From Survive to Thrive: Why Black Business Investment is Community Liberation
Picture of the list of Local Black Businesses brainstormed at Amplify Summer 2025
Earlier this month at Amplify, something beautiful happened at our openHAUS table. We put out a simple prompt: What are your favorite local Black-owned businesses? The response was varied. There were some folks who searched the list with a smile on their face, recognizing the businesses and some of the people behind them, then adding another…maybe their own. There were some who weren't sure if they knew any Black businesses to add; I felt a sense of regret coming from them as they searched their brain and recognized the gap in their knowledge. Some would ponder, never having even thought about it. It was exciting when people would come back after doing some research or talking with a friend and realizing that their favorite coffee shop in Chinatown is Black-owned, or that there was a bookstore they meant to check out that is Black-owned.
As the board filled up, I had more and more people ask if they could take a picture, and this simple table activity became a powerful display of sharing resources and supporting the local Black economy. Everyone left with an invitation to dig in deep, to make sure these businesses are not just known about but supported and funded, and that the road is paved for new businesses to thrive.
As I watched this process unfold, I kept thinking about the broader economic picture that shapes communities across the US. I read that the top 1% of American households now control 30 cents of every dollar of wealth, while the bottom 50% hold less than 3 cents. When you consider that median Black household wealth is $45k compared to $285k for white households, it becomes clear where Black communities fall in this pattern of extreme concentrated wealth.
This is why Black business investment is liberation. When wealth is systematically extracted from Black communities—through discriminatory lending, redlining, exclusion from supply chains, and barriers to capital—supporting Black businesses becomes an act of resistance. Every dollar that circulates through Black-owned businesses, stays in community, creates jobs for community members, and builds assets that can't be easily taken away is a dollar that breaks the cycle of extraction. It's community members controlling their own economic destiny instead of being dependent on systems designed to exclude them. That's not just economic development—that's liberation.
So; what are ways that we can push back and carve out more wealth, more opportunity, more economic power within Portland for Black community? At openHAUS we have some ideas. I can't imagine that the answer to thriving, in a system built on hoarded power through the exploitation of people and resources, is going to come by using the same tools. We don't want to build power using those tools because we know the impact they have on our people and planet. But we are just one of the participants in this ecosystem. What we really want is to engage with you and create a city-wide campaign of activation so Black Businesses and families can move from surviving to thriving.
Please Join Us!
Thrive: A Black Business Month Celebration on August 28th isn't just about supporting Black businesses—though that's essential. It's about imagining an economy that works differently. One that prioritizes community wealth over individual accumulation. One that sees abundance in collective thriving, not in a few people getting rich off everyone else's labor.
At Thrive, we'll have a Black Business Showcase—these businesses we're celebrating represent a seed of something revolutionary. When you buy from Lili Mae's Confections, you're not just getting incredible baked goods—you're investing in a woman entrepreneur who hires locally, sources thoughtfully, and pours her profits back into community. When you choose openHAUS for coworking, you're supporting a space that exists to lift up other Black and brown businesses, creating opportunity and hope for people, not extracting rent from them.
We will also dive into Dream Space. With all these brilliant minds in the room actively engaged in uniting for collective economic power, we are excited to tap into your vision. The conversations that happen here will influence the direction of future planning, economic development, community activation, and hope for the year to come.
Join the Vision
If you've ever felt that spark of joy walking into a Black-owned business—that sense of being welcomed home—you already understand what's being built. If you've ever wished there were more spaces where Black culture, creativity, and economic power could flourish without having to conform to someone else's vision, this work is essential.
The board that filled up at Amplify showed something powerful: there's hunger for this connection, for knowing and supporting each other's work. There's excitement about discovering businesses people didn't know existed. There's recognition that we all need to be more intentional about where our money goes and how it can build the communities we want to see.
Thrive: A Black Business Month Celebration happens Thursday, August 28th from 6:30-8:30pm (doors at 6). Come dream with the community. Come support the businesses that are already building the future we want to see. Come be part of an economy that works for all of us, not just a few.
Because when Black businesses thrive, the whole community moves from survival to abundance. And that transformation? That's how we build the Portland—and the world—our children deserve.
