On November 24, the Black Lives Matter Global Network released a statement encouraging individuals to shop only at black-owned businesses during the 2021 holiday season. The campaign has been dubbed “Black XMas,” and it demands that BLM members as well as “allies” of the group not shop at white-owned businesses.
The statement encouraged supporters to skip Black Friday sales at most major retailers and shop only at black-owned businesses during the holiday season.
All the while, major donors to the BLM organization have remained silent on the statement’s release.
The statement released during the week of Thanksgiving recommended boycotting white-owned businesses, stating the group desires 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 statement also noted that the policing utilized to protect stores “steal(s) black life.”
The statement utilized the following hashtags as well: “#BUILDBLACK #BANKBLACK #BUYBLACK”
The release further encouraged supporters to remove their money from most banks, which they referred to as “white-corporate banks,” and open accounts with “black-owned banks.”
The release further instructed individuals to boycott white-owned businesses between November 26, 2021 and January 1, 2022. This demand was posted on the website of the Black Lives Matter network.
Jan Williams, who serves as an organizer for the Black Lives Matter movement, related the following thoughts on the matter: “Capitalism does not love black people.” She further states that capitalism – a white-supremacist ideology – invented policing in order to protect its interests and put targets on black people.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is an organization that receives large donations from corporations all over the world, including Amazon, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and AirBnB. However, once these statements were released, none of the major donors came forward with statements regarding the proposed boycott.
The statement on the Black Lives Matter website encourages supporters to “harness our economic power” and “disrupt” capitalism as well as build up the black community.
Black Lives Matter has made no further comments regarding the release, and they made no comment when contacted by various news outlets regarding the statement.
Black Lives Matter was organized shortly after an African American man, John Crawford, died as a result of an altercation with police at a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio. This incident took place in 2014; however, most people chiefly associate Black Lives Matter with organizing protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in May 2020.
In 2017, however, a group of Black Lives Matter protestors were filmed inside a Beverly Hills business on Rodeo Drive. This video can be viewed on the BLM website as well as the full statement encouraging supporters to boycott white-owned businesses this holiday season.
