Discover Top Posts Tagged with #black consumerism

I Wish the NBA didn't ban Donald Sterling

"Banned for life." Hmmm…nah that's too old school.

#bannedforlife Better.

Its the headline of every newspaper, blog, and the hashtag circulating around the internet: NBA commissioner Adam Silver announcing that embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, is done - no more NBA games, can't be on the premises, can't be in an NBA arena, and whatever other rules the NBA constitution can enforce. It was the result of the incessant pressure of social media and a 24-hour news cycle's "jungle justice"; recordings of Sterling's racially offensive phone conversation with his girlfriend/mistress/"archiver" were released, he was figuratively dragged thru the town-square, and promptly strung up for a public lynching. A fitting metaphor for a man who has chosen to try and maintain the ideals of a pre-Civil Rights America.

And yet…I'm sad.

Not for Sterling - in NBA circles he already had earned a reputation that was equal parts chauvinistic racist, and woefully ill-informed NBA owner. His franchise prior to Chris Paul joining a few years ago was routinely the laughing-stock of the NBA and a testament to poor management, terrible personnel choices, and astonishing cheapness (for a millionaire). None of what was said in the recording is a "surprise".

No, I'm sad for young Black men and women.

You see, there are no more dogs ripping into the flesh of able-bodied young Blacks, no more fire hoses gushing streams of water so powerful that we cannot keep our footing, no more protests with hundreds of baton's cracking on the already bruised backs of our brothers and sisters. Its rare to find a young black family's house burning as men clad in white robes scatter from the scene.

These are different times.

Not the times of our fathers and grandfathers. We do not have to walk 20 miles in the scorching heat or pouring rain to get a book. It takes us fractions of a second to pull up information on Google. We do not have to grab sign posts and march across stretches of metropolis to have our voices heard. We simply create a hashtag and tweet it till it trends and goes viral. Things are different now and the older generation needs to accept that it doesn't have to be Martin or Malcolm's way for it to work, but with that being said…

We missed a moment.

Slavery didn't end because of a moral epiphany by Abraham Lincoln that it was wrong and unjust. It ended as a result of a war that was based on several factors which were primarily economic and political. At the end of the day (fortunately or unfortunately), what happens in this country (even morally) tends to be based on whether its going to keep the rich rich, or whether its going to hurt their pockets. Wars these days are not fought in front of Washington monument with million-man marches or by taking a 20 gallon blast of water to the face. War in 2014 is fought with your checkbook, your presence, and anything else that can be translated into dollars for a corporation. War is not fought for ethnic groups clashing in the middle east - its fought for access to their oil or strategic base locations. It is not fought for African kids starving, but for strategic inroads in emerging economies. Everything is about the economics.

I didn't want Adam Silver to ban Donald Sterling. I wanted Black America to figuratively choke him to his knees until his pockets began to dry and he gave up his team. We didn't need the NBA's help. We would not buy Clipper jerseys. We would not attend Clippers games (home or away). We would not watch them on TV. We would not support any companies that endorsed the Clippers. Approximately 30% of NBA fans are Black. And with the full extent of Black America pulling out of support of this bigot and his team, many people of other ethnicities who are sympathetic to the cause would pull out as well, and sponsorship would fall due to fear of public backlash. We did not need the Clipper players to pull out of playing the game this past weekend - its something I think I personally would have wanted to do, but I think when it comes to feeding your family and taking care of your future (athletes only have a short time they're playing basketball, and then they have to live off of that for a long time), no one can knock your choices. I think the correct stand would have been for the players to advocate for no one to attend their games. No one.

Black consumerism is the new protesting. Buying everything you want to thrive. Completely cutting off everything you want to fail. Using the sheer mathematics and economics of it all to bring corrupt corporate culture and bigotry to its knees. Activating the entirety of your demographic and community to bring change and equality (see electing Barack Obama president) to whatever position you see fit.

I'm not sad that Donald Sterling is out of the NBA, but I am sad that we missed an opportunity to show how powerful the black community really is.

-KO

#nba #donald sterling #black consumerism #racism #justice #clippers

That the negro may be fitted for the fullest enjoyment of the privileges and responsibilities of our citizenship, it is important that the nation be honest and candid with him, whether honesty and candour for the time being pleases or displeases him. It is such with an ignorant race as it is with a child; it craves at first the superficial, the ornamental signs of progress rather than the reality. The ignorant race is tempted to jump, at one bound, to the position that it has required years of hard struggle for others to reach.

Booker T. Washington, The Future of the American Negro, p. 25

We are in the 21st century, and calling blacks an ”ignorant race” is no longer appropriate as a general blanket.

Yet, there is something significant - and still relevant - being said by Washington in his analysis of how blacks spend their income. I am in agreement with Chuck Creekmore’s opinion piece on “Why hip-hop isn’t to blame for Barneys’ racial profiling” (thegrio.com).

What is a young college student doing shopping at Barney’s, anyway?

There has been recent controversy surrounding the racial profiling at high-end stores such as Barney’s and Macy’s. Three individuals are filing lawsuits against the respective retailers for “unlawful” searches performed by plainclothes officers after their purchases. They were interrogated and questioned about their income and how they were able to afford these purchases, and two of the individuals were detained even after answering pertaining to their income, how they were able to afford the purchases. On the surface, this seems to be an obvious outrage: racist profiling of blacks. Blacks should be able to consume whatever they want, without limitation.

Let’s look at this policing from a different perspective: should young blacks be spending their income on high-end goods, when their resources could potentially be directed towards other ends? I don’t want to moralize. I want to ask the question of what types of practices will aid in the upliftment of blacks as a whole.

#black consumerism #racial uplift #booker t washington #racism #barneys

Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? … The tendency is here, born of slavery and quickened to renewed life by the crazy imperialism of the day, to regard human beings as among the material resources of a land to be trained with an eye single to future dividends…. And above all, we daily hear that an education that encourages aspiration, that sets the loftiest of ideals and seeks as an end culture and character rather than bread-winning, is the privilege of white men and the danger and delusion of black.

Page 65, Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk

W. E. B. Du Bois in response to the notion that we should only be training blacks in industrial schools, and not instead investing in their higher education.

#w. e. b. du bois #black education #black consumerism #materialism