What can I do to help?

When the headlines exploded regarding George Floyd's death, it not only hit home for Americans, but it also hit home for what is referred to as the BIPOC communities worldwide (Black, Indigenous, People Of Color).

As an indigenous Canadian with rather white skin, and family with much darker skin, I would hear what white people said because I thought I was "one of them." It pains me greatly. Innumerable posts on Facebook about "white lives matter too" and attempting to minimize the impact of not only police brutality, but the actions that have led us to where we are now made me realize that if I wasn't doing something to combat it, I was part of the problem. So I started calling people out on Facebook. It didn't work. They didn't get it, or didn't want to get it.

So I thought to myself, what can I do to help?

My first and foremost thought was, since I own a web hosting company and a tech company, I should use that as a vehicle to achieve something. Technology is a powerful thing. But what could I do? I immediately registered the domains bipocbusiness.com and .ca, intending to create a worldwide BIPOC business registry. But then I did some research and discovered there were many others already like it. All relatively small and regional.

So I thought to myself, why haven't I heard of these others already? Why aren't they more popular? What is an obstacle to becoming THE worldwide directory of BIPOC businesses, so that any person with a smartphone can EASILY find these businesses?

The answer came when I used google maps to find a local business. Then it hit me, the only way the general public will use such a directory is if it is already built into the tools they already use: google, google maps, apple maps, etc. It should be an option, a checkbox, or a layer that they can simply turn on, which identifies any searches of a business that will identify it as BIPOC.

If I had this option in google maps, I would easily be able to find all of the BIPOC restaurants nearby without having to go to some website whose name I forgot, and drill down through lists until I found what I wanted.

So the question is, what can I do to make this happen? I don't think there's a way to do this myself, is there? Can I, or perhaps we, create a group that will approach google and apple maps to see if they are willing to do this? I'm more than happy to start a non-profit in order to achieve this.

Is anyone with me? Let me know your thoughts!