Flexing The Power Of The Buck
Every year on Jan. 18, people around the United States honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When we think of him, some of us may think about the Civil Rights Movement. However, most of us think about his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Typically, that speech, or excerpts from it, are played on PBS, CNN, and other TV and radio stations. It has been drilled so much into our heads that several of us have never taken into consideration that he gave other speeches. We certainly didn’t learn about his other speeches in grade school. If we had, perhaps Black people would be on a different path today.
Recently, on Oct. 10, thousands of people gathered on the Washington Mall to demand Justice or Else. Several different groups represented themselves, such as Native Americans, Black Lives Matter, Hispanics, veterans, Palestinians, and many others who felt they weren’t receiving justice from the American government.
The keynote address at the event was given by Minister Louis Farrakhan, the National Representative of the Most Honorable, Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. However, several months before the gathering, Farrakhan travelled from city to city, promoting Justice or Else, but also enlightening the public about the revolutionary King had become before he was assassinated.
According to The Nation of Islam, in his very last speech at Memphis in 1968, King spoke of Black retaliation against the forces of wickedness using “the power of economic withdrawal.”
This is certainly not the King many of us were taught about.
On Oct. 10, Farrakhan made it known that if the injustice that plagued our communities continued, then we would put the or Else … into effect, and withdraw our dollars from the economy.
So, this past Black Friday, thousands of people who are fighting for justice did not shop at large corporations such as Wal-Mart, Target and Macy’s. Instead, they kept their money in their own communities and shopped with Black and Brown owned businesses. The boycott will continue all throughout December and end on Jan. 2.
Many people have asked, “what’s the point of boycotting during that time if you’re just going to spend money a few weeks later?”
According to Statista, “Christmas is typically the largest economic stimulus for many nations around the world, as sales increase dramatically in almost all retail areas. The United States’ retail industry generated more than three trillion U.S. dollars during the holidays in 2013.”
The Black community has a spending power of a little more than 1.1 trillion dollars, yet that money is spent with businesses that are not owned by us.
If we decided to keep our money in our own communities, imagine if we decided to keep in our own communities how much those businesses would be struggling throughout the year. They would feel pain, just like we’ve felt pain every time we have a Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, or Laquan McDonald incident in our communities.
This is what King meant by redistributing the pain.
Farrakhan said, “If Black lives don’t matter, then Black dollars you won’t have!”
This holiday season, I encourage all of us to take part in the boycott. Let’s keep our money in our own communities and support our own businesses so that we can be on the road to ending the injustice that plagues our communities. Remember – nothing will change unless we make it happen ourselves.
