In March, I announced via GoFundMe that I was opening a grocery store in Detroit's inner city, which would make me the only black-owned grocery store. Within a few days, I had reached $10k in donations. Within a month, I had reached close to $22k. City officials, community leaders, media outlets, rappers, singers, and many others have reached out to me in making this dream a reality. This quest is still in its infancy, but much ground has been covered, yet so much work still remains. Nonetheless, my true hustler spirit guarantees me that this will get done.
This idea started in 2016 with the creation of my social investment company Urban Plug L3C which was designed to build wealth in Detroit's inner city. For me, building wealth in the black community starts with building businesses that provide our essentials to survive. That means we have to pursue objectives like owning our own land, providing our own food, and circulating our money through our people, for our people. Initially, our first projects consisted of creating money pools to start informal lending systems and to buy stock in publicly traded companies. But I felt we need to go deeper into the core of our economic issues.
The sad reality is that most of the businesses in our inner cities are owned and operated by whites, Arabs, and Asians. Particularly for the businesses that we need to survive (banks, grocery stores, etc.), there are no black faces as owners (NOTE: Detroit does house the black-owned bank First Independence Bank which has been widely criticized for its lack of involvement in advancing the black economy). With all of this for me to stomach, I jumped head first in my quest.
I knew early in life that "to lead our folks, we have to feed our folk". As many of my childhood influences have always spoken of our need to control the manufacturing and distribution of our food. I truly believe that our efforts of economic development and advancement must start in the grocery. We can't present any type of argument of our glow-up until we are the hands that are preparing our food. We're hustling backwards to pursue any initiatives that are not centered around what we consume. Think about it… all other agendas can be tackled if we opened a grocery store. We can buy the block back (controlling our lands), employ our people, practice group economics, and build an industry or industries all from opening a grocery store.
There's never been a time like this where digital channels are connecting people all over the country and the world. With social media, digital currencies, influential creators, and an opened minded, conscious, awakened society, I think my negus and queens are ready for this come up! I can gladly say, "What a time to be alive!" This has been the most difficult venture thus far in my career but man I love this journey so far!
To date, I am an awardee of Motor City Match which is assisting me in finding my first location and grants. Also, I have landed consultancies with many organizations that specialize in food entrepreneurship, grocery, and urban economic advancement. The total cost to open our first location is estimated between $500k – $600k. Along with my GoFundMe, funds will come from the many grant opportunities available in the comeback city. I'm playing the game to change the game for us in the hood and for black people overall in America. I know I'm not the only one in this fight. I hope that we all come together to secure our come up!
Peace & Love,
Rafa
