#HandsUpDontSpend: African Americans call to boycott Black Friday over Ferguson decision

[Jefferson23]

If you agree, please spread the word..thank you.

Activists plan to protest grand jury decision with economic boycott on major US shopping weekend.

Black consumers plan to protest with their wallets over what they say is a failure of justice in Ferguson, Missouri. On Monday, a grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson on any charges in the August 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.

The Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition is calling for a national boycott of Black Friday, a major US shopping holiday that follows Thanksgiving, and throughout the weekend. Organiser Dacia Polk told St. Louis radio, "Until this nation begins to place value on black lives, there will be no value placed on this business because black lives matter.”

Boycott advocates hope they can harness African Americans' collective purchasing power, an estimated one trillion dollars. Organisers also plan to walk through malls in silent protest.

Boycott supporters tweeted using #BoycottBlackFriday , #BrownFriday , and #HandsUpDontSpend , a reference to the "hands up don't shoot" chant from many Ferguson protests.

http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201411251817-0024376

[Jefferson23]

4. Would you please delete that and feel free to post your own thread on

justice...ok?

[NYC_SKP]

5. They are having a fun first day on the DU.

They visited my thread earlier today, you gotta see it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5870857

[Jefferson23]

8. Ugh...but you're right of course, they're infiltrating today...thanks, SKP.

[arcane1]

32. Back so soon?

[Jefferson23]

9. Kindly delete your posts, that's all I asked..please. Don't do this here in this thread. n/t

[Jefferson23]

12. Derailing a thread is not appropriate. Bye. n/t

[NYC_SKP]

59. goatmilker has left the building.

We just weren't his type.

[Jefferson23]

61. I noticed that..lol

[uponit7771]

2. I'm not spending crap, this went viral today.. My nieces, my aunts...everyone had decided not

... to spend even before talking to each other about it

Once we saw the evening news I could tell how much they were hurting...

They're not spending shit this Friday... might make scratch but it's actions that could be taken

[Jefferson23]

3. Great to hear this is going viral. n/t

[roguevalley]

64. done deal. I want to help

[RichGirl]

7. Oh shoot....I'll have to change my plans.

My plan was to not go shopping...but now I have to plan on shopping and not go...so I can boycott.

[spinbaby]

10. Same here

Black Friday is always buy-nothing day at our house. We spend the day at home eating leftovers and watching old movies.

[Jefferson23]

26. They're asking throughout the entire holiday weekend. n/t

[avebury]

13. This could be the time to turn to the true spirit of Christmas

instead of mindless shopping. For example giving the gift of your time like volunteering at a nursing home, volunteering at a animal shelter, volunteering as an advocate for at risk children, and so on. You can give your time to elderly relatives who could use help aroung their home. You can always donate to a worthy cause on behalf of someone that you bought a gift for in the past, particularly if you choose a cause dear to the heart of your loved one.

One year our office decide to forgo gift giving and collect money for the backpack program. For every $200 they receive, a child gets a backpack of food every weekend to help them have enough to eat.

[Jefferson23]

14. +1..fantastic. n/t

[avebury]

18. It would be wonderful if the masses would turn

their back on the materialism of the 1%ers and instead take back this country strictly be choosing to adopt a better sense of values where the sense of true communities can be developed. If the masses would decide to pull together it would be hard for the elite to pull us apart. That is the kind of stance that the elite would not know how to deal with.

[Jefferson23]

19. Sparks can do that..we'll see.

[Nevernose]

40. No way!

Friday's the day I finally get to rest after busting my butt for the last week getting the Thanksgiving baskets ready for our Title I students. Next week we have to start getting the Christmas baskets ready and the angel tree ready, plus this weekend I've got to write my guardian ad litem court report and finish my class on the effects of trauma on children in the foster care system.

I was a little flippant, sorry. You make a good point, but you also illustrate my pet peeve: we can make the world a better place all year long, not just because it's the holidays."

I don't believe in an afterlife, but I do believe that it's our responsibility to leave this world better than we found it.

[avebury]

58. That is what I am talking about.

If the masses made the decision to adopt a different life style that is not about I, I, I, Me, Me, Me and become more active in their communities there would be more unification as a people. Being a participant in your community does not require that you have a lot of money but can be about giving of yourself and your talent and matching up wants and needs. It becomes about being their for the elderly as well as the children. You choose to create a society that works for all and is not about serving the needs of the uber wealthy. It could become all about taking back this country. The last thing that the 1%ers and MIC want if for the masses to get along and learn to work together against them.

