Protests and petitions are key tools in the revolutionary’s toolbox, but as the biggest shopping season of the year fast approaches, many are taking a page from American history and using their economic power to challenge a system that condones police violence and elects people who think forcing Muslims to join a registry is a reasonable policy.
The three boycott campaigns below aim to unite likeminded people to put pressure on companies and people who don’t value the lives of people of color:
#BlackoutBlackFriday
November 25
The Ryan Coogler-founded Blackout for Human Rights coalition wants all Americans to shop via small businesses and boycott major retailers, companies that violate human rights and businesses that profit from the pain of others.
Per a Thunderclap campaign created for the boycott: “An affront to any citizen’s human rights threatens the liberty of all. So, we participate in one of the most time honored American traditions: dissent. We demand an immediate end to the brutal treatment and inhumane killings of our loved ones; the lives of our friends, our parents and our children have value and should be treated with respect.”
The boycott includes free movie screenings in New York City, Los Angeles and Oakland. Click here for details.
#BlackoutBlackFriday: Nationwide Major Retail Boycott & Day of Action to Stand United Against Racism & Spark Change: https://t.co/ic7cxBzuQj pic.twitter.com/mWvMhegXWS
— #BlackoutBlackFriday (@UnitedBlackout) November 20, 2016
#RedistributeThePain
November 25 – January 2
Coordinated by the Nation of Islam-driven #JusticeOrElse movement, this campaign encourages Black Americans to spend their money exclusively at Black-owned businesses. A moving—and graphic—video below shows the arrests and deaths of Black people at the hands of police and vigilantes. It ends by reminding viewers that state-sanctioned violence prevents hundreds of Black people from celebrating Christmas every year and that an in-store and online economic boycott can amplify their voices.
As Minister Louis Farrakhan says in a Facebook post about the boycott, “We must continue to redistribute the pain through economic withdrawal, so those who give us pain can receive some pain in return…. Find a Black business that is selling things, and spend some of your money with them instead.”
We must continue to #RedistributeThePAIN! Boycott Black Friday & all holiday shopping at White corporations 11/25-1/2. Support Black-owned! pic.twitter.com/yCa7hlnMeX
— Justice or Else Mvmt (@JusticeOrElse) November 19, 2016
#GrabYourWallet
Indefinitely
Named for the words President-elect Donald Trump used while describing his history of sexual assault, this movement encourages Americans to withhold their funds from companies that financially contribute to the bottomline of Trump and his family, as well as those that endorsed his run for office or raised money for his campaign.
The targeted companies are listed here, and they include Amazon, Nordstrom and Scion Hotels, which he owns alongside his older line of Trump Hotels. As campaign co-creator Shannon Coulter tweeted: “I vote with my wallet every day. If your company does business with the Trump family, it will not be doing business with me.”
.@zappos you do business with the family that wants to create a Muslim registry, so I don’t do business w/ you. #GrabYourWallet pic.twitter.com/PQeHAOvByb
— Shannon Coulter (@shannoncoulter) November 21, 2016
Will you participate in an economic boycott on Black Friday?