00:00I think there is a stigma behind shopping or buying black that this is
00:05charity, and that is definitely not the case. Look at ourselves as less than, so
00:11we don't think our products are as good as our white counterparts.
00:16Hey everyone, my name is Michelle. I'm the founder of The Black Own Market and
00:20it's The Bomb. So The Bomb is a curated shopping destination that makes it
00:24convenient for people to buy from black owned brands all under one roof. How do I
00:28feel about non-black owned brands catering to black consumers? I feel a way
00:34about that. I do. I'm gonna go with my gut on this. They don't put that money that
00:39they make from our culture back into the communities. They benefit from the
00:43coolness of our culture because we really set standards. They get to
00:47monopolize their self and their money on that and just grow their businesses, hire
00:52their own people, only hire us around Black History Month when it's cool, or
00:56just pick our brains. And that really upsets me. Black owned businesses are the
01:00second highest employers of black people to the government. I read the stat that
01:04said black people have over 1.2 trillion dollars in buying power, but only two
01:09cents of every dollar goes into black owned businesses. Why people say they don't
01:13shop with black owned brands is because they think they're too expensive, they're
01:18inconvenient, and they do not know they exist. We at The Bomb are giving black owned
01:23brands, quality black owned brands at that, a platform to sell with their intended
01:28consumer, really just grow. The benefits of buying from black owned brands, they're
01:34made with you in mind, made in smaller batches, made fresh to order, and they have
01:39very few toxic ingredients in them. In addition to that, you're helping a black
01:45owned family pay for their child's tuition, pay for extracurricular activities,
01:50broadening, you know, the mindset of a black child. A lot of these businesses
01:55start in their kitchen, in their homes. They're not outsourcing, they're doing it
01:59themselves. If that's not something to support, then I don't know what is. I
02:03created The Bomb for two reasons. My parents are small business owners. They own a
02:07wonderful beauty supply store. As Haitian immigrants, they came to this country to
02:12really provide a better life for their family, and that was my first job. It was the
02:16reason myself and my siblings were able to even afford to go to private school and
02:20even college, and I saw firsthand how people supporting my parents' business, how
02:27that provided just so much inspiration for the community, because what you began to
02:30see thereafter was people just duplicating the blueprint. What I really
02:35tried hard to do is target people that have an actual story to tell. One of the
02:39main feedbacks that I get from shoppers at The Bomb is that, oh, they never knew
02:44that somebody that looked like them or was their same age or younger could
02:48actually start and run a business. Before I started working at The Bomb, I
02:54thought life was pretty easy because, you know, I had a corporate lifestyle, making
02:57good salary. I don't think I anticipated the lack or the scarceness of money, but
03:04it's just one of those things where, like, I would not trade it because this is the
03:10grind. This is, like, what I'm here for. I'm getting emotional. I do feel like this is
03:16the work that I am meant to do.
