Apps created to support black-owned businesses are now taking the spotlight since more people are looking to support black-owned businesses after the death of George Floyd.
What We Know:
- Black-owned businesses were hard to find since they didn’t have much recognition until “Black apps” were created to help people easily find these businesses and help businesses gain customers. Now, these apps are surfacing and gaining recognition after the death of George Floyd, which sparked the reawakening of the Black Lives Matter movement and led supporters of the movement to support Black-owned businesses.
- EatOkra is one of the apps created in 2016 to help support Black-owned restaurants in response to racial inequality in restaurants, especially after two Black lawyers were arrested after meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia.
- Other apps like Shea’d, Black Nation, WhereU Came From, I Am Black Business, and Support Black Owned (SBO) were created as an easy way for people to find Black businesses from law firms and beauty shops to auto shops and shopping places.
- Another app similar to these was released this year by a student at the University of Texas at Austin, called “Keep Austin Black”. Earl Potts Jr. is a junior, double majoring in black studies and computer science. The idea of the app came to him after he left his hometown for Austin and felt the need to highlight black businesses but couldn’t find them.
- “It was sort of born out of need,” Potts said. “There were a few websites out there with some resources, but some were either incomplete or hard to navigate.”
- Potts was able to find businesses through the Austin Black Chamber of Commerce website along with suggestions online. The app was launched this year and is only accessible in Google Play but available in beta for iOS.
A lot of the apps have updated their info regarding the businesses during the coronavirus.
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