LOUISVILLE, Ky. — "You don't have to be Black to support Black-owned businesses. We just need people to support and spend with us period."
That's the message from Tiandra Robinson, creator of 502 Black Business Week, now in its sixth year.
The event, which includes deals and discounts at a number of spots throughout Kentuckiana, is meant to showcase Black-owned businesses and support continuing patronage.
One of those businesses is "BLASTERS Indoor Foam Battle Zone," an entertainment center on Distribution Drive, close to Pleasure Ridge Park. Those behind the business said it was formed after they noticed an "entertainment drought" in their area.
"We're trying to support the community in the best way we can," Brionca Gill, CEO of BLASTERS, said. "We have our regular customers who even come in every two weeks because they love it so much and they're thankful that we have something in the community in this area."
For 502 Black Business Week, BLASTERS is offering buy one, get one half off admission. Their hope is to increase community engagement, and just get their name out there.
"With this opportunity we want to let everyone know about all of the Black-owned businesses in our community, and bring all of our community out to support our businesses and show what we have to offer," Tommie Davison, Vice President of Operations for BLASTERS explained. "All of the big box, the big chains that they do know about, they support enough. Let's support the Black community more and see what we have home grown right here in our own city."
That's a sentiment shared by Robinson, who said she started the week-long event in 2018 with just 14 businesses. Over the years, she said the event has see tremendous growth.
The larger objective is to support generational wealth in the Black community, and close the racial wealth gap.
"When you look at the city of Louisville, less than about 3% of the businesses here are Black-owned and it's important for us to make sure we're circulating our dollars within the community," Robinson explained. "In the Black community, the dollar only circulates for about three hours, so that means we spend it maybe one time with a Black owned business and then we take it outside."
502 Black Business Week runs through Saturday June 24. You can find more information on participating businesses here.
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