Boycott: Hold the money for Sean Bell?

[Note: Answer the poll question on the side of the page "What should be done in response to the Sean Bell verdict?"] Here's an interesting email thread that I got the other day about the idea of a Boycott titled "Hold The Money For Sean Bell" and some exchanges that took place in response:

They love money more than they love GOD.

1. CUT YOUR CABLE OFF!!!!!...easy just dont pay the bill..if you dont have the "strenght" to give it up...(:>)


2. Dont use ONE credit card...( Citicard, Amex...Capital one)


3. Fast food boycott( Mcdonals...Kentucky....etc)


4. Stop buying a name brand product..( coke..pepsi.etc..)


5. Stop Buying thoes LOTTO tickets


6. Stop going to the movies


7. Stop buying the New York Puss ..I mean Post...

Come up with your own ideas and share them with folks! And yes we still can march.... hold candel light [sic] vigils.... and hold peaceful demostations [sic]... WE dont [sic] have to all do the same thing... if we all do SOMETHING... it will help. But PLEASE do SOMETHING! Your feedback is appreciated and wil [sic] be shared with others... lets turn this thing around it may be me today... and you tomorrow Peace and Blessings'. P.S. Maybe we can have some of this implimented [sic] by June 19th for example.

Response 1:

In a informal Liberator Magazine poll so far, 75% of respondents said the best thing we should do in response to the Sean Bell verdict is to strengthen our communities... Not boycott, not protest, not march, not riot... If there's one thing you do, commit to some kind of collective space outside of work, school and home. Have a monthly dinner or party with folks where organization is discussed even on a basic level, have a study group, start or join a workout group, book club, sports club... What's needed is for us to extend and strengthen the organization of our community through collective activities and spaces. It's not meant to be a fast or reactionary process. It will take patience and time and commitment. Anything else is putting the cart before the horse in my opinion. A boycott, protest, march, or riot with the insulation and lack of organization our communities have right now will be fruitless, guaranteed.

Response 2:

The above comments are wonderful and these types of comments are what it takes to heal people and the world.

Response 3:

I think that these are awesome ideas. Very doable and they will strenthen our minds, pockets, communities. (actually already done). It seems like a really strange dream for the verdict to be not guilty. I hope that the cops go down on some other charges. There is a such thing as forgiveness but I only heard one cop nearing an apology, which still would not be nearly enough. Their punishment is either in this life, the next life or both. So these guys are still the ones who lost.

Response 4:

Def the ideas are doable, but effective on their own to an end/demand? I don't think so. Not guilty was for me, and most folks I've talked with, like a mosquito bite. I expected that joint and am so used to it that I'm past being upset or even outraged.

Response 5:

When do you think that we will finally get it and turn to the one thing that we've always had--the thing so hated and envied that it was stolen, twist-turned and beat out of us (yet it's still there--dormant for most of us who are now so into being like/aligned with _________ and taken in our own prideful ways) and humble ourselves before GOD? Yes GOD. ALLAH, YHVH... I know, I know--sigh if you want too. Roll your eyes. Stomp your feet. Press delete. (total JJackson moment) But family, I'm speaking as a believer and witness to what faith (and all the things that it encompasses) can do. Please don't verbally knock it unless you've tried it. I say "verbally" because no matter what you can't knock it--but words are very powerful. We talk of Tubmans and X and the like--yet fail in our own pride to be what we could be if we'd come out of our ways, notice the one thing that they had--complete faith in something greater than what the eye can see. -->MUAH<-- at times like this we need displays of affection--in fact that might be an interesting revolution in of itself, so here, take a hug too \^-^/

Response 6:

I feel you sis and I talk with God daily... I'd only add to your words that: Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman had not only God but organized agendas. "Faith without deeds"... I dare to say organized deeds... is dead.

Response 7:

"I expected that joint and am so used to it that I'm past being upset or even outraged" and there's something slightly upsetting and outrageous about that fact in and of itself regardless of the fact that it's true and applies equally to me. That we live in a society where shit like this is not surprising to us, I mean what's really going on? And then there's the saying "don't get mad, get even," but when we feel like (or know) we have no access to the institutional power strings that run this crazy puppet show, it's easy to retreat to "faith without deeds," I mean yeah, look how fucked up our power structures and system of law is so I gotta believe in higher powers and universal law to even make like seem meaningful and worth living, but I don't expect Yaweh, Jesus, Allah, or Olodumare to personally reach his or her hand down and catch the bullets the next time when these pigs wanna fill the next brotha with 75 shots... but lacking other outlets it's also way too easy to let our well justified anger turn self destructive, so while the pigs are just a legally sanctioned gang paid to defend the property rights of rich white folk, it's still more black folks being killed by black gangs and other shit while we fightin for crumbs off of the cake our ancestors baked. We do gotta look at the big picture though, cause this game is deep and cops are just pawns...

