“Support your own” is the message popular nationally syndicated talk show host Warren Ballentine is trying to get out.

Ballentine is teaming with the National Bankers Association, a consortium of African-American-, Hispanic-American-, Asian-American- and Native-American-owned banks, in an effort to get minorities and consumers in urban areas to bank with them.  

Economists estimate that African-American-owned banks manage less than 5 percent of the wealth in the Black communities they serve, even though African-American communities bring in over one trillion dollars in disposable income each year.

Ballentine’s spearheaded campaign, called The People’s Economic Movement, is designed to encourage minorities to deposit their money and get mortgages, college tuition loans, small business loans and other services through minority banks. Those involved in the campaign say that the economic strength that could be built from business between banks and minority residents will directly benefit minority communities.

"This recession has created not a moment in time, but a movement in time. Community economic development will only come with an intelligent and targeted approach to managing money. By investing their money in the minority banks in their own communities, consumers will begin to see how to make capitalism work in their favor," Ballentine said in a statement.

Other boldface names supporting The People's Economic Movement include Reverend Al Sharpton, Boris Kodjoe and CeCe Winans.

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(Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)