In My Hood

My apologies to you for not posting the past month. Family obligations took their toll. Hopefully the worst is over and we can get back to the work at hand.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I went to the nail shop to get a manicure. There was a line formed out front that included several ladies who were checking their watches, wondering where was the owner and why the shop wasn’t opened on time. The shop is supposed to open at 10am but the owner and manicurists didn’t arrive until 10:30am.

We questioned the man as he unlocked the door about his tardiness and he was visibly pissed off that we had the nerve to question his. His answer was that it was snowing and he had to come from the north side. One of the ladies replied weather was no excuse. She would never be allowed to use the weather as an excuse for tardiness at her job and he shouldn’t either. One of the ladies remarked that he is always late on Saturdays and that maybe he should change his opening time to 10:30am since he never seems to arrive before then.

As we entered the shop, we began discussing boycotting the shop on an upcoming Saturday since that’s the busiest day at the shop. It was felt that if he felt the economic impact, he would value his customers and their time. I vowed never to return to his shop and told him I don’t do business where I’m not respected. He didn’t reply. I realized that he would never have done this if his business was on the north side. But it isn't and because he has no respect for my people, he felt it was okay to disrespect us. He knows his business will not suffer because he's late and openly disrespectful. But it should suffer and suffer mightily. Unfortunately it won't. I watched this level of disregard over and over again from business owners in my neighborhood.

At the core of this musing is the fact that I live in a Black neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. The homeowners are Black. The renters in the apartment buildings are Black. The students at the schools are Black. The CTA drivers are Black. Yet other than a couple of hair salons, barbershops, a beauty supply store, a florist and the Harold’s Chicken Shack across the street from my house, all the businesses are owned by other ethnicities.

If you visit almost any Black neighborhood on the south side of this city, businesses are owned and operated by Arabs, Chinese, Greeks and Koreans. Yet if you were to visit Chinatown, you will find there are no Black businesses there. I would imagine this to be same in the neighborhood commonly known as Little Arabia on the northwest side of the city. Devon Avenue on the city’s north side is known for a high number of people from India and Pakistan. Pilsen and Little Village are predominantly Mexican although Pilsen is in the midst of gentrification. This does not include those of Irish descent who populate Bridgeport, the Polish corridor along Milwaukee Avenue in Avondale, Little Italy on the near west side and Greektown on Halsted.

Many of these neighborhoods have undergone gentrification and the descendants of the original habitants of these neighborhoods are moving back into the city after a 25-year stint in the suburbs. Yet in each of these neighborhoods, the descendants of the business owners still reflect the makeup of that community. Not so in the many Black communities that make up the south side.

In her recently released book, The South Side (a great read), author Natalie Y. Moore, make the case that segregating Chicago’s Black residents was and still is intentional. Communities were allowed to openly discriminate that the Supreme Court of Illinois even upheld the rights of neighborhood residents to discriminate against Blacks. This legal discrimination coupled with redlining by banks has worked to keep Blacks in economically depressed neighborhoods.

Today no bank would openly admit to redlining yet there are very few Black owned businesses in Black communities. It seems racism is still the way of those entities charged with assisting the small business person. Even Black owned banks like Seaway and the South Side Community Credit Union are loathe to give loans to Black businesses. Thus money in my neighborhood is not reinvested in my neighborhood. None of these business owners live, shop or bank in the neighborhoods where they make money.

Why do so many people from other countries come to Chicago and open businesses in the Black community, communities they choose not to reside. Communities where they choose not to shop. Communities where they don’t do their banking. Because banks and other financial institutions make it easy for them to open businesses in my neighborhood as they make it difficult for me and others like me to create businesses. Because we shop in the stores, patronize the fast food joints. Because we go to the nail salon for service every Saturday. Because we have not demanded that our banks grant us loans for businesses the way they do Arabs and Koreans. Because we want to do business in our neighborhoods. Because we feel we don’t have a choice.

But we do have a choice. Start checking the number of business loans granted by your bank and see if those loans were given to Black owned businesses. Utilize services provided by Black businesses. Shop at Black owned stores as much as possible. Eat at restaurants owned by Black folks. Require those folks doing business in your community to treat you with respect. Finally remember your neighborhood is only as good as the folks who live in it. We can make a change but we have to do it together.

Let’s make change starting today!