Response 8:

I'm hurt. I'm scared. I'm terrified. On the day they decided to consecrate the their lives to each other, Sean Bell was snatched away from his fiance, his child, his mother, father, cousins, brothers, sisters, garbage man, dudes at the barbershop...He was snatched from his community of people. Was his death senseless? I'm hurt. I'm scared. I'm vulnerable. Am I angry? No...Anger is pain frustrated. So, I'm going to experience my pain. All the pain and its attendant reactionar-isms..This includes the fear that grips my chest whenever I get a call too late at night. Is it my brother, my lover, my fathers.... I'm fucking terrified. Absolute defeat and resignation registered as my brain, once again like our bodies, submitted to forceful thrust of state sanctioned violence against my men, my "us"... Safety and justice aren't encoded in the blood that courses through the veins of an "un-dead-able" group of people. Though, I feel defeated--all this education, talking, organizing community, rallying, protesting is USELESS--I will CONTINUE to do the shit. My "un-dead-able" ass doesn't learn. We don't need to compromise on any of the suggestions that have to made. We can boycott. We can organize ourselves. I'm all for it all. At the end of the day, these actions can/ will accomplish is lessen the sense of hopelessness...Maybe in our embracing this hopelessness, pain, sorrow, anger we can...grieve. Connect again through our grief. I am with you.

Response 9:

Talking to God is cool a step in the right direction. But turning over everything to God is what Mr. X and Ms. Tubman did. Like how did a man born in Georgia receive a word, find himself imprisoned--then free folks whilst he was in there locked down. Doesn' t the word say Who is free in ME is free indeed. Ms. Tubman (the Moses of our people) was a knower of that Word. Malcolm studied day and night. If the covenant is to be kept between we and God--we have to play our part. Yes we have to lay down some things of this world. Does God want us to be liberated so that we can turn and be in the image of the oppressor--and Lord knows we soooooo love his image. Again, Psalm 106:32. But knowing your Word isn't playing into the hands of the white man, first of all you've got to know where the WORD originated...and it used to be within us--basic mores and all (yes I have a thorough knowledge of the Moors) but now it's outside of us--because we are a different people now. Go to 125th and look at us. Minister Farrakhan said, 'God made man. Who made you a nigger?' Now , honestly, I think this is a problem only GOD can solve. I don't even stress over it anymore. I play my part and do what I can with what is Given. Folks are waaaaay gone. Listen and Look...In the Word to it talks about not wasting your time talking to fools and so we gotta pray for the power of discernment. You see I knew to send this message solely to you. WHOOO. And perhaps you using your discernment can share it with others. That's another thing I had to do. I had to separate. You know some people we love God may not--and while we have no power to judge--sometimes you just know (ask and it shall be received)I know that sounds crazy, but I had to weed out folks who refused to give credit to our God for what they heralded in me...Oh she's so this, so that--THANK YOU--but from where did it come? --I like to always ask that question--it helps you value folks. HALLELUJAH (just means Glory to God!) Allahu Akbar (just means God is Greatest)! See, no division over here, babes!!

Response 10:

It hurts to see them get away with this shit again. But it also stops the illusions that we are living with on this soil. The judge in the Dred Scott decision said over a hundred years ago that black men have no rights that white men are bound to respect. And no matter how blatent the action is, they are going to find a way to slap us in the face. On one hand I feel that we must have stronger communities and organizations, which could be centered around our faiths (which only make them stronger) and would allow for us to have the autonomous structure that would make a boycott effective while giving us the security of not letting be come into them and have their way like these pigs just did. However, on this soil a strong black community is subject to infiltration via cointelpro because strong black community is un american and thus a terrorist bloc. Therefore, we are subject to bombings like MOVE or Black Wall Street. Thats not to be daunting, because submitting to this would be to say that our oppressor has the power of the all and that will never happen no matter how much of a god complex they take on. But lack of organization allows for us to get the shaft whenever an event like this comes around. Cause we never lost the faith, we just lost some of the action behind that faith. On that I agree with both B and Danielle because faith and action can't exist without each other. And our people who we hold up to as heroes had not only organizations behind them, but a balance of faith which guided there actions. So we need all of this. None of our solutions have been unifaceted. But overall I want those cops to be chopped up machete style like we was in the bush. They need to feel some kind of pain for this shit, although I definitely think they gonna feel it from there families. They are gonna have to look at there black sons, uncles, fathers, and brothers, and wonder if they gonna be the next one.

