Black Lives Matter Launches Website To Back Black-Owned Businesses

Black Lives Matter has launched a new website that promotes black-owned businesses across the United States.

Called BackingBlackBusiness.com, the website allows its users to find black-owned businesses through categories like food and beverage, health and beauty, entertainment and lifestyle.

The website is made in partnership with Black Lives Matter and ad agency J. Walter Thompson.

"Black-owned business have long been a staple in the Black community providing jobs, economic security and a somewhere for us to go and feel seen and safe," Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a statement. "In these uncertain times, we need these places more than ever."

A beta version of the website is currently up, but users can get a sample of what it hopes to do by typing in their zip code and seeing what black-owned businesses are near them.

Currently, there are more than 300 places listed, with most of them being in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Philadelphia (to name a few).

"Our hope is to reduce the racial disparity that exists in economic well-being through the promotion of black business ownership," Brent Choi, the agency’s chief creative officer, said in the same statement.

The announcement of the website follows in suit with the statement Black Lives Matter released shortly after the election of Donald Trump as president.

"In the face of this, our commitment remains the same: protect ourselves and our communities," the statement offered. "We are organizing to realize a world in which our faiths are held in esteem, our identities are respected and our families are prioritized. We deserve a world in which our children are protected, where our water is sacred, and where we are given a fair chance to decide our fates."

Earlier this year also came the rise of the bank black movement, in which black people were encouraged to move their money to black-owned banks all over the country. One such bank in Atlanta received a big push from the movement, too.