On this Juneteenth, what's happening with the buy black movement?

From Marketplace, I'm Nancy Marshall Genser in for David Brancaccio.

U.S. markets are closed today in honor of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.

The legacy of slavery is one reason a racial wealth gap persists in the U.S. A Census Bureau report from earlier this year found that in 2021

white households were ten times wealthier than black households.

One effort to narrow the gap, support of black-owned businesses.

That effort grew in 2020 amid protests for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd.

Where does the Bye Black Movement stand now?

Kizia Williams is CEO of the Black. Where does the Buy Black Movement stand now?

Kizia Williams is CEO of the Black Upstart,

a program to support black entrepreneurs.

She says the campaign is valuable, but support has waned,

and more needs to be done to address systemic disparities in the economy.

During the pandemic, 41% of black-owned businesses were expected to close.

During that time where Paycheck Protection Program loans were

being distributed to businesses in order to keep doors open, black

entrepreneurs had problems accessing those funds because they didn't have

existing relationships with banks and only 12% of black and brown founders actually got all of the funding that they applied for.

So we have a ways to go. We have a ways to go. And so when I think about the Bob Black movement the question then becomes how do we move past just a slogan or how do we move past what is a good idea to actually driving for change.

Let's create more scalable black-owned businesses

so that when people are looking for

optionality in the marketplace,

...