ATLANTA — It’s been two months since 2-year-old Cori pulled the gold stud from her left earlobe, and the piercing is threatening to close as her mother, Maggie Anderson, hunts for a replacement. It’s not that the earring was all that rare-but finding the right store has become a quest of Quixotic proportions. Maggie and John Anderson of Chicago vowed four months ago that for one year, they would try to patronize only black-owned businesses. The ‘Empowerment Experiment’ is the reason John had to suffer for hours with a stomach ache and Maggie no longer gets that brand-name lather when she washes her hair. A grocery trip is a 14-mile odyssey. ‘We kind of enjoy the sacrifice because we get to make the point … but I am going without stuff and I am frustrated on a daily basis,’ Maggie Anderson said. ‘It’s like, my people have been here 400 years and we don’t even have a Walgreens to show for it.’ So far, the Andersons have spent hundreds of dollars with black businesses from grocery stores to dry cleaners. But the couple still hasn’t found a mortgage lender, home security system vendor or toy […]