Today is ‘National Blackout Day’

Organizers say this is a surefire way to send an anti-racism message
Want to send a powerful message about racism to the rest of America today? Warren Ballentine, a radio show host based in Raleigh, N.C., and Black leaders across the United States say you can have a bigger impact than you realize by refusing to open your wallet for the next 24 hours. In other words, they say, if you want knock out racism, you have to hit America where it hurts most – right in the pocketbook. Of course, a “national Blackout” of businesses won’t stomp out racism, they say, but it would force the U.S. Justice Department and lawmakers to begin taking hate-crime charges more seriously. “The history of our country is about what I’m calling for,” says Ballentine, countering charges that he’s being unpatriotic by calling for a national boycott. “If the federal government is not doing what it’s supposed to do, we protest. There’s nothing more American than what I’m calling for.” So what sparked Ballentine’s efforts? He says that the spate of racist acts – including the numerous nooses cropping up everywhere; the over-aggressive prosecution of young Black men (i.e., Genarlow Wilson and the “Jena Six” teens); the alleged kidnapping, rape and torture of a 20-year-old Black West Virginia woman by a gang of Whites – call for drastic measures. And he believes that African Americans might see the same kind of results that Black society realized in the 1960s with similar tactics. What if thirty-some million Black folks did decide to follow Ballentine’s lead? Researchers with the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth calculates that African Americans will spend in upwards of $800 billion after taxes this year – more than $2.3 billion a day – which means that a single day could levy quite a jolt to the U.S. economy. And that’s even if a sizable chunk of Whites, Latinos and Asians, who are equally frustrated with racism and the federal government’s complacency, don’t join in on the effort. Do you think the average African American is willing to keep his/her wallet closed for the day? Will you participate?