Response 11:

I agree but also think we need to still be taking constant action while we are building. I am surprised people are surprised at the verdict and I wonder what it will take for people to take action and fight back (within several definitions of that term "fight back" I would love to see a REAL Black Solidarity Day where none of us (of African descent) and those who support us and our struggle strike one day completely outside of the system (or as much as possible). What would this economy look like if for one week or even for one day the majority of Black people and our allies did not participate in this system? I know this is not some new idea and it has been said and campaigned for over and over again but when this system can blatantly illustrate to us that our lives as Black people are not valued I feel like we need to clearly address that with action that they will feel. I agree that we do not need to be reactionary but something more than organizing needs to be done. Long term organizing and community building I do however believe is going to be key.

Response 12:

A strike/boycott is not going to work unless we are organized in SOME way... or unless we appeal to those who are already organized... I feel no pressure to act NOW just to avenge Sean Bell and none of us should in my view. Be on your Bruce Lee shit. Cop a stance and meditate until its time to strike. Folks CAN however express themselves how they want and that's cool. And I'll support it, but I'll again not be surprised if it doesn't achieve a desired goal. Maybe there's a misunderstanding about what it means to be and talk about organized bodies... I'm saying a boycott is political science... period. And that science dictates that If a boycott is going to work we gonna need to have inventory and contacts to heads of community sports teams/groups, churches, mosques, temples, fraternities, community restaurants, community gyms, community charter/private schools, community publications, community event promoters, etc... Then we'll need to appeal directly to the leaders of these regular everyday organized spaces... The history and science of boycotts shows us CLEARLY that if we appeal via email to individuals... it ain't working. I'll put money on it. We gotta make sure we listen to our ancestors. They done wrote books, autobiographies about this stuff. To ignore their organization experiences and wisdom is criminal. The Montgomery boycott was successful in part because leaders of existing organized spaces were appealed to. If folks would have just gone door to door, or just telephoned their friends, it would not have worked. The organization I think that might be best in place to have that type of up to date and relevant inventory would be Malcolm X Grassroots Movement... although I'm not SURE if they have it, if I had to take a guess, I'd say they have something closest to that.... but their inventory/reach to those leaders of those community spaces may not reach beyond the Northeast... they may have contacts nationwide but perhaps not as deeply embedded as they do in the Northeast. The two priorities come back to mind: 1) Make sure you are in SOME KIND of organized body. 2) We need an inventory/network that's not on myspace or based on a website and that's open source, not proprietary... meaning that it's not someone's private information that they may not be willing to share as a community resource.

Response 13:

A couple of things I am not trying to engage in a long back and forth dialogue and no one is saying don't organize so please stop making it one or the other. Also I think it is okay for some people to boycott you don't have to agree that is fine. obviously it wouldn't be the entire country. Also we are not saying one by one outreach. There are more than a few organizations that are working together in the Peoples Justice (the coalition who organized Friday's rally) that includes MXG (which incidentally is a national org and has ties throughout the country) also our systems of comrades are far and highly reachable if we ban together correctly.

Response 14:

I wasn't directing my comments specifically at you sis so please take no offense. By one by one I'm referring to a specific email that is going around asking people to stop eating McDonalds and cancel their cable... under no specific organized agenda, or coalition. Like I said I'm down to support a boycott, but am skeptical about its success given our current organizational status. MXGM's is a national organization i definitely understand that, i simply question the depth of their reach outside of the northeast, not because I'm hating or anything but because I'm tryna be clear about our progress/status so we know how far we need to go. At meetings I've gone to, MXGM folks tend to being NYC-centric.. thus far, although I realize they are working hard to fight that label. As for banning together correctly, I'm with you 100%. That is going to take intentional thinking and action. All I'm hoping for is that we get that.