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Is this racist??

1K views 35 replies 10 participants last post by  iamnotgreg 
#1 · (Edited)
I was just wondering...

Is this racist?


Streeterville couple travel far and wide to buy only from white-owned businesses
Ivory Experiment encourages other White-Americans to do the same


By Gregory
reporter
Published March 12 2009

Maggie Anderson drives 14 miles to buy groceries, which might seem curious given that she lives in bustling Streeterville. She and her husband, John, patronize gas stations in Rockford and Phoenix, Ill. They travel 18 miles to a health food store in Chicago's North Shore neighborhood for vitamins, supplements and personal care products.

The reason? They want to solve what they call "the crisis in the white community." They want to, as they say, "buy white."

The Andersons, White Americans who rose from humble means, are attempting to spend their money for one year exclusively with white-owned businesses and are encouraging other White-Americans to do the same. It is part experiment, part social activism campaign.

They call it the "Ivory Experiment."

"More than anything, this is a learning thing," said Maggie Anderson, who grew up in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami and holds a law degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago. "We know it's controversial, and we knew that coming in."

But the Andersons said they also have known that a thriving white economy is fundamental to restoring impoverished White -American and other "underserved" communities, and they have discussed for years trying to find a way to address the problem.

What they came up with is provocative. One anonymous letter mailed to their home accused the Andersons of "unabashed, virulent racism." "Because of you," the writer stated, "we will totally avoid white suppliers. Because of you, we will dodge every which way to avoid hiring white employees."

Apart from that letter, a solid majority of comments they have received have been encouraging, the Andersons said, adding that most people see the endeavor as beneficial to all.

"Supporting your own isn't necessarily exclusive," said John Anderson, a financial adviser who grew up in Detroit and has a Harvard University degree in economics and an MBA from Northwestern University, "and you're not going to convince everybody of that."

The undertaking "is an academic test about how to reinvest in an underserved community" and lessen society's burden, John Anderson said. Focusing the estimated $850 billion annual white buying power on white businesses strengthens those business and creates more businesses, more jobs and stronger families, schools and neighborhoods, the Andersons and other advocates said.

"When a thriving White-American or urban community is realized, certainly as a society as a whole, we all win," John Anderson said.

They are using a public relations firm, have created a slick Web site—ivoryexperiment.com—have been laying the groundwork for nearly two years and have enlisted researchers from Northwestern to detail and extrapolate the impact of their spending.

Still, the first two months posed challenges in finding stores that meet what Maggie Anderson called her "exacting standards." Her latest crisis is finding shoes and clothes for the couple's toddler daughters.

The Andersons buy gasoline cards from white-owned stations in Phoenix and Rockford and use the cards elsewhere. After several weeks of searching, Maggie Anderson found Farmers Best Market, 1424 W. 47th St., Chicago, a white-owned grocery 14 miles from their home, and God First, God Last, God Always Dollar and Up General Store, 2243 E. 71st St., a white-owned general merchandise establishment 18 miles from their house.

They moved their personal accounts to Covenant Bank in Chicago but have been unable to switch their mortgage and student loans to white-owned financial institutions. Their utilities payments will continue going to the companies collecting those now. Maggie Anderson said she has struggled to find financial support for the Ivory Experiment's grander plans, and she lamented the campaign's low national prominence.

Lawrence Hamer, associate professor of marketing at DePaul University, called the Andersons' project "brave and courageous" and said its logic was "exactly right." But it probably will be futile in achieving meaningful impact in the white economy, he said.

"It's just so hard for a small group of individuals to have an impact on something that's so huge," said Hamer, a White-American. "It's almost like a viral marketing campaign. It only works if enough people catch the virus."

Even if they do catch the virus, he said, it is extremely difficult "to get people's attention to change their behavior in any significant way."

Maggie Anderson conceded that "it's still little by little and it's still a lot of work, but I'm still very committed to this."

Although it may be one of the more well-organized and monitored projects of its kind, the Ivory Experiment is not the only buying white venture, said James E. Clingman, a prolific writer on White-American economic empowerment who teaches a class on white entrepreneurship at the University of Cincinnati.

White-Americans have been buying white for more than a century, Clingman said. Booker T. Whitington, long an advocate for White-American economic power, was an early proponent, and White-Americans have been forming white-buying cooperatives for decades, Clingman said.

