Buy Black Wednesdays!

Buy-Black-Wednesday-pan-African-flag, Buy Black Wednesdays!, Culture Currents
Buy Black Wednesday! We must stay vigilant about where our money is going. For far too long we have been forced to uphold and amass white wealth and divest from ourselves, and now it happens without question while Black businesses in the Bay struggle. Paradise is giving us Buy Black Wednesdays to ensure we remember and practice spending our dollars on our people and keeping Black wealth in the community. Look out for the Bay View’s Black Pockets Business Directory in the print paper and for an in-the-works comprehensive list of Black businesses in the Bay Area on www.sfbayview.com.

by Paradise Free Jah Love Supreme

Paradise’s Buy Black Wednesdays campaign is designed to encourage everybody to buy Black, as often as possible, but especially on Wednesdays! By going out of our way to buy Black on Wednesdays, we will keep, spend and circulate more dollars in our communities.

Why Wednesday? Because Wednesday is known as hump day, the middle of the week and the busiest day of the work week. Also, Paradise encourages those who want to celebrate and practice the seven principles of Kwanzaa year-round to attach the seven principles of Kwanzaa in an orderly fashion to the seven days of the week. 

Yvonne-Hines-Yvonnes-Southern-Sweets-by-Keith-Mizuguchi-2014, Buy Black Wednesdays!, Culture Currents
Yvonne Hines was born and raised in Bayview Hunters Point. She opened Yvonne’s Southern Sweets in 2006 on Third Street only three blocks from the Bay View HQ. Our Publisher Dr. Willie Ratcliff particularly favors the sweet potato pies, brownies and sugar cookies. Note: Keep an eye out if you find Dr. Ratcliff’s carved wooden cane at Yvonne’s or another establishment along Third. – Photo: Keith Mizuguchi

The fourth principle of Kwanzaa is Ujamaa, which makes Wednesday, the fourth day of the week, Cooperative Economics Day!

Paradise’s Buy Black Wednesdays Social Club gets together on Wednesdays to go out and support Black businesses as a group. You may join us wherever you are by also having a group outing. Also, Black businesses can support BBW by having special BBW sales and other offerings on Wednesdays.

Cafe-Envy-April-Spears-by-Jessica-Christian-SF-Chronicle-2019, Buy Black Wednesdays!, Culture Currents
April Spears is famous around the city for her Café Envy First Friday parties, featuring music and good food and drinks. The café, also just up the street on Third at Yosemite, has become a hub for people around the neighborhood, many of whom have been around for generations. Recently, white gentrifier residents of Bayview began calling the police to get the café shut down because of the music, and Café Envy was temporarily knocked out of commission. As they wrote on their Facebook: “It’s so much more than a ‘noise complaint’!” – Photo: Jessica Christian, SF Chronicle

Buy Black Wednesdays will be known as another great movement that started locally, in Oakland, and spread nationally and internationally. So please spread the word!

To support BBW or seek more information, donate at paypal.me/paradisethepoet, visit facebook.com/buyblackwednesday, shop at buyblackwednesday-myshopify.com, follow Instagram @pradisethepoet, go to www.trueviberecords.com and email oaklandworldsfair@yahoo.com.

Paradise is president of the International Black Writers & Artists, which has over 40 chapters worldwide, and he was honored by the City of Oakland proclaiming October 6 Paradise Day for his many years of service in the arts community.