Kansas City black-owned businesses are speaking out — and customers are responding

When Chris Goode saw the news that another black person had died at the hands of police, he didn’t want his business to remain silent.

“Health is Freedom” is scrawled in yellow and red cursive on a wall in his eatery Ruby Jean’s Juicery on Troost Avenue — a phrase that represents his belief that healthier eating options and improved mental health services will make communities more equal.

In sticking with that core value of community equity, Goode shared a message to the restaurant’s more than 11,500 Facebook followers June 3 condemning systemic racism and police brutality and supporting hundreds of thousands of protesters in all 50 states.

“Today it’s trendy but our prayer is that when the sensationalism subsides and the cameras focus on the next moment, that we intentionally move our world forward TOGETHER,” he wrote. “Our prayer is that WE begin to call out racism and remove it from our organizations at every level.”

While businesses have long stayed publicly neutral and avoided comment on current issues, Goode is one of a number of black business owners in the Kansas City area and around the country who are firmly announcing their position to customers.

In and near the Country Club Plaza, where some business owners boarded up their storefronts and worried that protesters would break windows or loot, Yogurtini remained open. Friends and fellow business owners have voiced their anger and concerns over damage to their businesses, owner Isaac Collins said.

“People are speaking out more about a broken window or a business that has to close for a couple days versus broken lives,” Collins said. “Black people are dying out here at the hands of police brutality.”

Collins has been vocal about his participation in protests in the past two weeks. His business is planning to donate to a local black charity and has also passed out free frozen yogurt to protesters outside in the heat.

As activists and allies call on one another to support black-owned businesses, Collins said more customers have shown up and others have said they want to help once the threat of coronavirus lessens. Because of his statements and support of protesters, people now know his self-serve yogurt shop is black-owned, and many want to patronize his business in return.

Jones Bar-B-Q co-owner Deborah Jones said she saw a spike in online barbecue sauce sales after some media outlets placed the Kansas City, Kansas, restaurant on lists of black-owned businesses that readers could support.

She and her sister Mary, who co-owns the restaurant, released a statement on social media encouraging their customers to educate themselves on policing policies, contact local officials and “demand changes are made so that no one else will be a victim of violence.” They’ve also made a recent donation to the University of Missouri nursing program — Deborah’s daughter is a graduate — and given out groceries to customers because of the coronavirus.

Jones thought it was important to speak out because she has seen how slow racist systems are to change. In the ’60s, she said police pulled her brother over for speeding and beat him with billy clubs. Over 50 years later, she’s still watching police hurt and kill black people.

“We’ve seen a lot of protests … and it still has not stopped what we are complaining about,” Jones said. “My opinion is we need to go back and look at the laws and we also need to contact the people who represent our district and things. If they asked us to vote for them, then (they) need to take a stand and look at these laws.”

Some restaurants, such as Breakfast & Lunch Lovers in Raytown, haven’t seen the same outpouring of support as other black-owned spots like Yogurtini and Jones Bar-B-Q. Owner Marvin Duncan said he supported recent protests on his personal social media accounts, but he has been hesitant to post a statement from the business because he’d want it to be worded and timed appropriately.

A few years ago, Duncan said business increased when local Black Lives Matter members posted a video of them dining at the restaurant, which helped spread the word of its opening to community members.

But because of the pandemic, the restaurant closed for about two weeks and now only does about 40% to 50% of its pre-COVID-19 sales, Duncan said. He’s hoping more people will want to support his restaurant through in-person dining, take-out services or gift cards that they can purchase now and use when they’re more comfortable buying food from restaurants.

While local museums like the American Jazz Museum remain closed because of coronavirus, it supported protesters on social media and hopes patrons will continue donating to help the museum while it remains closed. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum said it received more than $14,000 in donations within 24 hours when artist Greg Kaindler tweeted his support.

Major employers in the area, including Cerner, Hallmark and H&R Block, voiced their support for protesters on social media. Sprint’s new owner, T-Mobile, donated $175,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and will match employee donations.

On social media, some Kansas Citians called out businesses that remained publicly silent.

Dominique Hall, who is better known by his stage name Dom Chronicles, called out local clubs, including some in Westport, that bring in many black customers but didn’t speak out. Hall has performed as a rapper and DJ at various clubs in the area and seen the large black crowds that frequent the area’s night clubs.

“It’s mind-boggling,” Hall said. “It’s kind of offensive in a way … you want to profit off of our dollars, our bodies and our music, but say nothing about the revolution that’s happening.”

For Collins, Goode and other black business owners, their experiences with racism pushed them to speak up and point out that police violence and discrimination don’t happen in isolation.

Even though he’s well-known in the community, Goode said he’s constantly aware of how he’s perceived in his surroundings. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery remind him that as a 6-foot, 2-inch, 230-pound black man, others will see him as intimidating.

Because of that constant fear he and other black people live with, he thinks it’s wrong for anyone to take a neutral stance.

“The time is now for the voices of the oppressed to be heard,” he said, “and if for some very small way our voice can shed light to the pain of the path people paved for me to even sit here today, I have an obligation to them and the young men and women who will come after me and need to hear my voice.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 11:57 AM.