The Racial Wealth Gap and Supporting Black-Owned Businesses

    Earlier this year, a reader suggested we share an "article with links to more than 150 Black-owned businesses" and pointed out that - 

"The events of last summer (BLM protests and COVID-19) saw many people rally to support Black-owned businesses. Sadly, since summer ended, people forgot to keep sharing and supporting these businesses."

    I appreciated Emma sharing this. Last March, ProPublica published an article about "How the Pandemic Economy Could Wipe Out a Generation of Black-Owned Businesses" by Lydia DePillis, which points out the real and ongoing impacts of racial and economic injustice on Black entrepeneurs.

Getting Free: Reflections on Religious Abuse and Trauma

CW: abuse and trauma, including: religious and spiritual abuse; racism and racial violence; and sexual and child abuse. 

My Own Path

          Several years ago, I was in a small group at an ecumenical Franciscan retreat. We were sharing about our personal journeys, grieving the difficult and celebrating the beautiful ways our lives had unfolded.  It happened that I was the only person in the group that grew up in a conservative church, and so, when my turn came around, they had questions. It is not a conversation I have often, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, and I shared freely. It was only about halfway through their questions that I realized that the group had become increasingly quiet, and that some of their jaws had almost reached the floor. I was confused, because I was not sharing anything unusual for people who grew up in my religious community. I knew I was not sharing happy stories, but I didn’t expect them to be shocking.