On Saturday,
May 20, 2017 PCOL held the first community meeting for the iBuyBlack
Discount card, bringing together business owners, consumers,
activists, artists and investors from all over Philly. The concept is
from the Philadelphia Council of Leaders (PCOL), who have been
seeking means by which Black businesses and Black consumers can
mutually support each other, and keep the dollars circulating in the
community.
A
special discount card that can be purchased either in person, online,
or via Facebook is currently good at 250 Black owned businesses, and
growing, throughout Philadelphia. www.ibuyblack.org
Since that kick off meeting, the Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc, has voted to wholeheartedly support the iBuyBlack campaign, and will make an initial purchase of 50 cards to sell, with individual Sorors likewise making their own individual purchases as well. Additionally, the Sorority has several members who are entrepreneurs, who will likewise become members and offer their services at the 10% discount rate.
www.ibuyblack.org
 |
| BROTHER ALI Presides over the IBuyBlack Community Meeting |
Brother
Ali, who presided over the event, made a statement that resonated
throughout the entire meeting, and served as a wake up call for all
the participants: “Now you know the most effective boycott in
the history of the United States has been the boycott of Black Owned
Businesses by Black people. Right?” The concept was a total
departure from the usual “blame whitey” attitudes we have become
accustomed to espousing.
Brother
Rahim Islam, of Universal Companies, stated: “PCOL is taking a
stand by saying, 'You know what, talking is not going to do it,
wishing is not going to do it; praying is not going to do it - though
it can help. No question, putting prayers out there can kind of
settle the anxiety; but it's going to take some hard work. And
it's going to take some behavioral changes that we must do as a
people, individually - starting with ourselves first, and moving out.
And then affecting or impacting those who are around us.
There's no simple other way to do it. There's no magic way to
do it.” While others compared the efforts to a drop in the
ocean, Kenny Gamble saw it as the beginning of a tsunami.
Per
Brother Ali, “The iBuyBlack Campaign is a grass roots campaign.
We are bringing it to the community to give them details on
the campaign, the discount card, our vision of what the impact will
be, and take it back to your various organizations, business
institutions and other groups that you may belong to.”
According
to Ali, It started In October of 2016, when Rev. Allyn Waller (Enon
Tabernacle Baptist Church) called for a meeting of Black men and
about 800 men showed up from all across the city, various religious
denominations. He had three things he was trying to accomplish:
1:
End violence in our communities. He has been working with
police commissioner Ross, and has identified fifteen hot spots in the
city where most of the violence occurred.
2:
Protect voters from harassment. “Right before the "election"
and there had been some rumblings about some caucasians coming to
intimidate Black voters. We got a group of men together to
monitor every polling place in Philadelphia to make sure that no
intimidation was going to take place.
3:
Supporting Black owned businesses.
Rev.
Waller wanted to set up an initiative to encourage especially the
Black consumers, so that, instead of spending all your money with the
mainline establishments, spend some of it with Black owned
businesses; and not just for the Christmas season, but 365 days a
year.
www.ibuyblack.org
Brother
Michael Rashid, the retired CEO of Amerihealth Corporation who took
Amerihealth from a one billion dollar corporation to a four billion
corporation during his tenure, took the lead for PCOL and became the
project manager for the IBuyBlack Campaign.
 |
| Brother Michael Rashid goes over the goals and oboetives of the iBuyBlack initiative and Card |
Major
meetings were held in November to standing room crowds. Speakers
included Rev. Waller, Kenny Gamble, Rahim Islam, Mike Rashid, Harold
Epps from the City of Philadelphia, among others. According to
Brother Ali, “In January 2017, Brother Gary Shephard, had just
returned from Detroit, MI, where they had developed a discount card
for businesses. You pay $10.00, make a purchase and get a 10%
discount. If you use the card two or three times, with the
discounts you received, the card has more than paid for itself. So we
looked at it and said we think we can do that right here in
Philadelphia. So that was the birth of the iBuyBlack Discount Card.
And that's how we started it.”
