The Black Lives Matter movement is calling for supporters to boycott ‘white’ companies, organizations, and banks for the holiday shopping season. ‘We’re dreaming of a #BlackXmas. That means no spending with white companies,‘ the official Black Xmas website states. The holiday boycott began in 2014 in response to the police killing of John Crawford, a black man who was fatally shot while shopping in an Ohio Walmart.
Black Xmas began on Black Friday and will last until New Years Day.
Beginning in 2014, in response to John Crawford’s murder by police in Beavercreek, Ohio, 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.
Wondering where to start? Resources are available at blackxmas.org. Follow on @blmlosangeles instagram for our featured BIPOC businesses. BIPOC wanting to be profiled can fill out this form or email us @ info@blmla.org.
As BLMLA organizer, Jan Williams, reminds us, “Capitalism doesn’t love Black people.” In fact, white-supremacist-capitalism invented policing, initially as chattel-slavery-era “paddy rollers,” in order to protect its interests and put targets on the backs of Black people. Under modern-day policing, those targets have been affixed to the backs of Black people like, #JohnCrawford and #StevenTaylor, who were murdered by police inside Walmart stores; like #YuvetteHenderson and #RedelJones, Black mothers who were accused of petty thefts before their lives were stolen by police; and like #AlbertRamonDorsey and #DennisToddRogers, who were gunned down when 24-Hour-Fitness locations called in police on Black male patrons…twice.
#BlackXmas 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. Let’s harness our economic power to disrupt white-supremacist-capitalism and build Black community.