We need a 21st century version of Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.

[joeybee12]

16. Technically I've joined the boycott...I avoid stores on black friday...

Hope this hurts businesses...

[Jefferson23]

20. It is important for something tangible to be expressed and hopefully to build momentum, I feel.

Thanks.

[joeybee12]

47. Unfortunately, too many people/companies only respond to something

when it affects them monetarily.

[Jefferson23]

51. Oh yea, agree, completely. n/t

[Cha]

17. I'm In! Thanks Jefferson!

[Jefferson23]

21. I had a feeling you would stop by..thank you, Cha!

[Cha]

22. Glad people are so serious about this.. and why wouldn't we be?

[Jefferson23]

23. Has to begin somewhere, in some organized fashion..it's time. Hopefully there will be a

measurable response, we'll see.

[NobodyHere]

24. This reminds me of those "don't buy gas on Tuesdays" boycotts

Exactly what is this suppose to do?

[Jefferson23]

25. Here:

The Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition is calling for a national boycott of Black Friday, a major US shopping holiday that follows Thanksgiving, and throughout the weekend. Organiser Dacia Polk told St. Louis radio, "Until this nation begins to place value on black lives, there will be no value placed on this business because black lives matter.”

Boycott advocates hope they can harness African Americans' collective purchasing power, an estimated one trillion dollars. Organisers also plan to walk through malls in silent protest.

[NobodyHere]

27. So they spend their money after Black Friday.

A delayed purchase is still a purchase.

[Jefferson23]

29. I'm not trying to be rude..the post I left for you refers to the entire holiday weekend with

silent protests through malls.

[NobodyHere]

31. The silent protest is fine as for keeping people aware of the issue.

But any boycott should be long lasting until certain demands are met.

[Jefferson23]

33. Has to start somewhere, then see how it is received? That does not seem unreasonable to me. n/t

[AverageJoe90]

30. I wish the organizers the best of luck in their endeavor.

Until the whole damn country understands that ALL lives matter.....we have work to do.

[Jefferson23]

34. +1. n/t

[Jenoch]

35. I'm not much of a shopper and

I don't usually make a big deal about Black Friday, but I think it is not a good idea to boycott the locally owned businesses. Sure, boycott Walmart and Radio Shack (are there still Radio Shacks?), but I will go out of my way to buy from an independant, locally-owned store or restaurant.

[Jefferson23]

37. Ok, then maybe you can participate here:

*Organizers also plan to walk through malls in silent protest.

[Jenoch]

42. I have a personal aversion to malls.

I have not been inside an indoor mall since 2010. That visit was in Arizona and I was looking for a public blood pressure machine for my then 78 year old father. I'm spending the Thanksgiving weekend with my father before he flies south for the winter.

[Jefferson23]

44. Then you can recommend the effort to your friends who do not have an aversion to malls.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

[Jenoch]

48. I will attempt to get my family members

who come to our home for Thanksgiving to skip the Black Friday shopping.

[Jefferson23]

50. There ya go...thanks. n/t

[maced666]

36. Eh, won't do any good. Black Friday has been transforming for years now.

Sales well into Thursday, sales before, sales after. And boycotting a day does no good if you go and shop for whatever a week later anyway.

[Jefferson23]

39. Throughout the weekend and a silent protest through malls.

Be there if you dare.

[noiretextatique]

68. then don't do it

And continue your negativity. Be a part of the problem

[certainot]

38. a productive ongoing boycott would be to expand the flushrush and stoprush efforts to all

republicon radio, which has been instrumental in making excuses for wilson and the cops and the racism, just like they did for zimmerman, attacking and demonizing "thugs" travon martin and mike brown and their communities and families and protestors for daring to stand up.

it enables prosecutors like mcculloch and the republican party to use these tragedies/crimes for political purposes and gives them confidence ot try anything and get aawy with it because they know the talk radio teabaggers will be getting their backs unanimously.

it is also true that republicon radio depends heavily on college and pro sports teams and their african american athletes. more than 28 % (170) of limbaughs stations do (70+ universities).

getting those schools to honor their mission statements and look for apolitical alternatives would destroy that massive propaganda operation and the racism and hate it generates for the GOP.

[Jenoch]

45. I read a bit of what was written on your link.

There was a statement that right wing talkshow hosts never take calls from people who disagree with them. I have a lot of years experience in the broadcasting and media relations business. Talkshow hosts, from either the conservative or liberal side, or even an apolitical talkshow host LOVE taking calls on-air with people who call in to disagree with them. Their egos demand it.

