Buying Black is "Buying American"

Is it possible for an all-American family to live life with only all-American products?

At the request of "World News with Diane Sawyer," Jon, Anna, Landon, Ellis and Amber Usry are going to give it a try and share their experiences with the country in a special series, "Made in America"  , focusing on U.S. manufacturing, jobs and what it all means for the nation's economy. Jon Usry says, "Whenever we have a viable option, we would love to buy American." 

Last week ABC News kicked off their "Made in America" series by turning the Usry's world upside down when they replaced everything in their house that was foreign-made with "Made in America" products.  According to Moody's Economy.com, if every American spent an extra $3.33 on U.S. made goods every year, it would create nearly 10,000 new jobs.

This does not come as a surprise, but a confirmation of the "Empowerment Experiment" where John and Maggie Anderson spent an entire year trying to spend their money only with Black-owned businesses.  Read about their experience in the upcoming book, Our Black Year.

Just as the Usry's have discovered how many of their purchases are not "made in America,"  the Anderson's faced the same challenge finding Black-owned businesses to patronize. However, they recognized a similar outcome regarding jobs -- if Black consumers spent more of their money with Black-owned businesses, it would create thousands of jobs for Black unemployed workers.

Similar to ABC News, we have three basic questions for our readers:

1. Are you aware that you can help solve the Black unemployment problem by supporting Black-owned businesses?
   -- Most of the employees of Black-owned businesses are also Black.
2. How many Black jobs would be created by supporting  Black-owned businesses? -- Every $1 million in revenue creates ten jobs... and eight out of every ten jobs go to Blacks.
3. If you could find viable Black options, would you spend more of your income buying Black? -- Black Americans could create 10,000 new jobs by shifting only 1% of their income to Black-owned businesses.

The reality is that buying Black IS buying American. 

• You can find more than 2600 Black-owned businesses in the iZania Black-owned Business Directory.
• We also invite others to share the news about Black-owned businesses at our Facebook Page -- iZania Black Business Network. 
• We will soon launch an initiative to help connect the dots between Black entrepreneurs, professionals, and consumers.

Share your feedback and comments below.