The Blackout... Jena 6... Just by the mention of those two things, Ive made the topic of this blog a little bit controversial... But Im gonna speak on it...
So theres this blackout and Im not supposed to be spending money today and stuff like that. I guess because we are collectively supposed to be hurting "the man's" pockets. I wasn't even gone write about this today. It wasnt until I went on my lunch break with one of my colleagues and we're standing at a Wendys; My colleague is orderin his number 1 or whatever and this guy passes by and says "Thas right brothas... gone and spend ya money... dont observe the blackout." Ya know, real sarcastic like. I proceeded to look at him watch me turn around and ignore him. Now, while Im all for the cause... (and I might get attacked for this but...) Somebody please explain how not going Wendys is gonna stop a racist judge in a racist, hole in the wall town, from being racist. Demonstrations are great. Marching in Jena definately brought a lot of desperately needed attention to the situation - with positive results. BUT this type of "blackout" along with the "dont buy gas on whatever day" holdout seems a lil bit pointless. If nobody buys gas today, that just means twice as many people will be buying gas yesterday or tomorrow. Gas companies will still get their money. If nobody goes and sees American Gangster tonight (which I doubt); they'll still go tomorrow or Sunday and when the DVD comes out, theyll buy that too (Why arent there any black people making a huge movement against the bootleg game? No movies starring black actors should be bootlegged if we're gonna support each other. But anyway...) The theaters, actors, publishers, etc. (which, again, have nothing to do with the Jena 6 situation) will still get their money. Now, locally, this may hurt the economy of the people in Jena 6 if it were to be something on-going or if every black person there just moved, but honestly... This judge is still gonna wake up tomorrow and think the same way he did when he brought down the judgement - Regardless if we order a number 5 from Hardees today.
I like to see well thought out stuff, not just "Hey everybody lets just get together and do somethin just to say that we can get together about somethin!!!" The movement needs focus to be successful. I think the thing we need to focus on are our children. If our children are successful and dont have to go into the court system to begin with, then we wouldnt have to stop eating for a day or ride our gas tanks on E or whatever else whoever it is thats setting this up is gonna come up with. What this judge did was completely wrong, but there wouldnt be a discussion at all if there was never a case. Thats what would really hurt the judge - take away his cases. The problem with that is, in a racist town like that, they'll probably find a way to make up a charge to arrest somebody just to have somethin to do.
AND it just popped into my head... (Yall can all thank me later for this one) I HAVE COME UP WITH THE NEXT MOVEMENT FOR TOGETHERNESS!!! Lets all walk off our jobs next Monday at 3pm. This way, once we quit, "the man's" companies would flop, we wouldnt need gas since we wouldnt have anything to do or anywhere to go, AND we wouldnt have any money to purchase anything - so the blackout would happen by default. PLUS, with all the companies - other than black owned and managed stores of course - out of business, there wouldnt be anywhere to spend anything anyway. You may not recognize it now, but this is brilliance. After about 6 years or so of this, white people would be sure to recognize that they need us.
Right...
Although I may not have the solution. I do know that this aint the answer. And if Al Sharpton aint organize it, it aint real no ways... I could be wrong (again) though...
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3 comments:
it's funny you mentioned this. my girl was like buy the tickets from fandango on thurs. so we can participate in the protest friday. i'm like "if we're out watching AG, aren't we supporting it." i'm all for protest but this was a poorly organized protest. they try to do this every two months or so and it goes pretty much unnoticed.
aight lil' brother, first let me say that you sound just like me a long time ago, always going against the grain, sometimes having that rebellious "voice" and what I learned is that sometimes it's that very attitude that keeps "ideas" like the black out from working.
It's kind of like voting, too many of "us" have that mentality that even if we do vote, it won't make any difference anyway so we don't. But the point is, if we just show a little initiative and "try" some of these far fetched ideas, then maybe eventually someone will take notice.
The "W-joints" have nothing to worry about because they know that we're not a unified front so when it's time to protest or march or "blackout"....who cares because they know that the majority of us won't participate anyway.
The hard part is participating even when you don't see an immediate point, but you do it anyway because it shows solidarity.
I went to the million man march (the original) and the whole drive up there I thought to myself, "there won't be anywhere close to a million men there", but I went because at least I said I could try. Lo and behold, more than a million cats showed up.
The fact that the "cause" was lost once everybody went back home and went back to their old ways is irrelevant, it was at least a step closer to showing a unified front. We have to accomplish that before we can start hoping to make any real changes.
The idea was that they're protesting against general inequality in every little corner of America. Still doesn't make any damn sense, but...
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