Stop creating subsections of success

We can do better than “Shop at {insert marginalized group}-owned businesses” posts.

Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash

Lately, my Instagram newsfeed has been peppered with headlines such as “10 women-owned businesses to support”, “Black-owned restaurants you should eat at” or “Shop at these Asian women-owned businesses”. At first, I would read these posts and feel mildly annoyed. A year later, my annoyance has culminated in this blogpost because there aren’t enough characters in a tweet, and Xanga is dead.

These news stories and Instagram posts are meant to encourage consumers to invest in local businesses owned by people of color, women, and other marginalized groups. (I’m assuming positive intent here.) We should absolutely train ourselves to consider a more diverse pool of businesses when deciding where to spend money to eat, shop, workout, etc. The mental image that pops up when we think “business owner” shouldn’t default to a white cis dude. This takes exposure and time.

In reality, these posts hurt more than help — They assuage white guilt and/or validate capitalist tendencies to buy shit you don’t need:

1. Does being a person of color automatically make your business worth spending my money at? No. Just like being a person of color doesn’t make you anti-racist and being a woman doesn’t preclude you from having patriarchal views. I want to know what kind of impact your business is having on the environment, how much you’re paying your employees, what kind of benefits you’re providing employees, and how you’re sourcing your materials.
2. Stop encouraging white saviorism. If you feel bad for having privilege or money then donate to a mutual aid fund or even a charity. You don’t need to buy another t-shirt that you won’t wear because it donates 1% of the cost to some charity. You can just take that money and donate to the charity or the owner directly. Save the shirt from the landfill. Save the carbon emissions from shipping. If the company fits into what you’re looking for from a business then keep it in mind for when you actually need to buy something.
3. Stop tokenizing restaurant and business owners. As Belinda, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, from Fleabag wisely said, “It’s infantilising bollocks…It’s a subsection of success.” See point one. We should support businesses because of how their owners act and how they spend their revenue not because of how they identify.

I love discovering new local restaurants and shops. Also, listicles are clearly not going away because we don’t seem to have the attention span for long-form articles. I would love to see the headlines read local businesses to check out. Go ahead and only highlight businesses not owned by cis white men. We have enough lists that include only cis white men anyway. Then run profiles on local business owners and what they believe in, so they can promote their businesses.