Why I Am Boycotting Christmas

In what would become his last public speech, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, in Memphis, Tennessee, told the audience in Mason Temple that night:

Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal…..We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles. We don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

Further, he would say:

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy — what is the other bread? — Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse (Jackson)? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. 

In short, what King called for was a massive economic boycott. He called for all Americans not to shop at places that did not offer “fair treatment to all of God’s children.” Indeed, at the time of King’s death, he and his team was in the middle of planning the Poor People’s campaign in Washington DC. The goal was simple—to get about a million people to Washington DC and to have them camp outside all over the place—effectively shutting down the city until government leaders met at least the minimum demands from the people. Of course after King’s assassination, the movement never fully materialized.

I am pleased to participate in the #NotOneDime and #BoycottChristmas movements. I am also pleased that that church I serve, Gifts of Life Ministries also support these efforts. It is a non violent social direct action response to the state sponsored violence and continued racist behavior that seems aimed at folks who look like me. We have marched, we have shouted, we have protested, we have demonstrated, we have written, we have taught and we have had meetings with politicians and district attorneys only to have them consider us bullies. Still, we see almost on a daily basis some atrocity that has happened, some black body dead in another street, some parent crying and all the while expected to keep it together for the cameras because black folks are not expected to be human. Black folks pain should not or cannot register on the public’s radar because the wider public just cannot deal with that. 

The latest “strange fruit” is LaQuan McDonald, who was shot and killed by officer Jason Van Dyke. The shooting was so egregious that after he emptied his clip in McDonald’s lifeless body and attempted to reload, the other officers who were on the scene with him had to hold him back. Yet, still with video evidence, with eye witness testimony from the cops who were there with Van Dyke, with the autopsy report proving that the official police report was a lie, with the city ALREADY awarding McDonald’s family 5 million dollars because they knew they were wrong, it still took over 400 days for this to come to light. It is this and other atrocities such as Darrius Stewart’s death right here in Memphis that led me to take my protesting and social action to the next level; economic withdrawal by saying NOT ONE DIME and BOYCOTTING CHRISTMAS. 

When we talk about boycotts today, many are quick to dismiss them all together. For instance, when people attempted to get support for a Florida boycott in response to the Zimmerman and Dunn verdicts and the repeal of Stand Your Ground Laws, many said it simply would not work. Some analysts noted the “spotty records of boycotts” and wondered aloud how families would “cancel their vacations to Disney World.” Others offered concern that boycotts “hurt the people they are attempting to help” while others simply argued that state boycotts do not work. To be sure, when talking about boycotts of any kind, many lecture us about how the times have changed, while others simply laugh at and mock us—suggesting that we are too idealistic in our thinking.

However, those critiques are not really grounded in reality, because the reality is that boycotts tend to work. Matter of fact, as recent history has shown us, if you are real serious about your boycott, one only have to threaten a boycott to effect change. Indiana passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that many argued could “legalized discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.” Governor Mike Pence signed the bill and and it became law. However, when major corporations and other institutions threaten to withdraw their event and support from the state of Indiana costing them millions of dollars, within a week, the same legislature who passed the bill, changed the bill and for the first time in Indiana’s history, offered protections based on sexual orientation. 

Then there was the Donald Sterling incident. Sterling, the former owner of the LA Clippers,  had always been a racist and always treated players with contempt. However, until the players threaten to boycott games in the playoffs that would cost the league and network millions, the NBA put up with Sterling’s racist behavior. After the threat of a boycott however, then and only then, according to the Commissioner were the “views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful.” Then and only then were the “sentiments of this kind are contrary to the principles of inclusion and respect that form the foundation of our diverse, multicultural and multiethnic league.” Then and only then were people “personally distraught” by “the views expressed by Mr. Sterling.” As I wrote at the time, “there was something else helping [the Commissioner] to the podium that day and to take his “strong” position; and that something was the threat of a boycott.

Finally, there is the action that recently happened on the campus of Missouri. Students tried talking with schools officials; students tried to get their demands heard; students tried to reason with school officials, but to no avail. Then the students began massive non violent social direct action. One student, Jonathan Butler, started a hunger strike to demand the removal of the tone deaf president. While these and other protests under the hashtag #ConcernedStudent1950 were good and kept pressure on school officials, it was amazing to watch how when players from the Missouri football team, upon learning the reasons why Jonathan Butler was protesting and striking, decided not to play in the upcoming football game, that things quickly began to change. Within a 48 hour period, after the threat of not playing and costing the school at least one million dollars and networks and their league, the powerful SEC untold millions, the president had resigned, along with the chancellor.

Andre E. Johnson is the Founder and Managing Editor of R3