An organization called My Black Receipt is asking consumers to support black owned businesses and then upload receipts from the money they’ve spent. The effort has the effect of helping keep black owners from struggling due to lack of business worsened by Covid 19. My Black Receipt was started by Kezia Williams, who trains black entrepreneurs through her business at The Black Upstart.

There is greatly increased attention on racism and inequality after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis on May 25. Large protests continued for nearly a month in cities across the country and around the world. Rather quickly, and even before street protests wound down, attention shifted from justifiable outrage, to asking the question, “What can be done about it?” One solid approach has been the idea that spending can help to counter racism by deciding where and how we choose to spend our money.

Williams took action and began asking supporters to spend their money in black communities, at black-owned businesses. Because black-owned stores were failing at a far higher rate during the Covid 19 pandemic, sharing receipts at MyBlackReceipt of those businesses supported demonstrates black spending power. The idea caught fire as it was promoted on social with the hashtag #MyBlackReceipt and #BuyBlack. There were television and online media mentions of the concept and the goal of $1 Million in receipts uploaded was met by June 26.

The MyBlackReceipt campaign continues until July 6th with a total goal of $5 Million in receipts uploaded. The day after, July 7th, is being promoted as #BlackOutDay – described as follows:

BLACKOUT DAY JULY 7, 2020. This is a call to action!! We need one day of solidarity in America where not one black person in America spends a dollar

Receipts show the world what be believe by showing what we support by demonstrating how we spend. This concept works just as well in reverse – when we withhold our money from businesses and organizations that we don’t support.