Dre Oba of The Shield magazine sent this to me. Some of you may have seen it on the Internet already. Either way, please spread the word:
Subject: Blackout – November 2, 2007 Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007
Many people marched in Jena , La last month in support of the 6 young men unjustly charged with attempted murder for a school yard fight. There are many situations all over the nation that scream of injustice and unfair treatment of people in this country. There is the woman in West Virginia who was raped and tortured for days with barely any national coverage.
They called her the N word but as of this writing, they still had not confirmed they are treating this as a hate crime. We all know the young groom in NYC who was murdered by the NYPD on the eve of his wedding. There is the teenage girl in Texas who was sentenced to jail time for an altercation with a school official. How about the teenage girl who was sprayed with mase for missing curfe w. You can see her in the video restrained by a police officer twice her size. She was in handcuffs when she was sprayed.
Maybe you heard of the California girl who had her arm broken by a school security official when she refused to pick up a piece of cake from the floor. It was filmed by a school mate and is all over You Tube. You may have heard of the young man in Georgia who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual sex with a young girl. He was 17, she was 15. There was also the young brother in Florida who died in the custody of the state when he was admitted to their boot camp. They said he had diabetes but they couldn’t explain his battered body. All of these stories happened within the last year or two. Those are just a few instances where people in this country have been treated unfairly, while 4 young men in Raleigh, NC sue the state for 10 million dollars each because they were ‘falsely’ accused of rape.
There are people who spend YEARS in prison and are exonerated that don’t get nearly that much coin. By the way, who else is tired of the Princess Diana wrongful death inquiry? I mean, come on, it’s very sad how she died but does her death need to be the top news story 10 years and 2 months after her death? On Friday, November 2, 2007, Warren Ballentine, Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders are calling for a national boycott. Black people alone spend 2 billion dollars a day in the United States and we are only approximately 12% of the population. 2 billion dollars a day, lining the pockets of companies that have shown no interest in our interests.
We ARE living in the new civil rights movement. We cannot allow the march in Jena to be only an event. It MUST be a movement. In the 1950s, the bus boycott was only supposed to be for a few days or weeks. It ended up being over a year. The goal was for fair treatment and bus integ ration. Our parents and grandparents sacrificed and showed that with faith and strength, they could show corporate America the power of the community and demanded fair treatment. As we know, those buses were integrated. This is not about color. This is about class. The middle class and poor people in this country are not treated as the Declaration of Independance says we should be treated. It states that ‘all men are created equal’. Clearly the governing class of the United States disagrees with their document. Join us on on Friday, November 2, 2007 and don’t spend ANY money.
If you have to shop, do it the day before or the day after. If you need gas, get it the day before or the day after. We have to join together as a community. You may be thinking, it’s only one day, what difference will it make? I had the same thought at first, but just think about it. If we all save our money that day, it WILL make a difference. That day may become a weekend. That weekend may become a week and that week a month. As we showed in the 1950s, we can make a difference if we do this together. If you can pass the many dumb jokes and forwards we all get, you most certainly can pass this important email to all your friends and family. Show a sign of solidarity.
Comment(s)
What was the outcome of this November 2, 2007 blackout?
Comment(s)
That’s a great question. I know it received significant press coverage, particularly from CNN, though I didn’t read or hear that the blackout impacted American business in the way the organizers might have intended. I do know that, for my husband and me, doing something consciously on November 2nd was personally empowering. The current trends have been so insulting and dehumanizing, and so many Americans are fed up…