Some people claim that a free market will solve all racial discrimination problems. This idea is certainly wrong. As long as racism and white supremacy control people’s minds and emotions, they will also control how they spend their money. Consider last year’s big budget film “Gods of Egypt.” In it, an almost all-white cast portrays the gods of the ancient African nation of Egypt. This is a massive whitewash of course, and when the producers were questioned about it they claimed that box office success required white actors to get people to the theater. While I disagree with their casting choices and their claim of necessity, I get the point. So did Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker. He described racial bias in business decisions as a “taste” for discrimination. Since he only considers discrimination as an individual choice, his theory falls short for failing to recognize racism as a structural and systematic mechanism used to maintain social dominance. Despite this flaw, however, his research does illustrate an important point: The consumer market reflects the implicit and explicit racial biases of the participants.
The “Gods of Egypt” producers understood that people of all races accept and often enjoy white casts in films. In Becker’s terms, these moviegoers have a “taste” for discrimination. It turns out that despite disappointing domestic receipts for the film — likely due to the controversy their racial bias caused — the film still seems to have turned a $10 million profit with a $150 million in sales worldwide. This illustrates how consumers’ habits encourage and sustain discriminatory practices by business executives. The taste for whiteness makes discrimination profitable. This reality is reflected in millions of purchasing decisions across the country every day. The more upscale and valued a product is, the whiter the sales force and the marketing campaign. It is even reflected in restaurants and grocery stores. Compare Wal-Mart, Kroger, Trader Joes and Whole Foods employees and management, and note how the level of diversity decreases as the prices increase.
There are two more aspects of this problem that leave a bad taste in my mouth. The first is the societal aversion to supporting Black businesses. Conservatives should do so to show the validity of the “American dream” and the power of the market to transform communities through hard work and pluck. Liberals and progressives should endorse Black businesses as a critical tool to promote social justice by decreasing Black unemployment caused by racial discrimination. Moreover, Black business profits facilitate business expansion and employment. In fact, if every Black business in America hired one more employee, Black unemployment would be cut in half.
Despite this, Black businesses are starving for customers. Maggie Anderson made the case clear in her book Our Black Year. In it, she chronicles her family’s commitment to buy from Black businesses for one year in Chicago. The central takeaway of the book is that Black businesses employ the highest percentage of Black workers and have a drastic impact on Black employment and community wellbeing. Unfortunately, Americans do not sufficiently support Black businesses — neither whites, Latinos, Asians nor Blacks themselves. While white businesses are judged on quality and prices, Black businesses are often judged before quality or price enter the conversation.
Another aspect of this phenomenon that is particularly disagreeable is the belief that some Blacks hold that intentionally patronizing a Black business is somehow racist. Every day people of all races patronize white businesses as if they lacked a racial identity. They do not. That decision has significant financial repercussions across the society. It funnels wealth in exclusive ways to white business owners, employees and families. Because of these “race neutral” practices, white business owners have the highest business income and employ the largest number of employees and enjoy a high concentration of wealth.
To remove myself from that behavior, I strive to patronize Black businesses weekly. Otherwise, I patronize businesses that employ Black employees and managers and otherwise reflect race, gender and other forms of diversity. This is a simple numbers game. Every dollar spent furthers or diminishes opportunities for youth employment, skill development and management experience. Anyone who wants greater equality and equity needs to show it in their buying as much as in their voting.
Carlton Waterhouse is a professor of law and Dean’s Fellow at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
