Black Lives Matter Los Angeles is encouraging everyone to divest from white corporations, invest in the black community, and, if you must buy, to buy black this holiday season with its #BlackXmas campaign that seeks to resist white supremacy through capitalism.
Newsweek reports that Melina Abdullah—a BLM L.A. leader who is also a professor at California State University, Los Angeles—wants shoppers to use their money to support the economic empowerment of minorities this season.
Abdullah said on her weekly radio show, Beautiful Struggle, “We say ‘white capitalism’ because it’s important that we understand that the economic system and the racial structures are connected. We have to not only disrupt the systems of policing that literally kill our people, but we have to disrupt the white supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal, heteronormative that is really the root of these police killings.”
The purpose of #BlackXmas was further explained on the show by Anthony Ratcliff—another BLM leader and CSULA professor—who said, “Black Lives Matter and other organizations build a strong critique and understanding of racism and white supremacy and sexism and homophobia, transphobia, but we have to have as much hatred or vitriol against capitalism. Until we start to see capitalism [is] just as nefarious as white supremacy, we will always be struggling.”
Last year, BLM L.A. organized another #BlackXmas effort as a form of protest against Donald Trump winning the presidency.
In addition to shopping black, the group is asking that everyone change their social media profile pictures to the #BlackXmas graphic (shown in the header image) until Jan. 1, 2018.
The #BlackXmas website has lots of resources and information about the movement, including lists of black-owned businesses and organizations to support during this holiday season.