– Byron F. Wilson (Ohio Native / OSU Grad)

#HowWeFight is a common sense response to injustice. Black people are being asked to intentionally and exclusively support Black-owned food establishments in Central Ohio and beyond. The overall goal is to uplift, empower and redirect dollars to the Black community.

We must build, protect and save ourselves. Anyone is welcome to participate in this economic movement for justice and empowerment.

Central Ohio (Columbus) has over 305,000 residents of African descent. According to BlackDemographics.com, Columbus (Cbus) has the 26th largest concentration of Black people in the United States, comprised of Foundational Black Americans, Jamaicans, Senegalese, Ghanaians, Nigerians, Haitians, Ethiopians and Eritreans to name a few. Cbus has the second largest Somali population in the nation with estimates at 60,000.

With the police killing of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Sam Dubose in Cincinnati and John Crawford III in nearby Dayton, the State of Ohio has had many cases of injustice. Columbus (the capital city of Ohio) named after terrorist Christopher Columbus, has experienced the police lynching and executions of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr., 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, 47-year-old Andre Hill, 23-year-old Henry Green, 13-year-old Tyre King, 36-year-old Jaron Thomas. All six were killed by law enforcement officers in Columbus and no one has been held accountable to date. Unfortunately, there are many more examples of injustice and police violence in Cbus. In addition, extreme economic and health disparities are prevalent for Black residents in Ohio, including Columbus.

One day before MLK Jr. was assassinated, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pleaded with the community to “Redistribute The Pain”.

In response to injustice MLK said “Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal… Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? 

We don’t have to argue with anybody… Now we must kind of redistribute the pain…

Now not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank (a Black-owned Bank)… I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves… We are telling you to follow what we’re doing, put your money there.” Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base, and at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. And I ask you to follow through here…“

It’s been over 50 years since Dr. King delivered this message on April 3, 1968. For whatever reason the Black community has failed to follow through. According to Maggie Anderson (author of Our Black Year) and other economic scholars, African-Americans only spend 3% of their money with Black-owned businesses. That means we spend and give away 97% of our money to people outside of our community. No other group does that. The time to change is now. Share Black-owned businesses on your social media networks and encourage your friends and family to ‘Buy Black’.

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