PCOL
has a Cultural Committee that is responsible for cultural activities
that teach the sophistication of African and African American
cultures in the Philadelphia area. “40 years ago we had the Black
Family Reunion, African and African American Parades; and all of
those cultural things in the Black community. We actually owned
the summer. Dr. Edward Robinson taught Culture is the glue
that keeps the community together and gives the children something
positive to look to. But why aren't those events here now?
Why are they gone? why did they die in the first place?
They had died out was because they were dependent on
outside funders like Proctor and Gamble, Pepsi Cola and Coka Cola.
As soon as they had a bad fourth quarter, and their sales started to
dip, and started cutting back; the first thing they cut out was our
stuff!” Ali stated. “In order to bring these programs back, we
have to fund these programs ourselves, so we don't have to depend
on anybody but God, the Ancestors and the Black Community.
There are 665,000 Black people in the city - enough people and
resources in our own community. Last year we produced our first
Annual Juneteenth Event with six weeks' notice; attracted over 5,000
people right in the heart of downtown Philadelphia!! It was a
tremendous success. And we are going to do it again on June
17th.”
On
September 9, 2017, they are bringing back the Black Family Reunion in
honor of Barbara Daniel Cox, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc, who died last year. The discount card
is a way of raising funds to produce money to fund those events.
According
to Brother Ali, the Discount Card does three things: 1) It
encourages our people to spend more money with Black-owned
businesses. 2) It alerts our people to where the Black-owned
businesses are. 3) The proceeds from the sales of the cards
goes to fund the cultural activities here in Philadelphia. So
it's a very, very simple process.
Per
Michael Rashid: The goal, is to sell 30 thousand cards;
register 1,000 businesses in our system; and to increase the
iBuyBlack coalitional organizations from where it is now to 100 by
August 2019.
Michael
Rashid stated that until that morning, the most effective boycott was
the bus boycott led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Alabama. “But
today the most effective boycott in the history of this country has
been the boycott of our people against our own businesses.
That's something to think about. This is a boycott that's not on
television. The news does not cover this boycott.
As Rahim said, it's already in here. It's already in here.
As my Brothers from the Nation of Islam would say, we're the only
people who will spend 90% of our time talking about the white man is
the cause of all our problems. And then we turn around and
spend 95% of our dollars with him. So it just makes no sense at
all,” he stated.
“In
the libation this morning, one of the people that the sister
mentioned was Denmark Vesey. That's the power and the fear that
the other side has of us getting together. Now we don't have to
go kill nobody. All we have to do is break that boycott! Stop
the boycott! Stop the boycott that we have on ourselves of our
own people's businesses,” he concluded.
Mr.
Rashid took a straw poll of those who had used the card so far to
find out what their experiences had been thus far:
Brother
Kofi: "I used my card at the Smart Ali on Ogontz
Avenue. I went there, had the food. I loved the food, and
got my card and it arrived in one week. Got some fish and
grits; my brother and I have a rental property, and we needed a
carpenter who could fix the apartment and to be able to do some
windows. I got on there; I looked at the applications; I looked
at the information - i punched it in and called the guy. I'm
meeting him next week and he's going to give an estimate on the
work. And I used my discount card at 3rd Floor Media.
They are going to tell you their own story. We just finished
doing a voice over for the historic overview of Juneteenth as
part of the CD.”
Testimonial
2: “With this card, I just walked into Dwight's Barbecue. He had
never heard of the card, but decided to honor it and he gave me a
10% discount.”
Highlighting
the benefits of the card, Michael Rashid stated, “The card lasts
forever. Because what we're trying to do is break the
boycott. We want to get into our minds that our people have all
these things as well; and definitely by doing so we can break the
boycott.”
He
elicited statements from businesses who accept the card:
Sherrine
Stewart with Ergo Travel stated, “I have a travel agency, and I
actually heard about iBuyBlack through I Love BOB - I Love Black
Owned Businesses. So I joined and I'm ready, and I use my
card myself.”
Valerie
Lloyd: “We're consultants and we plan events - social and corporate
events. And I came about it - the iBuyBlack Card because I'm on
the cultural committee and I'm working on it now.”
