I keep forgetting this job pays my bills but does not fulfill me or even make me happy. It's just a job. Therefore, I gotta spare some of my energy so I can work on blogging and writing in general.
The BlackOut on November 2. That's today. You all have heard about. If you haven't, maybe you stay off MySpace and YouTube and go read some news from time. Huey Freeman did tell us that he knows we don't read the newspapers. Anyway, I'm not thinking this plan is well thought out, and it cannot be well executed. It's one freaking day out of the year that you want me to avoid spending money if possible. Just one day. Payday Friday for me.
Well, if I want to avoid spending on Friday, I could have easily gone shopping and filled up my gas tank on Thursday evening just as I did. If possible, I can wait until Saturday to do my spending. There could be other Saturday shoppers that procrastinated just like me, and we'll just double the usual Saturday shopping numbers. As positive as I usually am, I cannot see how one day of non-spending will have an impact on America's pockets. Just one day.
How about we take it back to the "old school" and really sacrifice by boycotting one specific business for a month or even a whole year. The Montgomery Bus Boycott did the same thing. Look how we benefited from our grandparents' dedication and focus.
Maybe I'm being a pessimist for once, but I just don't see the impact this will make. Maybe if we focused on one particular industry or one particular giant. For example, maybe we'd tell black people to cancel their gym membership to XYZ gym ASAP. Just cancel them whenever the contract is up, or just walk on out of there. Go join another gym that doesn't offend us for whatever reason. There just needs to be better focus....
Speaking of focus, here is one way that a colleague of mine threw off my entire focus:
The "new 20" is HERE for this young black woman, and the journey is no where near over. A lot of storytelling with some reflecting on myself and relationships, my professional life, getting in shape, and everything else that affects a single 30-something. And I'm so glad the "second puberty" of my 20s is OVA!
About Me
- sunshyne
- 30 and Flirty. Life's giving a lot to flirt with, and I'm a Black woman trying to balance it all.
Passin me by (Fly as pie remix)
Barack Obama Badge
Clear and Sunny
Catching some rays
Quotes - quotes4all.net!
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3 comments:
Hey Sunshyne,
Thats exactly what I said about the "black out" day. I didn't particpate because I know it wont make an impact. If we are trying to impact the economy we need to organize a boycott that last a lot longer. Maybe organize a system where we only use black businesses for an entire year (or more) so that businesses owned by others can see how much of an impact black people will make if we don't give them our money. It just wasn't well planned or well thought out.
Its funny that I came across your blog today. My sister and I had the same conversation about the blackout. Great observations. Any thoughts on what business we should stay away from for prolonged periods of time? It definitely has to be more than a day to be effective. I just wonder if there is a way to truly measure the results of such an event. If its a day or even a month, the results would be lost in year end reporting of profits and losses.
Looking forward to your response.
www.charlotteinthecity.blogspot.com
Thanks for dropping in, sorhor! You know I love visitors.
Charlotte (that's my sister's name!), I have no ideas what businesses in general. Immediately, I would think that we should target any major corporations that have a history of offending us and still insist on offending us.
Ideally, I'd love to see us boycott those "hot spot" trendy restaurants because there are some in Atlanta that do not respect the black dollar, yet we're steady making sure we appear there.
The effort should honestly be focused on cities and regional areas. How hard would that be to oranize that? It should be easily done in 2 weeks, but it won't take 2 years.
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