Black Businesses Matter: A Longitudinal Study of Black-Owned Restaurants in the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Geospatial Big Data

Abstract

Black communities in the United States have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; however, few empirical studies have been conducted to examine the conditions of Black-owned businesses in the United States during this challenging time. In this article, we assess the circumstances of Black-owned restaurants during the entire year of 2020 through a longitudinal quantitative analysis of restaurant patronage. Using multiple sources of geospatial big data, the analysis reveals that most Black-owned restaurants in this study are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic among different cities in the United States over time. The finding reveals the need for a more in-depth understanding of Black-owned restaurants’ situations during the pandemic and further indicates the significance of carrying out place-based relief strategies. Our findings also urge big tech companies to improve existing Black-owned business campaigns to enable sustainable support. As the first to systematically examine the racialization of locational information, this article implies that geographic information systems (GIS) development should not be detached from human experience, especially that of minorities. A humanistic rewiring of GIS is envisioned to achieve a more racially equitable world.

美国黑人社区受新冠肺炎流行病的影响尤其严重。然而, 在这个充满挑战的时期, 很少有美国黑人商业状况的实证研究。我们通过对餐馆客流量的纵向定量分析, 评估了2020年黑人餐馆的状况。多源地理空间大数据的分析显示, 本研究中的大多数黑人餐馆在美国不同城市中不成比例地受到新冠肺炎流行病的影响。这说明了更深入了解疫情期间黑人餐馆状况的必要性, 也进一步证明了实施本地化救助策略的重要性。研究结果还敦促大型科技公司改善现有的黑人商业活动, 提供可持续的支持。本文首次系统性地研究了地理信息的种族化, 这意味着地理信息系统（GIS）的发展不应脱离人类尤其是少数民族的经验。本文设想了GIS的人文化, 以实现一个种族更加平等的世界。

Las comunidades negras de los Estados Unidos han sido afectadas de manera desproporcionada por la pandemia del COVID-19; sin embargo, muy pocos estudios empíricos se han emprendido para examinar las condiciones de los negocios que son propiedad de los negros en este país durante esta época de retos y dificultades mayores. En este artículo, evaluamos las circunstancias de los restaurantes pertenecientes a esta población durante todo el año 2020, por medio de un análisis cuantitativo longitudinal del patronato de restaurantes. Al usar múltiples fuentes de big data geoespaciales, el análisis revela en este estudio que la mayoría de los restaurantes de propietarios negros están afectados de manera desproporcionada por la pandemia del COVID-19 en diferentes ciudades de los Estados Unidos, a lo largo del tiempo. Este descubrimiento pone de manifiesto la necesidad de un conocimiento más profundo de las situaciones de los restaurantes de propiedad negra durante la pandemia e indica además la significancia de llevar a efecto estrategias de ayuda, según el lugar. Nuestros hallazgos urgen también a las grandes compañías tecnológicas a mejorar sus campañas de negocios de propiedad negra, que propendan por un apoyo sostenible. El artículo, primero en examinar sistemáticamente la racialización de la información locacional, implica que el desarrollo de los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) no debe desvincularse de la experiencia humana, en especial la de las minorías. Se arguye por una reconfiguración humanística de los SIG para lograr un mundo más equitativo en lo que a lo racial concierne.

Key Words:

• Black geographies
• COVID-19
• geospatial big data
• humanistic GIS
• human mobility

关键词:

• 黑人地理
• 新冠肺炎
• 地理空间大数据
• 人文地理信息系统
• 人类流动性。

Palabras clave:

• big data geoespaciales
• COVID-19
• geografías negras
• movilidad humana
• SIG humanista

Acknowledgments

The authors genuinely appreciate Sarah Elwood, Michael Brown, the editor, and three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive feedback. The unprecedented nationwide campaigns for racial justice and civil right in 2020 urged the authors to support the BLM movement with this article. The idea of this article was also intellectually inspired but not directly funded by the Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences (HEGS) program at the National Science Foundation under Grant HEGS-1951072. This funded project was named “Examining Shifting Geographies of Historically Underrepresented Groups.”

The work for the article were financially sponsored by the research fund from the department of Geography at University of Washington, the vice chancellor for research and innovation fund from the University of Arkansas, and from the ASPIRE program in the University of South Carolina under the grant No.1354 00-20-53382.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiao Huang

XIAO HUANG is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701. E-mail: [email protected]. His research areas include geospatial artificial intelligence, human–environment interactions, spatial modeling, deep learning, and disaster mitigation.

Xiaoqi Bao

XIAOQI BAO is an MA Student in the Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are in geospatial big data, geovisualization, rhythm analysis, and science and technology studies.

Zhenlong Li

ZHENLONG LI is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, where he established and leads the Geoinformation and Big Data Research Lab. E-mail: [email protected]. His primary research field is GIScience with a focus on geospatial big data analytics, high-performance computing, and GeoAI/CyberGIS with applications to disaster management, human dynamics, and public health.

Shaozeng Zhang

SHAOZENG ZHANG is an Assistant Professor in the Program of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include science and technology sudies (STS), digital anthropology, applied anthropology, and environmental anthropology with a focus on minority populations in Brazil and the United States.

Bo Zhao

BO ZHAO is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include GIScience, geographical misinformation, and social implications of emerging GIS technologies, especially in the context of the United States and China.