On Black Friday, the official Black Lives Matter Global Network shared an Instagram post calling to ‘support Black-led-Black-serving organizations.’
‘We’re dreaming of a #BlackXmas. That means no spending with white companies from Black Friday until New Year’s Day‘, the official blackxmas.org site states.
The group suggests three ways for supporters to participate in Black Xmas: Build Black, Buy Black, and Bank Black.
The group is encouraging its followers to ‘buy exclusively from Black-owned businesses’ claiming ‘white-supremacist-capitalism uses policing to protect profits and steal Black life.’
The idea was slammed by many on social media as racist and segregatory. It was questioned what would happen if white people boycotted black-owned businesses for a month. (ooh! OOOH! I know this one! Pick me! Pick MEEE!!!)
The idea was taken and turned upside down by others. ‘Great idea by blklivesmatter! def gonna make sure the local owned shops I buy from are white owned! we gotta support our own race! so glad we are finally on the same page,’ @Sligresda commented.
Twitter users also pointed out that several Black Lives Matter leaders had bought expensive houses in predominantly white neighborhoods in recent years. (!) Not to be a jerk, but I don’t know any BLM members that are willing to live in predominantly black neighborhoods.
‘Give us your money so we can buy more houses worth millions and then blame white supremacy again,’ @Mikail58980053 tweeted.
‘Or hear me out … build a $35k fence around your $1.4m home in a predominantly white neighborhood and BOOM liberated. Doing pretty good for a “marxist”,’ @ljmikeii wrote.
(The founder of BLM. Patri$$e Cullor$ purchased a 1.4 million dollar home (actually, three of them I believe) in a predominantly white neighborhood and promptly put up a 35K fence around it to keep out intruders-that purportedly were primarily Black)
Black Xmas supporters responded to negative comments attempting to explain the boycott, calling them racist(!), or expressing their support for the boycott.
Nielsen research group estimates black buying power at $1.57 trillion in 2020. The Nielsen report also found that black shoppers are increasingly using their money to support companies that have tailor-made messaging to target black buyers.
More black businesses closed for good during the pandemic than white businesses did between February 2020 and April 2020, CNBC reported.
After the shooting of George Floyd and the worldwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations, interest in supporting black-owned businesses soared.
Google searches for ‘black-owned businesses near me’ reached an all-time high between May 31 and June 10, 2020, according to the National Black Chamber of Commerce.
A survey conducted by the National Black Chamber of Commerce and Groupon revealed that searches for black-owned businesses increased by more than 300 percent between June and August 2020.
A similar number of black business owners claimed to have seen an increase in business during the same time period.
According to CNBC, most black-owned businesses have since fallen back to their previous sales levels.
This year, shoppers spent less on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to reports. Some attribute the dip in sales to the current supply-chain crisis, which led buyers to start their holiday shopping earlier.
Over the 2021 holiday season, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales declined by $100 million, Adobe Insights reported.
It also pushes its supporters to make donations to ‘Black-led, Black-serving organizations’ in lieu of holiday gifts and move their money from ‘white corporate banks (that finance gentrification, prisons, and environmental degradation) to Black-owned ones.’
Black Xmas began in 2014 in response to the police shooting of John Crawford, a Black man who was fatally shot in an Ohio Walmart while holding a BB gun that was for sale in the store.
According to a post on the Black Lives Matter website, other names on the list include Steven Taylor, who was also killed inside a Walmart, Yuvette Henderson, Redel Jones, ‘Black mothers who were accused of petty thefts before their lives were stolen by police,‘ and Albert Ramon Dorsey and Dennis Todd Rogers ‘who were gunned down when 24-Hour-Fitness locations called in police on Black male patrons.’
Okay, fair point; pulling a gun for shoplifting seems a little excessive to me.
A blog post published on the blacklivesmatter.com last week explains: ‘Black Lives Matter has been challenging people to ‘dream of a #BlackXmas,’ to intentionally use our economic resources to disrupt white-supremacist-capitalism and build Black community.’
The Black Xmas website provides suggestions for organizations, businesses, and banks to support. Despite the fact that the event occurs every year, the site only includes shopping maps for Los Angeles, Long Beach, and South Bend.
The Black Lives Matter movement claims that ‘white-supremacist-capitalism is complicit in the murder of Black people by police.’ By that reasoning, so is gravity.
The group claims that Black Xmas ‘challenges us to shake off the chains of consumerism and step fully into our own collective power, to build new traditions, and run an offense as well as a defense.‘
The boycott of ‘white’ companies, organizations, and banks ‘is about being self-determined and dismantling existing structures by building new, and more viable, beneficial ones.’
Not to be cold, but if it lands me two more paid holidays then I am all for it.
