Follow the Money, Market by Market

A single $250,000 check in 1973 became the seed capital for a movement that now moves half a billion dollars in a single election cycle. Trace where the equivalent capital has gone for Black business, on every continent, and the ledger runs empty. (Part 2 of 6)

The Black Executive JournalNoah Carmichael

What "No Money" Actually Means, Stated in Numbers

Start with the claim that gets made most often, and dispense with it immediately: the idea that Black policy infrastructure is thin because Black capital is thin.

It is not.

Black buying power in the United States reached $1.6 trillion in 2020 and was projected to hit $1.8 trillion by 2024, having grown 114% between 2000 and 2018 against an 89% increase in white buying power over the same period.

Consumption at scale is happening. Institution-building at scale is not.

That figure alone exceeds the GDP of Mexico. Narrow the lens further, to just affluent Black households, and the number is still enormous on its own terms.

$246 billion in total expenditures in a single year, with affluent Black consumers outspending their white counterparts specifically in designer clothing, business attire, and formal wear.