Warren Ballentine has teamed with the the National Bakers Association to lead a national campaign to encourage minorities and other consumers in urban areas to do business with minority banks. Ballentine is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. Coined “The People’s Economic Movement,” the promotional campaign will coincide with the unveiling of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial statue in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 2011.
“This recession has created not a moment in time but a movement in time. Community economic development will only come with an intelligent and targeted approach to managing money. By investing their money in the minority banks in their own communities, consumers will begin to see how to make capitalism work in their favor,” Ballentine responded when asked why the campaign is called “The People’s Economic Movement.”
The National Bankers Association is a consortium of banks owned by African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans. The association’s member banks operate branches in 29 cities located across America. In total, these banks have more than $15 billion in assets and serve over 3 million depositors.
As an example of how little support minority banks are receiving from their potential customer base, economists have estimated that while the African American community has over $1 trillion in disposable income a year, it has been estimated that African American-owned banks manage less than 5 percent of the wealth in the communities that they serve.
According to Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association, “This self-help, empowerment movement is designed to stimulate much-needed economic development at our nation’s urban core. By depositing their money in minority banks, getting mortgages, small business loans or loans for college tuition from banks in their communities, consumers begin a process of harnessing the economic strength of the masses in a way that creates direct benefits to their communities which are still suffering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”
Some organizational leaders and celebrities who are supporting “The People’s Economic Movement” are the Rev. Al Sharpton, Roger Campos, the Rev. Frank Reid of Baltimore, the Rev. Buster Soaries of Newark, Boris Kodjoe, CeCe Winans and the Rev. Rudy Rasmus of Houston. –a. robinson
