Group Economics or Bust: Buying Black Is a Necessity, Not a Trend

What Is Group Economics?

Group economics is the practice of a community intentionally circulating its money within its own networks—buying from, hiring, and investing in each other to build long-term wealth and self-sufficiency. It’s not just a business strategy; it’s a survival tactic. A liberation model. A way to ensure that the community—not outside forces—controls its financial destiny.

We’ve seen group economics work before, and not just in theory. Black communities across America have already proven their power. From Tulsa’s Greenwood District, famously known as Black Wall Street, to Jackson Ward in Richmond and Bronzeville in Chicago, these weren’t just places where Black people lived—they were thriving economic ecosystems. Banks, grocery stores, insurance companies, nightclubs, schools, and hospitals were Black-owned, Black-operated, and Black-funded. Money moved in a circle, not a straight line out of the community.

And we weren’t the only ones doing it. Jewish, Asian, and Latinx communities continue to leverage group economics today—passing down businesses, pooling resources, and building economic strongholds that can withstand outside threats. It’s no accident. It’s a conscious strategy that preserves culture while securing capital.

The problem isn’t that group economics doesn’t work. The problem is that, somewhere along the way, we stopped practicing it consistently. Integration, systemic sabotage, and external distractions pulled our dollars away from us and placed them into hands that were never meant to pour back into our communities. But we don’t have to accept that as our forever. We have the blueprint. We’ve done it before. And it’s time to do it again.

And if you’re wondering how we reclaim control over our dollars and start rebuilding what we once had, we explore just that in our companion blog: “From Cotton to Control: Reclaiming Our Economic Power.”

Buying Black Is Revolutionary

Buying Black isn’t just an economic act. It’s a political one. Every time we choose to support a Black-owned business, we’re not just exchanging money for goods or services—we’re shifting power.

Historically, systems of oppression have worked overtime to keep Black communities economically dependent and politically powerless. From redlining to targeted business destruction, to discriminatory lending and hiring practices, the goal has always been the same: to keep us from building independent wealth. So when you intentionally spend your money within the Black community, you’re pushing back against a system that was never designed for us to win.

When you make purchases, it’s more than just shopping. It’s job creation, it’s neighborhood revitalization, it’s putting our youth to work in our own enterprises instead of someone else’s. It’s expanding access to healthcare when we support Black doctors, or ensuring culturally relevant mental health services when we fund Black therapists. It’s wealth retention. Keeping dollars circulating within the community instead of flowing out in seconds. And it’s the birth of institutional strength: schools, media, banks, and businesses built by us, for us.

This is how we build power. Not by asking for inclusion, but by creating ecosystems that don’t require permission. Buying Black is the seed of every thriving Black Wall Street that ever existed. It’s the foundation of long-term liberation.

The Cost of Ignoring Group Economics

Every time we spend outside the community without intention, we lose more than money—we lose leverage, legacy, and long-term liberation.

Black Americans have over $1.8 trillion in annual buying power, yet that money leaves our community within hours. Compare that to other communities: the Asian dollar circulates for up to 28 days, the Jewish dollar for nearly 20 days, and the White dollar indefinitely. But the Black dollar only stays within the community for 6 hours. That’s not just a leak, it’s a hemorrhage.

And this didn’t happen by accident.

Integration, while a monumental step toward civil rights, came at an economic cost. It opened the floodgates for Black consumers to shop at white-owned establishments, but it didn’t protect or prioritize Black-owned businesses in return. Our neighborhoods were told we were “free,” but the cost of that freedom was the dismantling of our own thriving institutions—schools, banks, grocery stores, newspapers, and hospitals that had sustained us for generations.

Black teachers lost jobs when Black schools were shut down. Black business districts emptied as money flowed outward. What once made our communities self-sufficient was traded for inclusion in a system that never intended to support us equitably.

This is how we went from building economies like Tulsa, Hayti, and Jackson Ward, to becoming consumers in someone else’s ecosystem. The price of ignoring group economics has been high—and we’re still paying it today.

What PYOC Represents

The future of Black America depends on what we do with our dollar. How we spend it, yes, but also where it goes after that. Does it multiply within our communities or disappear the moment it leaves our hands? 

We’ve seen what happens when a dollar moves through a neighborhood multiple times: businesses thrive, jobs are created, schools are funded, institutions grow strong. But we’ve also seen what happens when that circulation breaks—when our economic power becomes outsourced, undervalued, or redirected elsewhere.

Other communities have mastered the art of collective economics. Their wealth isn’t accidental. It’s intentional. They understand that legacy is built not only through hard work but through strategy. Through ownership. Through UNITY.

So what would it look like if we approached our dollars with the same level of discipline and pride? What if our purchasing habits were shaped not by convenience, but by commitment? What if we treated every dollar as a seed for the next generation?

The mindset it takes to make that shift isn’t about following a trend or supporting a brand. It’s about shifting culture. Prioritizing self over systems. Understanding that our freedom has always been tied to what we own, control, and protect.

Because the truth is, the greatest threat to any oppressive system is a people who realize they don’t need it to survive.

And if we’re serious about changing the future, we have to ask ourselves: Are we still picking cotton for someone else’s profit or are we ready to pick our own?

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Pick Your Own Cotton is more than a metaphor—it’s a call to reclaim our economic power and choose ourselves. For too long, Black dollars have flowed out of our communities, supporting other economies instead of our own. Integration gave us the right to choose where we live and spend, but far too many of us are still choosing to support systems that don’t prioritize our liberation.

Every purchase, every business decision, is an opportunity to invest in Black communities and create generational wealth. It’s time to recognize that the economic injustices of slavery are still felt today, and without ownership, we're not far from that slave status. We must take responsibility for our community—supporting our own businesses, guiding our own youth, and uplifting our own people. 

It’s time to pick our own cotton, not as laborers for someone else, but as creators of our own economic future, ensuring that every dollar works to rebuild what was lost and create a thriving, self-sustaining Black economy.