CC BY-SA 4.0 Loavesofbread
El pueblo unido jamás será vencido
It is easy to dismiss political movements conceived on social media as “slacktivism.” Likewise, it is easy to attribute the 11% decline in “Black Friday” retail purchases to shoppers moving their consumerism online, rather than to a political statement born on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri.
There are 43 million African-American consumers with a collective buying power of $1 trillion. #NotOneDime is Black America’s and its allies’ response to centuries of injustice. In the wake of the Ferguson Grand Jury’s devastating decision, African Americans and allies across the country decided that the best way to turn an unfair system on its head was to vote with their dollars on what has traditionally been the most profitable weekend of the year, and that the best way to popularize that message was through social networks. Over the course of Thanksgiving Weekend in the United States, the hash tags #NotOneDime and #BlackOutBlackFriday were trending on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
I hope that #BlackDecember continues to gain the momentum built by #NotOneDime. Economic boycotts have proven fruitful in past fights for social justice. If a society is not yet ready to recognize that #BlackLivesMatter, perhaps they’ll concede once they realize just how much #BlackDollarsDo.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 