DeAndrea Abrahams has no doubt that business is booming. The hairdresser, who owns a salon in West Hartford, Connecticut, said she sees about six to eight patrons daily, totaling more than 150 customers a month.
“I’ve been in business for eight years,” Abrahams said. “COVID happened, and a lot of other businesses closed … [but] that didn’t happen for me. I grew actually even more during that time frame.”
But despite the growth, Abrahams, who is Black, said she has yet to be featured in a magazine “best of list” acknowledging her business as a top salon.
“It definitely crosses my mind, it is a bit bothersome,” she said.
Embracing the richness of Connecticut’s culture
Magazines and blogs often publish “best of” lists to promote local businesses and provide a “sense of place” for cities and towns. But some minority business owners and advocates say these lists often overlook businesses owned by people of color.
How magazines create “best of” lists can vary. Some rely on surveys from readers and residents. Other publications create lists using a team of editorial curators who rely on third-party sources.
But those approaches need to change, said Yvette Young, an initiative lead for ShopBlackCT.com, an online directory created to find Black-owned businesses across the state.
“It would be good for these other larger publications to start embracing the richness of the culture that exists in Connecticut,” Young said. “Are [publications] willing to say, ‘Let’s make sure we put in a more diverse group of businesses so that the output will be more representative of the communities that we serve?’”
Young’s website, which lists thousands of Black-owned businesses, was created during the COVID-19 lockdowns when Young and her team noticed Black-owned businesses were closing at an alarming rate.
Tyler Russell
/
Connecticut Public
That trend was sustained across the United States, with Black businesses experiencing the most acute decline of any racial group in the early stages of the pandemic – a 41% drop from February to April 2020, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“There’s no reason why in 2024 we’re having this conversation,” Young said. “It is not an all-white state. It shouldn’t take these special projects to be able to bring forth 2,000-plus Black-owned businesses and give them a space to exist.”
This sentiment is echoed by many Black business owners who believe their establishments are consistently overlooked, Young said. The lack of media coverage translates to fewer opportunities for growth and recognition.
It’s a cycle, Young said. Without media coverage, Black businesses don’t get the same foot traffic, they don’t get the same sales and they can’t grow at the same rate.
“That’s why those bigger platforms are important because it opens the world up,” Young said.
“It opens the state up to these entities to say, ‘Hey, they’re here, and they have quality products that they produce.’”
For Abrahams and many like her, being featured in these lists isn’t just about the accolades — it’s about the opportunities that come with it. “It opens doors,” she said.
“People take you a little more seriously,” Abrahams said.
Tyler Russell
/
Connecticut Public
A nationwide problem
This issue isn’t unique to salons. In January, the New York Times published an article detailing how local restaurants in Detroit benefited from the city’s team, the Detroit Lions, and their successful run in the NFL playoffs.
The article faced backlash for its lack of diversity in profiled business owners. Despite Detroit being 77% Black, the piece failed to feature any Black-owned businesses among the local restaurants mentioned.
Philip Lewis, senior editor at The Huffington Post, criticized the article for its poor research and lack of effort to spotlight minority-owned businesses.
Lewis noticed a significant increase in demand for more diverse voices and stories in mainstream media during 2020, particularly amid the Black Lives Matter movement. During that time, many organizations and publications made an effort to create more inclusive spaces.
But Lewis said this push for diversity was never meaningfully sustained.
“We’ve never been prioritized by media outlets that have predominantly catered to white audiences,” Lewis said, adding that when newsrooms lack diversity, the stories they produce can be limited in scope and fail to represent the full community.
“I think newsrooms do themselves a disservice when they’re not reaching out to diverse voices and finding out what else might be out there,” he said. “When you omit Black voices, Hispanic voices, Latino voices, or Asian voices, you really do miss out on what makes your city, or area, great.”