Can Black People make larger strides supporting Black businesses than they would marching and protesting. African Americans have enormous economic power. We spend around a trillion dollars a year on this, that and the other. Some of our spending is necessary—rent, food. Some of it is not necessary, and in essentially, in some ways, we are empowering the oppressor,” observed Dr. Julianne Malveaux, an economist and former president of Bennett College for Women.