[certainot]

56. i've listened for 25 years. the national talkers seldom take unscreened confrontational

callers. they do love a set up call where the liberal is an idiot of someone with an accent of inflection. i have also heard what sounded like a series of callers working together to sell, for istance, the talking points used to sell the iraq attack. i've been banned, a friend of mine just got banned.

they also have their pet callers. the locals that i know do take liberals sometimes but are quick with the cutoff button. it's a great opportunity for liberals to be heard by tens of thousands and if they're quick and good it counts.

most liberal talkers i've heard love con talkers and like thom hartmann and randi rhodes (used to) move them to the front of the line. no con talkers do that.

i've seen screenshots of some of the call screening software they use but can't find it anymore- like they took it off, but i haven't checked recently. have you ever seen that stuff? where the good callers are happy faces etc and the liberals are devil emoticons..... that could be used to bump paid callers from think tanks etc to the top of the line.

[Jenoch]

57. I don't know about the particular software you mentioned.

Limbaugh does not get many callers who disagree with him because most liberals will not make the effort to try and get through. I do know that if a calker who does disagree with him gets to the screener, that call is usually bumped to the top of the list. I am sure there are local hosts across the country who avoid callees who challenge them, but they are in the minority, I am quite sure. (I first went into the broadcasting business years before talk radio became a common format.)

[certainot]

63. thanks for checking out the site. i haven't seen it like that. limbaugh's got the best

screeners in the business. if they disagree its VERY uncommon and usually they get dumped and he gets pissed at snerdley or whoever. one caller managed to get through and punk him (mike something) a few times- great stuff. but with that call screening software they can prioritize their callers. there are callers they let through 'regularly' but then some caller gets through that says " i love you rush and i'm so excited, i've been calling for years and never got through". limabaugh has to be very selective or they'd get a load of racist goobers getting through. it is useless for any liberal caller to try to get through unless they're as savy as mike.

hannity is so stupid they have to be very careful. many of his sound like paid callers and they love the ones with accents and urban drawls/

[Jenoch]

65. I still think the biggest reason

Limbaugh does not get too many calls disagreeing with him is because there are not too many liberals who will go throufh the torture of trying to get in.

I am notva listener of Limbaugh. I will confess to listening to his show during Gulf Storm. I had recently moved to a market that broadcast his program. There was a lot of national pride at kicking Sadaam's ass. It's too bad the U.N. Did not allow the coalition to finish the job. Of course that might have just accelerated the pace to what Iraq is today.

[jtuck004]

41. Maybe they should start meeting and teaching each other how to run a business, pool their money, and

start buying Ferguson. Mondragon started under a dictator that was killing the people, with a police that replaced one murdered by the dictator's police, and among people with not enough education. Today they control their own destiny, no longer asking, and the dictator is dust.

The little bit of rioting is understandable, though it is just inflammatory. The boycott could show how much money black folk spend in the economy, but I doubt most folks will get it, so they need to build on it. And there doesn't seem to be much of a demand, other than "respect us", which isn't going to happen.

On the other hand they could pool that money use it to gain power. Then they could make that city, and others, what it could be. Find people who want to work together, (if they include all colors, it would be even stronger) and take that place over.

[noiretextatique]

69. are you willing to take your own advice

And join the boycott. That's something YOU can do

[jtuck004]

70. Given that I am one of the 10 million people moved into near poverty during this administration,

who watched while the criminals in the banks were made richer than they ever have been in history (now THAT is a riot, eh?) as a matter of policy because, we were and are told "it's good for us"...

Fuck yeah!!

I am kinda doing it by default anyway, so I don't need you to tell me what to do. Never have, never will.

Just out of curiosity, does the boycott have a demand? Anything concrete which could be measured, or is it supposedly to prove a point?

It will take some money out, but does anyone really think people who make $500,000 a minute give a flying rat's ass about some pissy amount Americans spend, btw? We are net importers, which means they are making the majority of their money outside this country. Who this will impact are a few stockholders, and whatever employees they don't need to not sell some shit.The money this country makes them is simply not that big a percentage to get all worked up about. The impact will be local, and might well hurt people they didn't intend to hurt.

That is not a problem if there is a strategy to achieve something. In Montgomery they wanted to ride as equals, in other actions it was to get a the Civil Rights bill passed or open a school system. There is a specific demand, and the action continue until they win, quit, or die.

