Source: Owen Franken / Getty
The Black dollar is a powerful thing.
So powerful that if withheld, real change can be enacted– and that’s the purpose behind Black Out Day 2020. The protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent overhaul in police reform around the country and companies revamping their tone-deaf products has resulted in the beginning of the resolution. Protecting Black people from the police and solving other problems related to racial injustice are monumental, but so is proving how mighty the Black dollar is.
Black Out Day is an effort to close the racial wealth gap as we hope to put a hold on giving money to white-owned corporations and purely support people who look like us and make products for us. A simple look at the #BlackoutDay2020 hashtag on all of your socials will reveal why people are standing together today and put you on to some dope Black businesses you may not have known existed.
Calvin Martyr, a Texas resident and founder of the Blackout Coalition, is the man behind the movement of economic solidarity. His message is clear– he wants to “break free from the chains of financial servility.”
“Our ASK is that we stop being shot down in the streets. Our ASK is that racist legislation be purged from the books, and the cancerous ideology that this country was founded upon be rooted out. Our ASK is that we have equal opportunity to access funding so that we can conduct business and practice group economics amongst ourselves. Our ASK is that we are allowed to build our own communities and industries and be left alone. Our ASK is that you stop murdering our leaders when they attempt to unite us as a people,” reads BlackOutDay.Org.
CNN reports that even major companies like Procter & Gamble and Cisco Systems, along with organizations like historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta and rappers such as T.I., have voiced their support for #BlackOutDay2020.
Black Americans have over $1 trillion in spending power a year, which is about $10 billion a day. So let’s move the needle.
Source: Black Out Day 2020 / Urban One Inc.
On #BlackOutDay2020 We’re Showing Just How Powerful The Black Dollar Is was originally published on cassiuslife.com
