Black Dollar Black Out

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
As reaction to President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy actions impact NYC in the form of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration chaos at City Hall, general public activism has taken on a new lease of life, with multiple rallies, protests, and national chain dollar-with-holding boycotts.

The 24-hour economic blackout is scheduled for Friday, February 28th, 2025, from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
Brooklyn organizers, the December 12th Movement said, “Do not make any purchase. Do not shop online or in stores. No Amazon, no Walmart, no Best Buy, no McDonalds.
“Under the centennial force of Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba, and Franz Fanon – we’re Going Black on February 28th. Like your life depended on it,” said Chair Omowale Clay.

Multiple reports state that as of February 1st, Target has lost $15.7 billion dollars since Black folks responded to their dropping their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – DEI policy.
The Economic Blackout organizers state that there should be no use of credit cards or debit cards for nonessential spending, and only buy “absolutely necessary items such as food, medicine, emergency supplies,” and then only “support small, local businesses.”

The national February 28th Blackout organizers note that “Corporations and banks only care about their bottom line. If we disrupt the economy for just one day, it sends a powerful message. If they don’t listen, we make the next blackout longer. Our numbers are powerful. This is how we make history.”

National protests began even before inauguration day, but grassroots activists even labeled last Monday ‘Not My President’s Day’ in all 50 states and territories. Then came the March 7-14th ‘Hit them In Their Profits. No Buying from Amazon’ for one week; then on March 14th, activists organized a National Strike with “No work for 24 hours, all workers, all businesses, and all higher education organizations,” from 12 am to 11.59 pm.

There have been so many protests scheduled. The Target 40-day fast began on February 1, and organizers say that as Lent and Ramadan approaches, folk can incorporate this action into their days.

“While others resort to boycotting and protesting, the UNIA remains steadfast in its outlook: a self-reliant economic base rooted in race first is the only solution for Black people in these precarious times,” said Raymond Dugue, 1st Assistant President General of the United Negro Improvement Association. “Who needs Target or Costco when we have our own – FACA ROC, a Black-run supermarket funded by Black people serving black people while only hiring Black people. This is what we mean when we say race first. The need to build our institutions – schools, banks, etc. – is the only practical long-term solution that will lead to our eventual salvation as a race.”

Black on-the-ground organizations have never stopped being proactive, and actively addressing the current issues of the moment.
Only one month into his second administration, Trump’s sweeping executive orders and directives have already rearranged long-established laws and foundations.
His removal of DEI has meant that everything from basic constitutionally protected Black rights to women, children, and disability protections have been dismantled.

Trump and his political sidekick Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have set about firing hundreds of federal workers, rearranging departments from the Feds to the Treasury, and finagling the IRS, the Department of Education, National Security, NATO, and NASA. In an action already being challenged, Trump has given the billionaire layman an ultra-all-access-pass to classified documents and government agencies, who took no time at all gutting departments, only having to re-employ as many as he could upon opponents realizing that this unelected individual was exercising unchecked authority endangering national security.

Protests have erupted across the country as federal workers, including USAID, USDA, food safety inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, who oversee the nuclear stockpile, have been let go.
But this is not a drill. Musk and Trump may focus on Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, housing, and educational funding—in that order.

At press time, Trump halted New York’s controversial congestion pricing. Gov. Hochul is refusing to act immediately.
Meanwhile, NYC is making national news as the protests take over the city streets after Mayor Adams struck a deal with Trump to have his five federal bribery and corruption charges dropped in exchange for cooperating with his immigration policy. Adams said he would work in close cooperation with southern border Czar Tom Holman to deport undocumented immigrants, with ICE, who have vamped on people in the city, including homes and businesses, with a threat to go into schools, churches, and hospitals.

The outcry has seen daily demonstrations at City Hall, four deputy mayors resigning this week, and seven federal prosecutors resigning, including the US Attorney of Southern District refusing to comply with the DOJ demand to dismiss the Adams case.
At press time, Manhattan Judge Dale Ho said he would not dismiss the charges against Mayor Adams.

“Eric Adams must go,” Roger Toussaint, former President of Transport Workers Union, Local 100, told Our Time Press. “He has turned on the people that elected him and to Donald Trump. If Adams. stays, Trump will be running NYC – no question! That is why Trump’s people told Adams that his charges are subject to review at the end of 2025. He is on Trump’s probation for ‘good behavior.’”

Gov. Kathy Hochul has met one-on-one with city stakeholders, from City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (no relation) to Rev Al Sharpton. The Inability Committee can determine what happens next, and City Comptroller Brad Lander can call a special City committee to assess the political crisis and decide to remove Adams before March 26, which would lead to a non-partisan Special Election. This is as former Governor Andrew Cuomo finally makes it public that he is entering the mayoral race.

A busy news week, with protest planning in full effect.
Cinque Braithwaite told Our Time Press, “Many people will support the upcoming boycott efforts, but most people in our communities lack economic discipline. However, these protests can be good teaching tools regardless of effectiveness because these mobilizing events can become future organizing events. Kwame Toure taught us that mobilization is concerned about issues, and organization is concerned about a system. Mobilization leads to reform action in most cases, but the organization is a permanent state.

The educator son of Pan-African advocate Elombe Brath added, “Organizing is the true goal. These boycotts don’t do that but can be an effective step towards change. I do believe in spreading the word or message ‘Buy Black, Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow is ethos until justice is the law of these lands.’”