Too many of our people do not realize how much a difference could be made in improving inner city Black communities if they opened a bank account at a Black-owned bank. Even if they kept their account open at their other conventional bank, opening another account at a Black bank in their community or online, is an investment in the Black community and strengthens Black economic power in many ways.

The most helpful way the Black economy would be strengthened is because the bank would have more assets and lending power to potential Black businesses in their surrounding community and for community development. More deposits by average Black workers and families would increase the ability for those banks to make more home loans to qualified buyers also.

6% of the total commercial banking activity in the United States is conducted by black-owned institutions. "Core deposits [savings and checking accounts] are the lifeblood of the institution," says Jarius DeWalt, vice-president at the investment banking firm of M.R. Beal Co. "But loans and investment opportunities are the cream of the banking business, and access to high-quality loans and investment opportunities are essential for a bank's success," he continues.

Unfortunately, Blacks are the least likely to bank within their own ethnic group as opposed to Koreans, Arab-Americans, and other groups who circulate their dollars more times over than Blacks. They bank with, spend, and loan to one another more than Blacks do, which keeps their communities, banks and businesses more operational and successful in a competitive economic market.

Blacks have been socially and economically trained to spend and bank with mainstream white financial and banking institutions and to trust more in them than Black-owned institutions. They are also convinced that white educational institutions are better. However, Black banks could better fund many HBCUs if the community at large made more deposits into them.

When political and activist Black leaders speak on developing and assisting the Black community, they must realize that utilizing Blacks-owned financial institutions and supporting any other Black ventures would increase the bargaining power of the Black community thereby strengthening its ability to develop more resources. We must stop thinking white and begin thinking more ethnically as other ethnic groups do.

The concepts of buying Black has become taboo in society because whites have made Blacks believe that supporting Black-owned anything is somehow racist in thought and practice. But this mindset is both defeatist and wrong simply because other ethnic groups, as well as whites, practice ethnic support themselves all the time, in fact, it is priority amongst themselves.

Google search Black banks and begin an account with one either online or locally. As stated earlier, one does not have to withdraw from their conventional bank all their funds and place them into a Black bank, though this would be the best decision, but they can open an account and start a small savings or checking account. We must try to build our communities instead of criticizing them yet at the same time being non-supportive of them.

Source from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_n11_v24/ai_15429428

© August 2006 by CR Hamilton