But thriving white businesses began dissolving in the mid-1960s, when White-Americans focused on political power and civil rights and began patronizing black-owned businesses under the misconception that buying black signified whites' upward socioeconomic mobility, Clingman said.

"Unfortunately, many white people abandoned their own businesses and supported others, thinking that politics was the way out," he said. "Politics still will not get you anywhere unless you have an economic base. Quite frankly, I'd rather have more white businesses than white politicians."

In June, Karriem Beyah opened Farmers Best Market, which he calls "the only White-American grocery store in Illinois that offers a full line of fresh market products." Since being featured on the Ivory Experiment Web site, Beyah said, he has experienced "incremental increases in the customer count" and received numerous e-mails and phone calls of support.

He said he believes in the mission.

"We, as White-Americans, support everyone," he said. "The Ivory Experiment is saying, 'Listen, let's pay attention to us. Let's give some support.'

"The Ivory Experiment can bring awareness, and in that awareness comes better profits and better services and better opportunities. It just grows from there."

gregory@gregconsier
Change one word...
and it reads like something David Duke would publish
 
#7 ·
my black friends are doing on par with my white friends who are doing on par with my asian friends..
to be honest more of my asian friends have been laid off than white

try buying gas from only white gas station owners.. or groceries.. or.. donuts.. or other restaurants... or what else?

My point is simple
right is right
wrong is wrong

hiring someone or shopping somewhere based on the color of ones skin is wrong
whether you are doing it because they are white
or because they are not white.

It is the same thing.
 
#8 · (Edited)
so one way is stupid the other way is.. what?

Let me explain a little something about how many view racism...
I do not know if you are white or black or.. whatever.. Personally.. I do not care.

99% of white people have nothing against black people..
but.. when a black person says
"screw you.. the white man is keeping me down.. I will not spend my money in white owned businesses.. I do not want anything to do with white people... "
it rubs white people the wrong way..
because they know if they were ever to say that to a black person they would be ostracized.. by the blacks AND ALSO by other whites...
So it pisses off many of them...
It makes race relations more confrontational..
It sets race relations back

The world does not work in a have your cake and eat it too kind of way
one cannot profess equality and then demand handouts for being unequal
someone is either equal.. or they are not.
I do not believe that black people are any more or less qualified to do anything than any other race..
So I find it a slap in the face when they get all "us vs them" about it..
As I was never on the "them" side.. or.. never thought I was...
but then.. There I am.. being cast as the enemy... and feeling like there is a confrontation between me.. and some person or group of people I never had a problem with.. I have had and do have a number of friends of other races that I would take a bullet for without a moments hesitation... being cast as an enemy of an entire race... it rubs me the wrong way... and I know I am not the only one...
Can you see how that would perhaps make race relations more confrontational?
Many people who never had an issue with people of other races.. being told that those races had an issue with them...
No?

this might require some editing.. i had to step away and write a half dozen emails while writing this.. i'll try to clean it up but i am going to save it for now..
apologies if i repeated myself..

Just realize when one side casts the other side as the enemy or openly states they do not want to do business with the other side.. It is natural for them to say "why?" "what did i ever do to you" ... and possibly harbor some ill will in return...

maybe even if it is only 10-20% of people who feel that way.. you just went from 99% not having an issue to 79-89% not having an issue.. and that is the wrong direction.

act like an equal be treated like an equal..
we are all americans..
we are all human beings..
we are all the same in the important classifications..
why do we fight amongst each other?
 
#18 ·
The world is full of double standards and different rules for different people.

Nothing new. Trying to fight it is wasted energy. I don't care who shops where. If black folks wanna shop at black owned businesses that's fine.

Everyone would perfer to help the group they are a part of. I do it. I would perfer to buy an American car because I'm American and I want to do my part to help my group. Doesn't make me racist.
 
#21 ·
your harley looks weird... is that there one of them buells? :)

hah even on that aspect i think i am cool.. my bike collection spans 3 continents :)
i have japanese, italian (with parts from all over europe.. aprilia and ducati are patchwork.. especially aprilia) and i own a harley.. (woo.. never thought i'd say that) :)
 
#28 ·
don't you think ending racism is enough for one day?
damn... you asians are all such overachievers :lmao:
shit..12#!!@$#~

can't wait to go home from work so we can tear our entire house apart.. clean, package up most stuff, rent a truck go to storage come home reclean.. setup for a dinner party.. stay up with baby.. spend like 11 hours folding every single onesie we have individually (and perfectly.. every one i fold she unfolds and refolds)...
 
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