black-owned businesses
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Wrapping Paper Roll Call: Make This the Blackest Friday (to Cyber Monday) Ever
There have been few bright spots to celebrate in 2020—and even those have often been bittersweet. Take, for instance, the unprecedented uptick in interest in Black-owned businesses and creators (something we’ve always been invested in, but we digress) since non-Black America suddenly seemed to wake up to the centuries-old realities of racial inequality this spring—and…
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Oprah's Dropped Her 2020 Favorite Things List—With a Special Emphasis on Black Businesses
Please excuse us if we were a little distracted by other goings-on as last week ended, and therefore missed the drop of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2020 list. But while all we really wanted for Christmas (and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, and the new year, and our birthdays) was a new president, the queen of all media…
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Built to Last: American Express and Elaine Welteroth Launch a 'Vodcast' to Celebrate Black-Owned Small Businesses
Buying Black may be more on-trend than ever, but how do we celebrate and sustain Black businesses to ensure they’re built to last? A new video podcast series by American Express aims to do exactly that, Built to Last, hosted by New York Times bestselling author, journalist, producer, and former Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue Elaine…
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A Love Letter to Used Books (and Tips on How to Shop for Them)
Every other month, I go to the Books for International Goodwill sale in Annapolis, Md. It starts at 8 am and I’m an early riser anyway, so I drive the 40 minutes from southeast Washington, DC on a virtually trafficless highway to get there when the only other people are a few solo shoppers and…
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Making Good on Its Promise to BIPOC Beauty Brands, Sephora Is Centering Them in Its 2021 Accelerate Program
Beauty emporium Sephora just took another step in fulfilling the promise it made this June when it agreed to dedicate at least 15 percent of its shelf space to Black-owned brands as part of Aurora James’ 15 Percent Pledge. In response, the retailer revamped its Accelerate incubation program for 2021, with an exclusive focus on…
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It's National Comic Book Day! Here are the Best Comic Books by Black Creators Right Now
It’s National Comic Book Day and what better way to celebrate than to get into these groundbreaking comics by Black creators. Not sure where to start? How about a Black-owned comic book store? We decided to reach out to the owner of Third Coast Comics in Chicago, Terry “Doc Midnight” Gant. He has been described…
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Spread Love, It's The Birthday Way! Beyoncé Donates $1 Million to Small, Black-Owned Businesses
Most people usually enjoy receiving gifts on their birthdays, but on the eve of Beyoncé’s 39th trip around the sun, the superstar made sure to give back to her community. According to her website and her BeyGOOD Foundation’s Instagram page, Queen Bey will donate $1 million to small, Black-owned businesses, and “round two of funding…
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A Swift Solution? Taylor Swiftly Rebrands Her Folklore Merch After a Black Business Owner Calls Foul
Does nobody Google anymore? Is a basic trademark or incorporation search too tedious to endure? Or do big stars’ teams just figure they can easily eclipse small independent entities, so due diligence is simply drudgery? We’re asking this in all seriousness because only weeks after the unfortunately named country vocal group Lady Antebellum bulldozed and…
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Beauty Guru Jackie Aina Is Dropping Her 1st Product Line—and It's for the Homies
At this point, we have no shame in admitting we’d purchase pretty much anything Beau-Tuber Jackie Aina puts her well-heeled stamp on—and in several cases, already have. But while she already has plenty of stellar collabs under her belt, the beauty advocate and 2019 Root 100 honoree’s first independent product offering is likely not what…
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Ex-Lawyer Launches the 1st Black-Owned Stock Exchange in U.S. History
When we talk about white privilege and systemic racism, one thing that always comes up is generational wealth. It’s a thing white people disproportionately benefit from and a thing that is virtually nonexistent for Black people, as history has shown us far more instances of Black wealth being sabotaged (*cough* Black Wall Street *cough*) than…