By Lucius Gantt, The GANTT REPORT
For about half of my life I have lived alone. I was married for 23 years, I co-habitated a few years but most of my adult single years were by myself because of injury, illness or because writers write better when they have no distractions.
Subsequently, I guess you can imagine that I’m not that involved in holiday gatherings. My mother’s house was the house to go to for holiday festivities but after Mom took her final journey to the Land of Plenty I lost the desire to join others in holiday eating and drinking.
Today, as a businessman, I want to share my feelings about a long standing Thanksgiving holiday tradition.
The day after Thanksgiving is a huge shopping day. I hope the readers of The Gantt Report will consider participating in a Black “Black Friday”!
I think it would be wonderful and so meaningful if Black people in America that feel a need to shop during the holiday season would make an effort to buy one or more gifts from a Black owned business.
Most Black owned businesses hire Black employees. Many Black businesses are located in Black communities. And, conscious Black business owners have a cultural, ethnic or a racially proud aspect of the products and services that they market and sell.
Let’s look at some of the ways we can help each other during the holiday season and throughout the year.
What can we buy? We can purchase a variety of things.
Grandma and grandpa can buy toys that they like to pretend came from a blue eyed white man named Santa Claus. But we can buy our children and our elders a book. Even if you prefer You Tube and other internet videos and don’t read yourself, you can still buy a children’s book and read stories to the little ones. You can buy a history book or a romance novel by a Black author for adult family members and friends.
Buy a gift certificate from a Black business. Physical training, dance lessons, recording studio time, television and radio production, travel vouchers, fine dining meals, car repair services, spa treatments, cosmetology services, haircuts and more can be accessed with gift certificates purchased by you and distributed as holiday gifts.
Black people own a lot of different businesses. If you can think of it, there’s probably a Black company somewhere in the world where you can buy what you want.
For example, if you have a friend that intends to run for office in 2020, you can buy print or broadcast media for them, get a gift card from a cameraman or videographer or purchase an hour or two of graphic design services for the candidate of your choice.
When you buy stuff for the holidays from gangsters, that’s OK too. You can buy a bigger sack of weed for the holidays, a bigger jar of moonshine, or a romantic moment from a gigolo or a “bad girl”.
We don’t need to appreciate the deaths, crime and misconduct that will inevitably will happen over the holidays but don’t pretend that Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas and the local so-called “hoodlums” are not the ones that gave out holiday turkeys and hams, paid to get out the lay-a-way that was past due, financed the holiday trip home to see mama and the trip to come home from school on the holiday.
I only want you to patronize Black businesses that do good, professional and quality work and sell quality products.
At one time, most of our money was spent with Black business men and women. We must never forget or deny that fact.
The Gantt Report wishes our readers and supporters the best in every season of the years but let’s make this holiday mean something special this year.
Let’s make this Black Friday a “Black” Black Friday this year!
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.