Black Lives Matter calls for month-long boycott of 'white companies' during the holiday season to support 'Black Xmas' and end 'White-supremacist-capitalism'
Black Lives Matter has announced its seventh year of boycotting 'white companies' during the holiday season to support 'Black Xmas.'
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 Years Day', the official blackxmas.org site states.
The group suggest three ways for its supporters to take part 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 Black Lives Matter movement is calling for supporters to boycott 'white' companies, organizations, and banks from Black Friday until New Years Day
But many on social media slammed the idea as racist and 'segregating'. Several people questioned what would happen if white people called for a month-long boycott of black-owned companies.
'All live matter. Stop making profit out of poor people,' @ShaqYnwa tweeted.
Another person changed the Black Xmas logo writing: 'All Lives matter Christmas.'
'Isn't that racist?' @shocked_daily asked on Twitter.
'This seems derogatory and segregating,' @DakNarciso commented.
Others took the idea and decided to turn it on its head. '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.
Many Twitter users also pointed to several Black Lives Matter leaders that have bought expensive houses in predominately white neighborhoods in recent years.
'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.
Supporters of Black Xmas responded to negative commenters trying to explain the boycott, calling them racist, or expressing their support.
'This old white guy donated because I am commanded to "Love your neighbor,"' @SRGhart commented.
Some commented on the posts asking for recommendations for black-owned businesses to support.
According to Nielsen research group, black buying power in 2020 equaled $1.57 trillion. The Nielsen report also found that black shopper are increasingly using their money to support companies that have tailor-made messaging to target black buyers.
During the pandemic, black business owners had to shut their doors for good at more than twice the rate that white businesses did between February 2020 and April 2020, CNBC reported.
But interest in supporting black-owned businesses soared following the killing of George Floyd and the months of world-wide Black Lives Matter protest.
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 found that searches for black-owned businesses on the discount site increased by by more than 300 per cent from June 2020 to August 2020.
This correlated with the 75 per cent of black business owners claimed to see an increase in business in that same time period.
However, CNBC reported that after this initial surge, most black-owned businesses fell back to their previous sales stats.
Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, shoppers reportedly spent less during the traditionally popular shopping days with some attributing the dip in sales to the current supply-chain crisis that pushed buying to start their holiday shopping early.
The 2021 holiday shopping saw a decline of $100 million both on Black Friday and Cyber Monday compared to 2020, Adobe Insights reported.
It also push its supporters 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 begun 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.
A post on the Black Lives Matter website list several other names including Steven Taylor, who was also killed inside a Walmart, Yuvette Henderson and 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.'
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.'
Black Xmas was started in 2014 in response to the police killing of John Crawford, a black man who was fatally shot while inspecting a BB gun on sale at an Ohio Walmart
BLM claims that 'white-supremacist-capitalism is complicit in the murder of Black people by police' and calls for its supports to back 'Black-led-Black-serving organizations'
The organization is calling for 'no spending with white companies' during the holiday season
The Black Xmas website features list of suggested organizations, companies, and banks to support. While the event has been taking place for several years now, the site only includes maps with recommended shopping for Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, and South Bend, Indiana.
The Black Lives Matter movement claims that 'white-supremacist-capitalism is complicit in the murder of Black people by police.'
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.'
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December 02, 2021
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