Dr. Karen James. "My business is wholistic health cafe -
I found out through Earl Harvey. And it was a family
owned business. My daughter's a chef. She makes
wonderful healthy meals. My husband is certified in gourmet
teas for the tea lovers; and I'm certified in homeopathic
medicine. So we have workshops, we serve meals - so come out
and visit us.”
Walt
Watson of Money Matters on WURD - that's why I say this is
good. I was born and raised in North Philly - my life
is everything you put up on the board - that's my life.
And I'm here and I'm going to support it. I'm going to sign my
business up. I'm probably one of the only African American
that is a branch manager of a brokerage firm - The Atlantic Wealth
Group. The first and third Sunday each month, and my name is
Walt Watson. I'm like a work horse, so public speaking is not
my thing. But I will talk with anybody one-on-one all day
long.”
Brianna
- of Miss Black Genez - "It's about young Black women
appreciating their natural beauty - and loving themselves. And
also about starting young people to think about and build their own
business plan. Our business plan; our knowledge topic and also our
talent (are) based on building one's confidence, and
also an immune system for Black people, because we don't have a
protective immune system. And a drug free culture. We're trying
to clean up everything. So this is very powerful."
Andrea Jackson, CEO of AMJ Entertainment - Provides entertainment. "Mr. Gamble was at an event where my artists were
performing, honoring the original Ebony. That was my band, and
my artists singing. (Kenny - they were very good); and I would
love to take a hand full - a box of your brochures and distribute
them at our events. And I'm big on social media, and I've
already started spreading your website on social media, and
I will continue to do that."
 |
| Andrea Jackson and Sister who conducted opening libations |
So
it is evident that the iBuyBlack Card resonates with businesses and
resonates with people who have the card.
“Our
goal is a couple of ways to break the boycott. Our goal is to
bring new customers to African American businesses. And by
doing so, it will bring more money, more customers to African
American businesses. The ultimate goal is to create jobs and
grow the Black business community. That is what we're trying to
do. It costs money to produce the card; advertise and to do all
the things that we're trying to do. We have a website.
That's why the card costs $10.00 This is not anybody's private
business. It's to put Black businesses in our community in a
better position. We think that if we're successful, there's
going to be greater employment for our community. 80% of the
new jobs created in America are created by small businesses.
That's where the jobs are. Created by small businesses.
There
are 19,000 businesses - African American businesses - in this city.
19,000 - what if we just had 10,000? if we just spent 9%
of our dollars with our own people, unemployment could be wiped out
in the Black community. Not 90%, just 9%.
So,
here's how it works: “You buy the card here today, or you can buy
the card online, it's mailed in three days; customers get a discount
of 15% first time out; there is the benefit of promotion - and
businesses get new customers.”
Michael
Rashid's breakdown of the demographics made it clear: “In the
METROPOLITAN PHILADELPHIA AREA THERE ARE ONE MILLION PLUS AFRICAN
AMERICANS. This is in our five county area. 19,000
African American businesses. See they don't advertise this,
because they don't want you to know the power that you have.
I'm telling you. There are nationally 3,000+ faith
based African American organizations. 200+ educational
institutions. 250,000 African American professionals.
The average spending is 25 billion dollars - but most of those
monies are part of the boycott. That's part of the boycott that
we are doing to ourselves. So Ali went over what our goals are.
30,000 cards; 1,000 businesses - expand our coalitions to 100
organizations.”
He
then queried the Black Greek organizations: “We got anybody from
the Greek organizations here? Ah! The DELTAS!
AKA. Omegas. The Kappas are in the house. Well thank you Greek
organizations - we know you have the power. We know that you're
organized; and we know that if you put your mind to it, it will
be done. So we appreciate you.” As of the date of the
meeting, Phily Alumnae Deltas have been apprised of the iBuyBlack
program; Omegas are preparing to meet and join in purchasing and
promulgating the card; Sam Adams of Kappa has pledged to purchase
and/or sell 1000 cards; and AKA will be considering the card, as
well. The card will be presented at the upcoming PanHellenic Council
meeting for endorsement, purchase and support across the board. It
was suggested that, for a small nominal additional fee, the cards be
logoed for the various fraternities and sororities – which would
both be a good marketing tool, as well as a way to see how effective
it is among the Black Greek organizations.
