E-scooter company Lime announced a Black History Month initiative to encourage riders to visit Black-owned businesses by offering discount codes. But the one business Lime partnered with in the Bronx is actually owned by a white family.
In a press release announcing the nationwide effort, Phil Jones, the company’s senior director of government relations and chair of Lime’s Black employee resource group, said the company is on a mission to “drive more traffic to Black-owned, sustainable small businesses.”
“We’re giving riders discount incentives to visit these incredible organizations, building community and supporting black owned businesses, all while boosting the local economy,” said Jones. “We invite everyone to celebrate this important month with us by supporting local black owned businesses.”
The initiative gives riders 25% off their next ride if they end their journey within 100 meters of Black-owned businesses across the country that the company is partnering with this month.
In the Bronx, Lime announced that it is partnering with the Way Cafe in the Castle Hill section. But the cafe’s owner Andy Weaver, who moved to the Bronx to do Mennonite church outreach about 5 years ago and owns the cafe with his family, told the Bronx Times he is not Black. He said Lime approached him to fill out a form about the business, and while Weaver responded, he didn’t expect to qualify for the program.
“I figured they are going to throw our form in the trash can,” he said.
Lime did not actually ask whether the cafe is owned by a Black person, according to Weaver. The company did, however, require him to send a photo of the business owner, so he sent a portrait of himself — a white man.
Yet the e-scooter company chose the cafe as its sole partner in the Bronx for the initiative.
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