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Oak Park couple travel far and wide to buy only from black-owned businesses
Chicago Tribune ^ | 3/9/09 | Ted Gregory

Posted on 03/09/2009 3:29:34 AM PDT by GRRRRR

Maggie Anderson drives 14 miles to buy groceries, which might seem curious given that she lives in bustling Oak Park. She and her husband, John, patronize gas stations in Rockford and Phoenix, Ill. They travel 18 miles to a health food store in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood for vitamins, supplements and personal care products.

The reason? They want to solve what they call "the crisis in the black commu- nity." They want to, as they say, "buy black."

The Andersons, African-Americans who rose from humble means, are attempting to spend their money for one year exclusively with black-owned businesses and are encouraging other African-Americans to do the same. It is part experiment, part social activism campaign.

They call it the "Ebony Experiment."

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africanamerican; chicago; racism
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Amazing racism on the part of AfricanAmericans? or just being supportive of their own? Read comments at the end of the article.
1 posted on 03/09/2009 3:29:35 AM PDT by GRRRRR
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To: GRRRRR

but but but their leaving a huge carbon feetzprint


2 posted on 03/09/2009 3:33:08 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: GRRRRR

If they think that denying clear opportunities for gain merely for the sake of some kind of race-based self-reliance program will result in greater prosperity, then they are wrong.

Funnily enough, econ textbooks often use similar hypothetical situations to explain why restricting free trade is bad for everybody. “If blonde people decided that they were only going to trade with other blondes, then what would happen is.......”


3 posted on 03/09/2009 3:35:47 AM PDT by LifeComesFirst (Until the unborn are free, nobody is free)
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To: GRRRRR

Racism by any other name.


4 posted on 03/09/2009 3:36:05 AM PDT by EBH (The world is a balance between good & evil, your next choice will tip the scale.)
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To: GRRRRR

I go out of my way to avoid North Fort Pierce Florida. Lots of gang related killings, car jackings and drug trafficing.
And yes it is a predominately black area.
So I guess I’m a racist for trying to avoid this kind of crap?


5 posted on 03/09/2009 3:38:12 AM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: GRRRRR

6 posted on 03/09/2009 3:42:26 AM PDT by WVKayaker (Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. -Mark Twain)
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To: GRRRRR

Desegregation’s just a pain, when you’re a black separatist.


7 posted on 03/09/2009 3:42:33 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: GRRRRR

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-buy-black-side-09-mar09,0,3820763.story

Here are a few of the black-owned businesses the Andersons patronize:

Fast food: KFC, 5230 W. Madison St., Chicago; McDonald’s, 626 N. Harlem Ave., River Forest.; Burger King, 49 W. Lake St., Maywood.


8 posted on 03/09/2009 3:44:15 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (FAIR DINKUM!)
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To: GRRRRR
They call it the "Ebony Experiment."

I call it what it is: Racism.

The allowable kind...

9 posted on 03/09/2009 3:45:45 AM PDT by TankerKC (It's July, 1956.)
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To: Fred Nerks

I see this sort of thing, and just have to marvel at the stupidity.

Not, mind you, of black people electing to spend their own money where ever they see fit. They’re certainly entitled, just as we all are.

But, rather, of the black businesses razed by the government in supposed urban renewal projects, not to mention black businesses burned or otherwise destroyed in rioting in the late 60’s.

And, all in the name of equality.

Bizarre.


10 posted on 03/09/2009 3:51:40 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: GRRRRR

Oak Park couple travel far and wide to buy (Chinese-made merchandise) only from black-owned businesses


11 posted on 03/09/2009 3:51:44 AM PDT by VoiceOfBruck (There's no such thing as "some" freedom of speech)
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To: Joe Boucher

I’m happy to be moving to north GA instead of crime infested Atlanta which could be considered to be another chocolate city. I guess I’m racist as well for not wishing to live in fear of going to the grocery or not wanting to hobnob with the prostitutes and pimps hanging around the streets.

If these folks want to buy only from black owned businesses then more power to them. They’re contributing to the overall economy in non-color ways whether they want to admit it or not. If IL passes a ‘pay by mileage’ tax I wonder what they’d do?


12 posted on 03/09/2009 3:51:58 AM PDT by whatshotandwhatsnot
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To: GRRRRR

I got no problem with this. People should be permitted to spend their money however they wish, and need not justify their choices to anyone.


13 posted on 03/09/2009 3:54:41 AM PDT by gridlock (BTW, Mods... It might be time to add "Barack" and "Obama" to spellcheck)
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To: GRRRRR

I’m not obsessed about racial matters. It’s their prerogative. I try to buy from any kind of people who are more honest, but the Andersons can buy as they wish.

Lately, though, and for the foreseeable future, I’m not buying anything that’s not really needed—mostly buying only groceries and fuel. Why? Because we need a change in not only government leadership, but also in the business and academic leadership that keeps our government the way that it is.


14 posted on 03/09/2009 3:55:20 AM PDT by familyop (As painful as the global laxative might be, maybe our "one world" needs a good cleaning.)
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To: TankerKC

http://www.ebonyexperiment.com/

Money Spent As of 2/20/09
$ 11,455.00

Our Experiment
For The Ebony Experiment, the Anderson Family publicly commits to buy Black for one year. National media covers The Ebony Experiment. The Black community supports and joins their pledge. Black businesses grow. Black professionals, too. Black households and communities are economically empowered. The Black community shows the world the true value and strength of Black business, Black talent, and the Black consumer and investor dollar.

Watch as the national media covers The Ebony Experiment [click here for press links]

Visit The Ebony Experiment Blog Site at http://theebonyexperiment.blogspot.com/

WHAT A SCAM!


15 posted on 03/09/2009 3:55:59 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (FAIR DINKUM!)
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To: whatshotandwhatsnot

Where in N.Georgia ya heading too?

And I do not blame ya for wanting out of Atlanta. What a horrible pit.
This pay per mile is going to be the end of interstate travel.


16 posted on 03/09/2009 3:57:12 AM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: GRRRRR
But thriving black businesses began dissolving in the mid-1960s, when African-Americans focused on political power and civil rights and began patronizing white-owned businesses under the misconception that buying white signified blacks' upward socioeconomic mobility, Clingman said.

"Unfortunately, many black people abandoned their own businesses and supported others, thinking that politics was the way out," he said. "Politics still will not get you anywhere unless you have an economic base. Quite frankly, I'd rather have more black businesses than black politicians."

If folks want to rely on the market to elevate their communities, rather than concentrating on government solutions, I say we should support that decision.

Good for them, I say!

17 posted on 03/09/2009 3:57:54 AM PDT by gridlock (BTW, Mods... It might be time to add "Barack" and "Obama" to spellcheck)
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To: whatshotandwhatsnot
I guess I’m racist as well for not wishing to live in fear of going to the grocery or not wanting to hobnob with the prostitutes and pimps hanging around the streets.

Where are you that going to the grocery is so terribly frightening and there are pimps and whores all over the place?

18 posted on 03/09/2009 4:01:04 AM PDT by numberonepal (Don't Even Think About Treading On Me)
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To: GRRRRR
It's what Rev. Wright, Michelle & Barack OBAMAH call BLACK NATIONALISM !
19 posted on 03/09/2009 4:05:15 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: GRRRRR

Proudly—boldly!—racist. Sickening.


20 posted on 03/09/2009 4:05:57 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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