He
also emphasized that the card will appeal to consumers across the
board, from high tech to no tech: “We are going to be very high
tech, but not so much so that we get too smart and forget
about the people in our community - our grandmothers and
our mothers - people, who just want to buy the card;hold the
card in their hands and want a directory like the old telephone
book. We can't forget our people. We can't get ahead of
ourselves. It's okay - we can come from all over the place.
And that's what we want to do. We're working on decals and
will have them very soon.”
At
the Launch on April 13 at City Hall, a press person asked Mayor
Kenney what he thought about IbuyBlack, and whether he thought it was
“a racist thing, since they're doing it in your house at City
Hall?” And he looked at him like he was crazy, and said,
"No. I'm Irish, and the Irish people keep the money in the
family. Italians keep the money in the family. The Jews
keep the money in the family." The Mayor bought a card on the
spot. they're supporting us in various ways, and you'll hear
about it in the months ahead.
 |
Brother Kenny Gamble addresses the IBuyBlack Community Meeting (R)
LR: Brother Kofi, organizer of Junteenth, Michael Rashid, Brother Ali |
So
we set up a website; we designed and produced our card, and to date,
since the launch, we've sold 1500 cards; and growing everyday.
We have over 250 businesses on our website, and growing every day.
And you can buy a card online at www.ibuyblack.org
According
to Michael Rashid, “The next steps develop our brand, and our
business model. Everything we do, we're going to continue to
make it better and better and better. We want to secure
funding, and the talent that's going to execute this plan.
We're going to implement a media marketing campaign to build
awareness.”
In
addition to WURD, other media outlets covering the morning's event
included ECLECTICALLY BLACK NEWS BLOG, and the Sunday Sun. The
Sunday Sun has been involved since the very beginning. Rashid
also emphasized the need for word of mouth, stating, “That's the
best! And that's one thing we're going to ask you to do today -
talk about it. Talking - get the word out there -
put something in your calendar or DayTimer - every day I'm
going to talk to somebody about IbuyBlack. So we need to
build awareness; we need to sell the card; we need to register
businesses; and all of this will give us the groundwork to move
to the next level.”
So
here's what we need from you: “Use the card Don't just let
it stay in your wallet. If you don't use the card, then the
business is going to say - "Yeah, I heard about it, but it's not
helping me out here." Go to business you've never been
to, and check them out! And tell them I heard about you through the
iBuyBlack Discount Card. And they'll see that this is a good
thing for them. Meetings are a great way to spread the word.
If you can set up a meeting at your church, at your club, at your
business, or whatever, we have people who can present this.
Earl Harvey is our lead distribution manager. If you want to
distribute the card, Earl can help you out with that. Give us
the information, and we can get that information to Earl.”
Once
a business owner signs up, he's on the website. Right now there are
23 restaurants on the website. So the Name of the Business,
Address, Phone number, what kind of business they're offering - it's
right there on the website. As we move on, we're going to be
doing more than the website. Put them on decals; put them on
the media.”
The
issue of consistency was broached. A white man told one of the
members. "You know what's wrong with you Black people?
You're good at sprinting; but you're terrible at the marathons.
You always got to be way out here, and y'all get way excited, but you
don't have consistency. And you don't stick to it." And
that's where we are right now. We started this thing and we
sprinted out of the gate. We've sold 1500 cards and we've got
250 businesses. Now, what's going to happen? And there
are a lot of people just sitting back, and I'm telling you! I'm
telling you! They sit back, "Yeah, I heard about this.
It ain't going to last." Isn't that what they say?
Isn't that what you've heard? It's going to die out.
Peter out.”
He
elicited advice from Kathy Hicks of the Sunday Sun, and a member of
WURD radio, on how to stay in faith and keep charging, when things
got tough.
