Charles Walker, founder and CEO of Friends of the Movement (FotM) Global, recently created a tool that will hold corporate America accountable when it comes to their commitments to fight racism.
With the Conscious Spending Ticker (CST), Walker will provide consumers with real-time data on which companies are remaining committed to pledges that have been made.
During a recent launch ceremony at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs in Atlanta, Walker spoke with ADW about this initiative.
“After George Floyd we saw a 7,000% increase in Black business searches,” Walker said. “Months later, there was a 98% reduction. We’ve always felt like we can use technology to track our spending to hold corporations accountable. We’re purchasing a list of friends, that every time we spend, we spend with a friend. If they’re not a friend, we don’t spend. This is the time to move beyond talk. No more excuses. We let our data speak. And we leverage our data for justice.”
Georgia State Representative Billy Mitchell was on hand and shared thoughts about CST. “I’m so grateful for what Charles Walker is putting this together because we’ll be able to track dollars and those who are sympathetic to our cause,” Mitchell said. “The reality is that Black buying power is tremendous. If we can harness that, if we can become investors instead of just consumers, it will be be life changing. Not only individually, but for our communities and essentially for our world. If we were a country, we would be like the third or fourth commercial entity in the world. And we need to be able to harness that so that we can have better schools and better communities.”
Mitchell continued and shared how the state of Georgia must improve when it comes to its support of Black-owned businesses.
“Georgia is almost 33% Black, but the state does less than 1% of their business with Black people,” Mitchell said. “And that’s because of the leadership that’s in charge. So as we enlighten our folks, they understand the connection between voting and economic power. Because if we were empowered, we’d make sure we’d get our fair share of contracts. If we had more Black companies, we’d have more Black employees, we’d have more Black companies, we’d have more Black bankers who would give loans to more businesses and mortgages. So it’s all connected in some way.”
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