Thousands of Americans are frequenting local Black-owned restaurants and other businesses in a show of support for local community. The Juneteenth holiday, 99th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, and protests against police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks have focused attention on practical ways to help the Black Lives Matter movement — including where to get your dinner.
Black-owned businesses are an economic category that’s been among the hardest hit by coronavirus closures and the current recession. Reuters, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have all reported on the issue.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also highlights how Black Americans and people of color have experienced a “disproportionate burden of illness and death” caused by the coronavirus. The CDC notes that “institutional racism in the form of residential housing segregation” may play a role.
We’ve compiled a list of options for you to check out when looking for a Black-owned restaurant to support in your area.
Use an app like EatOkra
The EatOkra app (iPhone, Android), founded by Black developers and programmers, has a list of Black-owned restaurants in many large cities across the country, such as Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and Seattle. You can order takeout from within the app using GrubHub, DoorDash and other delivery services. The app has high ratings on Google Play (4.6/5) and the App Store (4.8/5).
Search for local restaurants on Eboneats
Eboneats helps you find Black-owned restaurants and private chefs across the US and internationally. You can search by state and type of food to narrow down your search.
Consult this list of local lists
This public Google Doc compiles articles and spreadsheets listing Black-owned restaurants, wineries and farms across the US by state and metro area.
Order delivery from Uber Eats, DoorDash and Caviar
When you download the Uber Eats app and sign up, you’ll see a section at the top that says Support Black-owned restaurants. If you tap Order now, you’ll be redirected to a page where you can select which Black-owned businesses you’d like to order from.
Uber Eats also offers free delivery for these restaurants through the end of 2020. Note that this feature may only be available in select areas.
The DoorDash and Caviar apps can also help you find Black-owned restaurants. Search for “Black owned” to see a list of nearby restaurants you can support.
DoorDash says there are hundreds of Black-owned restaurants to choose from within 30 states. When you select one of the businesses, the app should say, “Your order supports this Black-owned business.”
Search on Yelp
You can go to Yelp.com and enter “Black-owned restaurants,” along with your location, and tap the search icon. You’ll see a list of restaurants to choose from and some will even say Black-owned or Minority-owned & operated.
Follow #BlackOwnedRestaurants on Instagram
Social media is a great place to start when looking for a Black-owned restaurant or business. When you begin your search, select Tags and then type #blackownedrestaurants[city]. If the area you live in has listed the businesses, you’ll see photos with more information, like a menu, a picture of food or a full list of restaurants that are Black-owned.
Use a search engine
Do a search on Google that says, “Black-owned businesses in [city name, state].” This should give you a lot of results, from websites with a list of restaurants to pinpoints on Google Maps. Note that you may need to double-check some that are popular chains rather than independently owned restaurants and cafes.
Google Maps can also help
If you search for Black-owned restaurants in Google Maps, search results will show up on the map. While Google doesn’t specifically call out the business ownership, you’re a few taps away from looking it up to find more information. We tried performing the same search in Apple Maps, with “No results found.”
Looking for ways to help the Black Lives Matter movement? Here are eight ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement after the protests end, how to find a Black Lives Matter protest in your area and ways to help Black Lives Matter protesters if you can’t attend in person.
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Credit: CNET
