Greetings!
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
I wanted to take some time out to talk about Warren Ballantine’s Blackout that happened Friday, November 2, 2007. I honestly had mixed feelings about it. I think the intentions were good, but I am not sure of the impact. A friend of mine and I were talking about it and he brought up a couple of points that really hit home – if you needed to spend money that day you would. If my mother needed medicine on November 2, I was going to get it. If that same 80 year old wanted a magazine, I am not going to tell her no, because there were sisters and brothers out there that chose not participate for FAR more selfish reasons.
I think there are two big factors that have me torn about this effort - first: all of us live in global economy, which means before the early 90’s we could pull our money out of the economy, and there might have been some impact. Today – our money leaves the economy and it is being replaced by Chinese, Indians and others who are part of the global economy. Because of the Internet, money is moving all day everyday and until we cross the pond to Europe, Africa, Central and South Americas, etc., and ask every person of color not to POUR money into the US economy, then the impact is NOT going to be significant. Second: with everything else, it is important to show measurable results - your child goes to school, takes a test, and gets a grade; a person goes to work, gets a project, and has to finish it in a specific timeframe with specific results. Everyone has expectations, including the ones that participated in the Blackout - were we successful? How was this success measured? Are the measurements acceptable not only our people, but to the ones whose attention we were trying to get with this effort?
I did participate, but I am certainly not mad at anyone who did not – no madder than I get with them about other things they refuse to do (like not by expensive handbags that could feed a small country!) I am hoping that whatever the next steps will be, that we will leverage the teachings of this experience (or lack of it) to take a next step in the RIGHT direction!
With that I wish you all the best today and always. G
2 comments:
Although I did buy that morning cup of coffee, I did abstain from purchasing anything else that day. However, I wondered, what the point was. I really didn't see it as a day that would have any lasting impact because it really was a day to defer your purchases, so in the real sense, there's no way that one day would show any affect of our so-called buying power or our affect on the economy. In order for that to happen, all of us would have to limit our purchases to those businesses owned by us, and there aren't enough of those businesses to sustain our daily needs (grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.), never mind satiate our unending desire for high priced items (like those handbags G was talking about). Unfortunately, I think that day was a bust and the only thing it did for me was keep some cash in my pocket to spend the next day.
This day had an unexpected affect on me. It reminded me to support black owned business. We will never have enough black owned businesses to sustain our daily needs unless we go out of our way to support the ones that exist today. It may mean we have to spend a little more for an item or drive a little further but just imagine if we only spent our money at our businesses. It means I could open a grocery store and you could open a pharmacy.
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