So, does this boycott have a demand? I haven't heard.

Or is this just a bunch of loudmouths egging on something that may well hurt people who have very little, while the instigators won't feel very much at all?

[rurallib]

43. Glad to see this - we had already planned to boycott Friday

first for Walmart workers and then when this travesty happened it pretty much told me quit supporting the bastards.

[TinkerTot55]

46. This old white person will be proud to stand with communities of color, ie. "my fellow Americans,"..

...to do ABSOLUTELY no shopping on Friday and through the weekend.

As with the bus boycotts during the Southern Civil Rights struggle, economic clout ( and the withholding of such ) can accomplish MUCH more than people realize.

Sales occurring this weekend are used as a prediction of holiday sales, and mark the period when many businesses begin to turn a profit for the year.

Calling for a boycott, and having a successful boycott, in ALL spending activities, will hit TPTB* right where it will hurt them the most: in $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[Jefferson23]

54. Excellent. n/t

[eridani]

49. For a combined effect, WalMart workers are also protesting

Walmart Workers Strike as They Gear up for Largest Black Friday Protest Yet

http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/11/20/walmart-workers-strike-gear-largest-black-friday-protest-yet/



Twenty-three Walmart workers were arrested last Thursday for blocking an intersection in Pico Rivera, Calif., outside a Walmart store in the Los Angeles suburb. Those arrested are part of a larger movement of Walmart and other low-wage workers across the country demanding not only higher wages, but better hours, working conditions and an end to corporate retaliation against their organizing efforts.

Thursday’s arrests followed a historic sit-down strike in another Los Angeles-area Walmart store, in which off-duty workers placed green tape with the word “Strike” written on it over their mouths. Protesters lined store aisles as customers walked by, chanting “Stand up, Live Better! Sit Down, Live Better!”

The sit-down strike is an old favorite in the labor movement, and a recent favorite among the low-wage workers rapidly joining it. The tactic was popularized in the 1930s, when workers with the freshly founded United Auto Workers “sat down” on a General Motors assembly line in the company’s heart, Flint, Mich., to secure union recognition. The UAW strike was meticulously planned, after researchers found that there were only two GM plants in the country that produced the dies out of which car bodies are made: shutting down the Flint plant, Fisher Body Plant Number One, essentially meant shutting down General Motors.

As labor historian Phillip Dray writes in “There Is Power in a Union,” auto makers were especially vulnerable to sit-down strikes because “manufacturing in the auto industry was based on the continuous flow of production, and the cessation of work by even a handful of men in one department could bring an entire plant to a halt.” When the strike ended after a recognition agreement was reached in early February, the UAW’s membership grew exponentially — from 30,000 to 500,000 workers nationwide in the year after the strike.

[Jefferson23]

52. Good for them....thanks. n/t

[ellie]

53. This is the only way the powers that be

will learn. Cut off their money.
I hope this happens.

[Jefferson23]

55. Me too. n/t

[Thespian2]

60. Never shopped

on Thanksgiving weekend. Be happy to not do it. Success, I hope, for all who boycott.

[Jefferson23]

62. Thank you for that. n/t

[NYC_SKP]

66. K/R and be sure to let a store or two know about why you aren't shopping.

That will make a big difference.

Not going without letting them know is less powerful, I think.

[Jefferson23]

67. Yes..thanks again for the kick too. n/t

[WillyT]

72. K & R !!!

[Jefferson23]

73. Protesters target Black Friday sales in Ferguson

By Edward McAllister and Daniel Wallis

FERGUSON, Mo. Fri Nov 28, 2014 8:28am EST

(Reuters) - Protesters in Ferguson, Missouri began targeting Black Friday sales at major retailers overnight in a new tactic to vent their anger at a grand jury decision not to indict a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teen.

Kicking off their latest strategy inside a Walmart in another nearby suburb of St. Louis, about 75 demonstrators protested peacefully, chanting "Hands up, don't shoot!", bemusing bargain-hunters pushing their brimming shopping carts.

They dispersed peacefully when ordered by a small group of police, moving on to a Target store where they staged a similar demonstration. More protests were planned for Friday.

Ferguson became a flashpoint for often troubled U.S. race relations after officer Darren Wilson shot dead Michael Brown on Aug. 9. The U.S. Justice Department is probing possible civil rights abuses, and President Barack Obama has called for reflection on the difficulties minorities face in the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-usa-missouri-shooting-blackfridaysale-idUSKCN0JC0CY20141128