For a second year Black Lives Matter—Los Angeles is calling for a #Black Xmas. The holiday season campaign, which started on Black Friday and ends on January 1, urges Black people to divest from "White capitalism" by redirecting dollars that would have gone to White corporations to Black community organizations and businesses. The campaign asserts that White supremacist capitalism, including that of President Donald Trump, lies at the root of police and other state-sanctioned violence against Black people.
We’re dreaming of a #BlackXmas…where folks withhold dollars from White capitalism and use resources to #BuildBlackCommunity. Instead of spending, DONATE to a Black organization as a holiday gift for your loved ones or #BuyBlack. Go to https://t.co/klHABpJaeu for more.
— #BlackLivesMatter-LA (@BLMLA) November 26, 2017
Melina Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter—Los Angeles leader and a pan-African studies professor at California State University, Los Angeles, mapped out the goal last year in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Sentinel, a Black newspaper.
This season, more than all others, Black Lives Matter is asking people to wake up, to be conscious of our own economic power, and to protest – not just in the streets – but in the malls. Black Lives Matter is dreaming of and building for a #BlackXMas, where we divest from White corporations and invest in building Black community. Rather than lining the pockets of Trump and other White-supremacist capitalists, donate to Black-led organizations that are building new, liberatory structures in our communities.
This year’s campaign keeps that target. As outlined on its website, #BlackXmas encourages people to resist Trump by changing their holiday spending habits. “Donald Trump embodies White capitalism,” reads a statement on the website. “If you are anti-Trump, you should hold back your resources from him and the like.”
Along with spending with Black-owned businesses and donating to Black advocacy and organizing groups, #BlackXmas encourages people to organize their own demonstrations through the holiday season.
Visit blackxmas.org to learn more.