KC Charles

I completely agree. There are, I think, plenty of Black-owned businesses that are a bit pricier or a bit less convenient that their white-counterparts that I would still support. For example, Bevel, which makes grooming kits for people who suffer with razor bumps (mostly Blacks), has fairly pricey products and you have to get their products online, but I plan to support once I'm able because they make a product I legitimately need, they hire a lot of Blacks, and they speak out when things go down. There are plenty of companies small and large that do the same thing, all of which are worthy of support. Unfortunately, none of the Black banks fit that bill, as far as I know. Speaking just about the banks, it's not even about the resources. It would be incredibly easy and cheap, for example, to offer an internship program to Black high school and college students who want to get into banking and finance; you could even partner with the Black nonprofits and HBCU's, and the PR boost would be enormous. But for various reasons they're not (last time I checked), and the Black banks are getting dismembered (Carver Bank is no longer Black-owned), partly due to the recession but I think mostly out of extreme conservatism and inability to innovate. The question I ask myself when thinking about doing business with them vs BoA or Chase is: "Do I want to try and prop up a sinking ship, or do I want to get on the good ship that shoves me into second-class?" Right now, until the banks either change management or someone gets a clue, I lean towards the second-class as much as it disgusts me. Because honestly at least the ship won't capsize with me in it.

What I would say is that the Black banks in particular are so incredibly backwards and conservative that I would be very, very hesitant in depositing with them. Very few of them are active on social media despite its massive importance. Their Internet presences are abysmal. They refuse to merge with each other and would rather stay lords of single cities, instead of uniting and creating a national bank actually capable of something. But worst of all in my mind is that they are always silent when issues come up that threaten the Black community. If you are a Black bank and you present yourself as a Black bank and you say your existence is to serve the community, and you say nothing when that community is threatened, then you aren't there for the community. Your Blackness is then just a marketing stunt. Of course, the stagnation and lethargy of the Black banks is better (just barely) than the outright hostility of the White banks toward the Black community. But they need to get their shit together. Too many Black banks bemoan the lack of patronage given to them by other Blacks and yet don't do jack for the community. To be blunt, why should I support you if you won't support us? I'm not going to fork over my money to you just because we share a skin tone. Show me that you're doing something besides sitting there with puppy-dog eyes.