Bajans support Blackout Tuesday

THE buying power of Barbadians was flexed yesterday as a massive section of the population joined in supporting the Blackout Day. Borrowing from a similar initiative kicked off in the United States of America to encourage persons of colour to spend their money with black businesses in a bid to fight racial injustice and economic disparity, many persons in Barbados heeded the call as activity across white-owned businesses in Barbados contracted for one day.

With the organisers calling for persons to only spend their money with black-owned businesses and casting the nets to include supermarkets, delivery services, restaurants, bars and other food services, hair salons and other forms of commerce, the initiative had picked up some traction as it had been making the rounds on social media for the past few weeks ahead of yesterday.

In Bridgetown, there was a notable difference as a quieter atmosphere reigned. There were less persons going through the nation’s capital and establishments such

as Cave Shepherd and Colombian Emeralds bore witness to it with Cave Shepherd being very empty in the afternoon, while the latter was closed for the day. In Swan Street, business was bustling but there was still a lot less traffic than the busy corridor was known for.

On reaching out to the organisers for comment yesterday, The Barbados Advocate was informed that they were at that moment trying to assess the impact of the day’s activities and would speak to them at some point today.