UK Celebrates First-Ever ‘Black Pound Day’ Today

Today – June 27 – is the UK’s first-ever Black Pound Day.

INSPIRED by the Black Lives Matter movement, following the killing of George Floyd, the day is aimed at celebrating Black-owned businesses and to give the Black community both an “emotional” and “financial” boost. The campaign put forward by Swiss – a member of the So Solid Crew – aims to be a monthly event, to encourage people to buy products or services from those UK companies.

“Black Pound Day seeks to make some noise about the brilliant stuff that the Black community is and always has been doing,” stated Swiss. With the advent of recent unfortunate events, Swiss said he “could foresee my community plunging into another cycle of historical trauma. I wanted to somehow repurpose that energy into a positive outcome.” Black Pound Day was the result of that motivation.

“The day is a way of repurposing frustration and actively setting out a framework from which the community can rebuild and be rewarded for its hard work,” he explained. “Black Pound Day is a real solution-based community-empowering campaign and motivating endeavour that will leave a better infrastructure for the next generation to walk into.”

The community will also benefit by “gaining greater knowledge to be able to access and invest in black business,” he added. There are “tonnes of Black entrepreneurs out there”, according to Swiss, and “you can help them by supporting the movement”. How? “Buy from Black-owned businesses, take a photo of the purchase or business and post on social media using the hashtag #BlackPoundDay, big up your experience on your stories and recommend the business to a friend,” suggested Swiss.