How an e-scooter company partnered with a white-owned business for Black History Month by mistake

E-scooter company Lime partnered with a white-owned business for Black History Month and now says it was a mistake. The e-scooter company recently introduced a Black History Month initiative that stated that it will offer discount codes to drivers who visit Black-owned businesses. It said it was 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,” Phil Jones, the company’s senior director of government relations and chair of Lime’s Black employee resource group, said in a statement cited by the Bronx Times. “We invite everyone to celebrate this important month with us by supporting local black owned businesses.”

Per the initiative, riders will be given 25% off their next ride if they end their journey within 100 meters of Black-owned businesses that Lime is partnering with this month. Lime went on to make it known that in the Bronx, it was partnering with the Way Cafe in the Castle Hill section. However, the owner of the cafe is a white man called Andy Weaver.

He told The Bronx Times that Lime came to him to fill out a form about the business, and even though he expressed interest, he thought he would not qualify. He said that Lime did not ask whether the owner of the cafe is Black but asked for a photo of the owner. Weaver sent a photo of himself but Lime went ahead to select his cafe as its sole partner in the Bronx for the initiative.

After the Bronx Times asked Lime why it chose a white business, the company’s spokesperson Jacob Tugendrajch said that “a business signed up for this opportunity erroneously, which we fixed as soon as we were alerted to the issue.” 

City Councilmember Amanda Farías described what happened as an “unfortunate mistake”. She however has no problem supporting local businesses, she said. 

“I frequent there myself,” Farías said of the Way Cafe. “And so they are in a Black and Latinx community where they’re serving our families every day. They’re in the community with us.”

Way Cafe was opened in 2020 by Weaver after he had moved to the Bronx some five years ago to do Mennonite church outreach. He believes that “we are all equal” and everyone must be loved irrespective of their race and cultural background.