Two women pushing for Blackout Day to be recognised in Barbados are insisting the initiative is not racist.
Marcia Weekes and Lisa Niles see Bajan Blackout as a way to not only encourage people to patronize black businesses, but as a means to encourage economic empowerment within the black community.
Blackout Day, which takes place tomorrow and is being celebrated internationally, has been designated as a day shoppers are encouraged to buy from black-owned businesses only.
The initiative comes in the wake of protests against police brutality in the United States and renewed attention to the decades-long racial wealth gap.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Weekes and Niles said the aim was mainly to empower black people and black businesses. They pointed out that even though blacks accounted for more than 90 per cent of Barbados’ population, the majority of established businesses on the island were white-owned.
Niles said while Blackout Day was conceptualized in the US, she felt a “tailor-made” initiative could be held in Barbados.
“I thought that it was important that as a community, as a black community, that we do something to uplift ourselves. We have tailor-made what we are doing in terms of the Bajan Blackout and our objectives are to uplift the black community in Barbados and to use economic power to fight racial injustice and economic disparity,” said Weekes, the principal of Caribbean School of Arts and the artistic director of Praise Academy of Dance Barbados.
“We are encouraging economic strength in the community and we are moving towards a black wealth creation strategy and raising the level of efficiency and effectiveness of black-owned businesses.”
Weekes maintained that the initiative was in no way meant to be racist.
“I don’t see anything about racism in those objectives, which is sometimes the way people view something, depending on the lenses they are looking through. But based on the objectives, there is nothing racist in wanting to love yourself and wanting to uplift your family and uplift your community,” she contended.
“It’s very difficult in Barbados for black businesses to even get loans and to survive and if we don’t come together as a community to help each other, who is going to help us?”
Niles, a qualified economist and educator, said she believed the initiative was particularly relevant to Barbados.
“It makes socio-economic sense that the black community be empowered, that the black community be given a broader and more meaningful participation in the financial and economic spectrum of Barbados,” she contended.
However, Niles acknowledged that one of the areas in black businesses which needed to be improved was customer service.
She said that, in many instances, more training was needed for workers.
“One of the first things we talk about when we talk about supporting black-owned businesses is that the level of service, both in goods and services, the quality is not excellent and that is another objective that we have. We want to educate and enable our business people to improve the quality of service that they provide,” Niles said.
She said there were also plans to facilitate financing for black-owned businesses so they could improve their operations.
The duo has created a registry for black businesses which can be accessed through the Facebook page ‘Black Businesses in Barbados’.
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The majority of decisions are made by people who supports a one system monetary policy. From the top down they support and implement polices that support the one system monetary system.
If ONE DAY of supporting Black-owned businesses and getting to know a Black business owner causes discomfort, you need to ask yourself why.
I believe that 95% of the businesses in Barbados are black-owned. But the actual economic power is probably the opposite proportion.
The playing field is not level. We have some major issues to confront, problems to solve and work to do to make our country better for all.
The first step is always education and gaining knowledge.
It’s sad that we had to wait for another country to bring this to the forefront for us (Bajans) to realize this.
I see in the US the Chinese and Koreans spend their money with in their own communities and I’ve never heard anyone call it racist.
We as a people are very strong, be smart with your money, spend it with your own.
Another thing we must stop is the crab in a barrel mentality.
If you made it, reach down and help someone else up, don’t think that because you made everyone else should too. Some needs a helping hand.
Come on my brothers and sisters ,and give this your full support. For black empowerment we must seek to narrow the racial wealth gap . Pay no attention to those who may wish to refer to this action as “racist”; we are the victims of racism
So if in this world we had a white out day. Where we only shopped in white business owners world wide would thatbe racist?
This makes no sense in a place like Barbados, the Bajan public should ignore this copycat foolishness. If the Bajan public follow these academic misfits, the question is , who will you be hurting ? Answer, your own black people, you will not hurt rich people, when you are rich you can absorb the shock for one day , so Bajans please don’t follow this foolishness.
In my view black people can only be racist if we put white people in slavery for the same length of time they had us enslaved. Black lives matter doesn’t mean that white lives don’t matter,it simply mean we’re trying to be recognized as human beings with equal rights issues that are not equal
10% of the businesses are owned by people of colour and somehow a single day in the life of Barbados where only these businesses are to be patronized is going to change the landscape?
I think not. Does it not strike folks that in order to make this ratio more representative there has to be an active government program to encourage and facilitate more entrepreneurship with incentives and support of local financial institutions? In my experience the government of Barbados going back to independence day has been pretty much formed from people of colour yet here we are some 54 yr later still having these efforts. I don’t mean to imply those behind this effort are not sincere. Not at all but it seems to me that this is all about image and not about substance because it is not a priority of governments past and present.
One other point. I do not engage in social media so just how would I be able to find a business to patronize tomorrow?
Improve your customer service first,,why do you think people drive/walk miles to go to a particular business ? prices may not be any better but if the service is great you’ll go there ,,,I am black and would support any business whether it was owned by someone that was pink, green brown or blue ..if the services is right.
It will be interesting at the end of the day to see how many people participate in the “Blackout Tuesday” event. I have my doubts that may will.