Business and Businessmen pt.3

BUSINESS AND BUSINESSMEN Pt. III
HOW THE RETAIL BUSINESS
SYSTEM WORKS

In part II we discovered that the prime cause of mixed
attitudes toward a Black retailer comes from an
“institutionalized economic racism”, and not from a Black
businessman per se

I will discuss very briefly how the “retail record” system
works for a Black man in Pasadena and other parts of the
United States. A white record retailer can buy 300 or 400
hundred records on a consignment basis. This means that he
can get his money refunded by the white wholesaler for those
records he cannot sell. A Black retailer on the other hand
cannot buy his records on consignment. He must keep the
records he buys, whether he moves them or not; and if you
don’t believe it, ask a Black record retailer in Pasadena –
thats how I found out.

However, this situation is not a new development by any
means. This relationship and others like it have been a reality
in the Black business world for more than a century. This form
of “economic racism” will not even allow a Black retailer to
compete on a “equal” basis with a comparable white retailer.
This unfair business practice – with reference to the white
wholesaler and the Black retailer – also explains to some
degree why many blacks find it impossible to stay in business.
They find themselves not only being misused and oppressed by
the white wholesaler, but by the general black public as well.
For instance, what happens to a Black record retailer who
finds himself with a surplus of albums that will not sell? How
does he make up the money for these albums? At this point
we find the police department entering the scene. The police
are very much aware of this “cycle of oppression” because
they are the persons who enforce and see to it that
“institutional racism” becomes a functional reality that will
keep a Black businessman on an inferior level.

Here is how the hypothetical construct works. When a Black
man (or any man) finds himself unable to secure a fair business
transaction from one source, he will undoubtedly, rather than
hinder his profits, look for another source to help the business
develop.

Therefore in many instances the Black record retailer (or
any retailer who is a victim of unfair or oppressive business
practices) might be forced into buying “hot” or stolen records
just so he can sell his records at the same price as white
retailers. With unfair business activities such as this taking
place, the local police departments know that a Black retail
merchant can only do one of three things.

He will either go out of business, stay and struggle on a
bare subsistence level, with little or no opportunity to expand
his business, or, of finally being “ostracized” and arrested for
buying “hot” wholesale merchandise. In the final analysis we
find that this racist form of economics tends to keep the Black
retailer non-competitive, makes the Black community negative
toward Black people in business, and in some cases forces
Black retailers to buy “hot” goods; which in turn gives the
police an opportunity to enforce the stereotype of the
“underhanded” Black retailer.

BLACKS MUST GROW
Black people in Pasadena and other parts of the country will
have to become more sophisticated about business transactions
and of what “institutionalized racism” really means, before
we pass judgement on any retail businessmen.

We waste our time talking about petty trivialities and
attacking the individual Black businessman, when we should
unify and attack the real source of these misconceptions.
Black businessmen are just as much to blame for perpetuating
this image as the general Black public. We never do research on
our own! We always accept the stereotypes white America
throws in our face! If you go to a white wholesalers store in
Los Angeles you’ll see at least twenty “brothers” in that same
store, getting the same oppressive price on the merchandise;
and the only thing they can find to say to each other is “What’s
happening”. Your killing yourself, that’s what’s happening! We
are all “Black”, and that in itself is the only identity, cultural
or otherwise, we need concern ourselves with.

Learning business administration in school is not enough.
We must also find out what really goes on when formal school
is out- because that is the reality we must learn to deal with –
for that is the very “fact” that will either mean “life” or
“death” for Black people – not only in the United States, but
in the world as well.