When I was growing up in Detroit Michigan. I could walk to the corner store and be greeted by the  Black store owner or one of his children or grandchildren whom I went to school with. When my parents went the fill up there cars the gas station owner was an African American. He new my parents name and there was a garage there to fix their vehicles if need. My grandmother owned a beauty salon & she brought her hair care products from a black woman who had an beauty supply company on W. Grand Blvd near the Motown Studios (Hitsville USA).The grocery store was Black owned etc. For all of our basic needs we could shop and spend our hard earned dollars with people who looked like us and had a stake in the community that we lived in. Now let’s fast forward 30 years into the present. The gas station, the corner store,the grocery store, are all owned by people who don’t look like me and don’t care what happens in our community; outside of making sure that we constantly spend our money with them. Where are all of the African American Businesses ? Here in Detroit the only business that are still predominately Black owned are the hair salons and barber shops. However most of the beauty supply stores and nail salons are owned by someone other than Black People. At one time Detroit could boast of having more Black Business Owners than any other major US city. Detroit had the most African American home owners than other US city. Now we are one of the poorest cities in the country. Detroit has one of the highest if not the highest unemployment rates in the country. Detroit is also legendary for it’s crime and murder rates as we see  depicted in ABC’s drama Detroit 187. What happened in the past thirty years? Most of you will say the fall of the Auto Industry. I agree that its decline contributed to our condition as Black people in Detroit. However the most direct reason is the lack of business ownership in the Black community. Don’t get get me wrong there are many Black Owned Businesses in the Metro Detroit Area and I  support them. As I already stated our everyday basic needs the things that we spend the most money on is being spent with people who don’t look like us and don’t care what happens to us. I don’t fault these other people they seen a need and they fulfilled the need. The problem is we need to learn to fulfill our own peoples needs and stop letting others come and take away our wealth. Black people are the most creative and dynamic people in the universe. But we use our talents and gifts to enrich everyone else but ourselves. It’s a thing that’s been added to our culture that has to be removed. Our parents told us to do good in school so you can get a good JOB. Let us make a commitment to  1.Start our own businesses . 2.Support Black Owned Businesses 3. Teach our children to be entrepreneurs instead of employees.  Star your own business today its easier than you think! http://www.blackbusinessownership.com BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS