Still economics on the brain
Wal-Mart vs Ujamaa
It is still an open question as to what efficiencies black owned businesses provide operating in a black community. Lower marketing costs perhaps? Will these necessarily be passed on to the consumer? Or will it be that black consumers are willing to pay higher prices from black merchants?
Efficiencies aren't what they are searching for - effects are what they are searching for. Business isn't sought for the sake of business but as part of the necessary support for a community, and the community effects are what they seek to optimize/
The problem is that community effects aren't free. Put bluntly, it's less expensive to run a business without doing charitable work on the side. That expense can be the difference between survival and bankruptcy, especially if you're talking about owner/operators with little experience navigating the paperwork and legal issues.
Also, though yeah, there should be more Black entrepreneurs…would be if it weren't for racism…I don't think business is a useful tool in holding a community together. Let's face it, if you can run a self-sustaining Ujamaa network it's because you had a community already. Using business as community development and support puts those businesses at an economic disadvantage relative to mainstream business-which does not do community development and support (voluntarily) because the mainstream gets that support through other channels.
