I'm a 90s kid. I grew up listening to rap, watching a lot of sports, and wearing Air Jordans. Might sound silly, but I carried that into adulthood.
Events of the last couple of months have pushed me away from all that. It's this weird sense of alienation I'm feeling from the black community : "You have to support us, but at the same time we don't like you."
And I'm getting that feeling from all levels. Whether it's Nike and the NBA or just local small businesses or restaurants.
I'm a minority myself and during my almost 40 years of living in America, I have never felt this level of hostility and alienation from a group of people (certainly not white people) as I do from the black community these days.
I always try not to stereotype or paint an entire group of people with one brush, but I admit it's getting really tough. And I fear this is the type of climate that breeds TRUE racism.
One of our local news stations just can't help pushing black businesses over and over. It's 'black restaurant week.' Support these local black owned businesses. It's several times a week. And I agree with the OP....I will now go out of my way to not spend my money in those businesses, because their means of advertising is offensive to me. It's racist advertising. I don't want to support racists, so I won't shop or eat at those businesses. No protests, no outrage, I will just walk on by.
I never even thought about the race of the people who own my favorites restaurants. I just ate their great food. Now I am forced to make a choice based on race...so regressive.