Kathy
Hicks, fiancee of the late Jerry Mondesire, founder of the Sunday
Sun, stated, “I think this is a very important event the
Philadelphia Sunday Sun has been around for 23 years. We worked
together. And I've been dedicated - this is just a labor
of love to keep it going in the community. Making sure that
the word gets out about the businesses; about what's happening
in our communities that does not show up in the Philadelphia
Inquirer, or the Daily News. And if you have stories that
you're interested in us sharing with the community - we love doing
that. Gary Shepherd, who does our weekly, iBuyBlack Neighborhood
Community event, goes to random Black owned businesses, takes a
picture. He puts out the information about where they are; what they
do and also adds a little snippet, or a mini-commercial - and
this is free advertising. But it also gets the word out as to
what types of businesses we have in our communities.”
Ms.
Hicks continued, “It helps us! The Jews do it. The
Asians do it. The Latinos do it. And we know how much
they make even from us. So we should do it. We should do
it for our people. And make sure that we are allowed to grow. .
Read the SUN, get the SUN, because it supports our community.
And again, it helps your information to get out. So, if you
have any questions, our number is 215.848.7864
- You can call. If there's information that you want in the paper,
you have something going on with your business, and you want to
promote it - give us a call. But also, share the paper so
that the people see that we support the IBuyBlack initiative.
And I hope you will do it also.”
Representative from WURD: “We have to do better; we have to clean up our stores, we
have to make the people who come through our doors want to come
back. Tell them to bring somebody with them; and you have to
get rid of those lower expectations that you have. I am in
and out of businesses all week; and some of them I don't want to
recognize - I can't. I don't want them do advertise on our
radio show. And it's a shame - but we just have to do better.”
She also announced we've just acquired an FM station - it's 9 I'm
going to ask you to tune in on your computer, on your phone and
listen. We are the only Black talk radio station in the the
state of Pennsylvania – one of the few in the country - and
we give news and information to the African American community.
And it's not fake news."
GDW NOTE: I was an account executive for The Black
United Fund of New York, i see this is the approach in getting
Black solidarity in terms of economic development across the board.
And I think it's wonderful. And customer service training for these small businesses is essential; because
you can walk into a place and do a u-turn just by the tone of the
voice and the attitude of some of our brothers and sisters. But it's on both sides - some of our consumers go in with negative attitudes as well; therefore we need to raise our expectations and
raise their level of service at the same time. My late Uncle, Adolf Dulan, was the on the board and co-founder of
Recycling Black Dollars, in Los Angeles - so I think this is
excellent - GDW
There are also I Buy Black T-shirts for sale, as well as free brochures that can be distributed or shared with businesses or friends. "Feel free to
take brochures, just don't take any that you're not going
to pass out. What we don't have today is food for you.
We've got a lot of spirit, but we don't have any food." A suggestion was made to do pot luck for the upcoming June 10th meeting.
In closing, Brother Ali stated, "I want to give you the math of this. This whole effort is
based on five per cent of the population. there is a
psychological effect in the African American community, and everybody
has to agree with this. There is no way we came through four
hundred years of terror and not be psychologically damaged.
Okay, so that's a given. And we're going to stipulate the psychological damage in the Black community, and because of
that, a lot of times when we start efforts the first
thought that comes to our minds is that, "Oh we can't do
that." "This is going to peter out." "We've tried
this before and it didn't work." or "We've tried this
before, why you think it's going to work now?" So what I
want to say is that this whole concept is only based on five percent
of the people participating - a critical
mass."
He then used the example of the Million Man and Million Woman
marches of 1995 and 1996 respectively to prove his point: "So
if we can get five per cent of the people's numbers, in any hundred
of the people that you talk to, ninety five of them will say,
"we're not interested." We just want to work with
the five who are interested. Now if you don't think that that's
correct, then I want you to go back to 1995 and 1996. In 1995
there were 40 million Black people in the country (USA); half female,
half male. So that means that there were 20 million Black males
in 1995. Minister Farrakhan put out a call for a Million Black
Men to show up at a Million Man March - right? You've got 20
million Black men. How many showed up? Two Million
showed up out of 20 million. 10% of the Black men showed up. 90% stayed home. The
following year, the Million Women March, right here in Philadelphia,
and about a million women showed up. Right? That was about five
per cent of the total Black females. So you can say what you
can do, with just that small percentage. The reason I'm
bringing this up is because I don't want you to get dismayed; I don't
want you to give up. The whole key to making this work is
consistency. So just being consistent, spread the word, just
stay focused - then we can make this happen."
