I first saw mentions of this day during the time when protests were at their peak. It was right around the time when a bunch of people replaced their social media profile pic with a black square, then the idea seemed to fade away. And just as I was about to make a purchase (non-black-owned) in the wee hours of this morning, I got a reminder that it was Black Out Day 2020, and I wasn\u2019t supposed to purchase shit unless it was black-owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buying shit is more often than not a hard decision for me, because I\u2019m on a limited budget. I always vacillate between the questions, to buy or not to buy, before being swayed either way. So ultimately it wasn\u2019t that difficult when I ended up leaving my cart \u2013 though I didn\u2019t empty my cart. As a matter of fact, when the clock strikes 12am, I think I\u2019ma high tail it on over there and see if my items are still safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For what it\u2019s worth, I made the choice to participate. I didn\u2019t buy nothing today (I know that\u2019s a double negative). I didn\u2019t buy any fast food, or go to the grocery store. I didn\u2019t so much as do my laundry today. I was going to have dinner from a Jamaican restaurant, just to find out that the place has been shutdown a couple of years already. It\u2019s funny, I kept saying, I\u2019m gonna go there, I\u2019m gonna go there, and now there\u2019s no there there anymore. Anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around two in the afternoon, I visited Twitter and the hashtag wasn\u2019t even trending. I barely saw it in my Twitter feed and absolutely nothing in my Instagram feed. I searched the hashtag on Twitter and found a bunch of small businesses putting themselves on with the tag line \u201cit\u2019s free to retweet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While that\u2019s cool and all, I\u2019m just wondering how successful this day really was, and where\u2019s it all going. I wish there was more build-up and marketing leading up to the day. Perhaps even a march with speakers outlining its importance, the goals, the agenda. Also, I\u2019m not certain of the significance of July 7th<\/sup>. Was that just random? But if Tuesday\u2019s the theme, maybe the Tuesday after Black Friday would be a good day. Or hey, maybe even Black Friday itself would be better suited for the cause \u2013 who knows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe these questions have already been answered and I just need to do my research. I realize these are grassroots movements and people can only do so much. But now more than any other time it\u2019s much easier to galvanize people behind a common cause and raise money. And if this economic movement is going to have any legs, there\u2019s definitely more to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But you gotta start somewhere, so I\u2019m happy to support the start. And if those sandals on sale are no longer in my cart, well hey, I guess I didn\u2019t need them anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I first saw mentions of this day during the time when protests were at their peak. It was right around the time when a bunch of people replaced their social media profile pic with a black square, then the idea…<\/p>\n