Women of Color conference set for Saturday in Mesa

The 2nd annual Women of Color Business Collaborative is being hosted by the Black Chamber Of Arizona in Mesa on Saturday.

“It is very important for the black community, regardless of how small the population is in your locale, to demonstrate economic solidarity,” said keynote speaker Maggie Anderson, author of Our Black Year.

The book chronicles her family’s mission to only buy products from black businesses for one year.

“Our friends in the Jewish community, in the Hispanic community, Greeks or Italians or Polish people,” she said. “They shop and support businesses by name and nationality first, and brand and convenience later.”

The black community has an unwillingness to go out of their way to find and support black businesses whether they are local, online or franchise.

“Our dollar stays in our community for six hours,” she said. “In different Asian-American communities the dollar exists for 28 days and circulates in those banks, and retailers and professionals.”

That’s why their community is strong and successful.

Black women have power as consumers, she said, to grow the black business community in Arizona.

“I want to talk to them about that duty and that honor to be great business owners, the role we have to show our girls that they can be leaders in the community,” Anderson said.

“And the power to be conscious consumers.”

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