Kenny Gamble wrapped up by stating, "Well I enjoyed myself today - what about you? And
you know Ali is 100% right; this is not a joke. Sometime
we laugh, and you know - but this is no time for laughing.
And, I pray that you take it real serious. And that you
will live this concept and idea for the development of our
community. And as you look around the room, you don't see a lot
of young people here. You see a lot of old heads. Men and
women. Old heads. We used to be young once - but now
we're old. So let's take it serious."
He continued: "It
really is good to see you come out. And this concept is really
taking off and at the end of the day, I'm thinking, I might even
write a song about this. So we've got some good people we're
standing on, like Sam Adams. He had a group called The Family of
Leaders - that's where this group, Philadelphia Council of Leaders, evolved from. And the Libations keep these people living. Sam Adams
lived to be 105 years old. And he got up every day and went
into his office to work on how do you make it better for Black
people. He created something called AFNA - The Foundation
for Negro Affairs. So this is a part of that idea, that spirit."
Gamble related an incident with Mr. Adams: "He
showed me a picture one day. Sam said, 'Look at this
picture.' There were maybe about forty people in the picture -
and they were on the steps of Harrisburg, the Capitol Building.
So he said, 'Tell me something about that picture.' So
I said looks like you all were up there protesting or something.
He said, 'Yep, but guess what, all those people in that picture
are dead except for me.'"
"So
I know that we've got pictures - I've got pictures of people,
and everybody on there is dead, except for me. There is a
picture in my office, right now, where, when we did the Black Family
Reunion, there was a picture of Harold Melvin, Georgie Woods, myself,
and brother Roland Chambers, who used to play guitar with us.
I'm the only one living on that picture. So it's not so much.
You can do anything you want to do. I'm living proof of it.
Everybody told me you ain't going to make it man; you can't sing.
You can't do nothing; but I just kept going. And I kept going.
And what I say now is yeah, keep right on going son. So we can
do anything you want to do. And I expect I'm going to be here
as much as I can, as long as I'm living. I'm going to be
here. And I really appreciate working with all of you -
especially Ali and Mike and Rahim and there's so many others out
there that we can pull together to get this spirit - to get into this
spirit.”
Gamble later added: “Well I'll tell you one thing, if one
thing that I took out of this meeting is that we need more meetings -
as many meetings as we can get. Because one of the things I
heard out of this is that we need to have some classes. So that
these business owners will know how to deal with the public.
Business Ettiquette. I tell you that the biggest things that
happens with a lot of Black businesses is that the place needs to
look clean; and smell good. There are a lot of things -
but we need to cut that off at the pass.”
 |
| Kenny Gamble with enthusiastic Grandmom and Granddaughter after iBuyBlack meeting |
One
grandmother brought her young granddaughter to the meeting stated,
“I brought a young person here My Granddaughter. I brought her for reasons, because I wanted her to know
what is going on with the Blacks in the Black community - and I
wanted her to understand why it was so important for me to be here.
I want her to be a part of it. She didn't quite know about your
background, so I had her Google you so she could understand who you
are. And I brought her here to meet you; because it starts
here, you know. It's important to me and my family as well as
everyone in this room - and I want her to be able to understand and
follow.”
"So,
I'm glad you're here, young sister. Okay - do you write
songs?... This is the beginning of a new generation. Parents, grandparents are urged to bring their youth with them to the upcoming meetings - we are creating a legacy, and it starts in the home.
The next meeting of the iBuyBlack Campaign will be Saturday, June 10, 2017. Please check the website and the FaceBook pages for location and time.
NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria
