The Black small business community in Portland isn’t large, but its owners are increasingly interdependent and supportive of one another as bonds forged during the pandemic endure. Drink Mamey, a juice bar in the city’s historically Black Northeast quadrant, now sells only its own drinks and products from Black women-owned businesses. As the city’s Black-owned business community grows, there’s been an increasing collective focus on supporting it. Two key steps: working specifically, and sometimes exclusively, with other Black-owned businesses and hiring Black people to work in their spaces as servers, baristas and cashiers. Working with other Black-owned businesses allows new ones to build foundations more easily, not only for their businesses but also socially. Hiring more Black people for front-of-house positions creates safe spaces for both employees and Black clientele. Learn more at Eater.