenges.

JoeSixpackAmerican.com would like to encourage any reader of this post to not patronize a business based on race of the owner. If you are going to patronize a business based on a single characteristic, it should be that it is American-owned.

Buying based on race is racism and is not good for our country.

Buying American is nationalism and is good for our country.