By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
Somebody shoot off an email to HR. Black money is scheduling a vacation next week. Taking time off from being spent on frivolous or unnecessary products or actions. The “Mass Black Out, people’s money week off,” is slated to have the prolonged impact of the principles of Dr. Carlos Russell’s Black Solidarity Day. Economists will dissect the decimal points to determine precisely how much Black spending contributes to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
“Consumer boycotts like these have proven themselves to be effective in the short term. But beyond one particular campaign, it is important for those who care about the plight of small businesses and Black-owned businesses in particular to support these businesses year round,” Kenneth Ebie, Founder & Principal, Ebie Strategies told Our Time Press. “The National Blackout taking place from November 25th through December 2nd is a reminder that the real power is always with the people – consumers and workers, not colossal corporations or Washington, D.C. And that power is unlocked when individuals pay attention, take agency and participate in these forms of collective economic action.”
Stressing that it will be a “Peaceful, strategic withdrawal of labor and consumer spending to demonstrate ‘that real power belongs to the people,’” Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, is promoting next week’s call to ‘Black Out the System.’
Patronizing Black-owned and small businesses as opposed to the national chains and conglomerates is an alternative option being proposed for those who need to buy food, medicine, and essentials.
Or:
Economic boycott organizers suggest that you can start now, buying your food, snacks, vital kitchen and bathroom needs, chotskies, and other essentials, because from Tuesday, November 25th to Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025, a compilation of organizations and individuals will be hosting the major mass boycott.
Participation is, of course, a personal choice, but it is perhaps the easiest form of collectively effective passive protest.
Keep your dimes, your shekels, and all that folds, swipes, or taps in your pockets, are the repeated marching orders to emphasize the power of the Black dollar. Again.
Activist Cinque Brath said that economic discipline is key, with the ethos for growth and community development being, “‘Buy Black – Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow – until justice is the law of these lands.’”
While the government is back to work after the recent 6 week closure, Attorney Crump and Blackout The System organization stated that the national Mass Economic Boycott was called to “demonstrate their frustration with the shutdown of the American government which has adversely affected the distribution of welfare services in the form of ‘Food Stamps’ now known as SNAP/EBT to over 42 million Americans by ‘avoiding work and spending.’”
BlackWallStreet.org noted that the United States Black buying power is “on a steady rise. In 2019, it was reported at $1.4 trillion and is expected to grow to $1.8 trillion by the year-end of 2024.”
“We should not squander our money on frivolous things,” Dr. Segun Shabaka, chair of the National Association of Kawaida Organizations (NAKO), told Our Time Press. “We should put our financial resources together and build up the Black community, and focus on economic activity, and how we can use our financial strength to sustain and build up our community. We need to invest in factories, entities, and production that empower Black people financially and contribute to self-reliance and self-development.”
The Selig Center for Economic Growth quoted that “African American buying power reached $1.6 trillion, accounting for 9% of the nation’s total buying power.”
With the close of 2025 expected to amass at least $1.98 trillion, Black observers are imploring the Black community to harness all that spending power into a focused point to pry open new economic opportunities. The Black dollar circles out of the community quickly, if not spent with Black businesses.
The Institution and McKinsey have stated that by December 2025, Black household consumer spending could reach as high as $2.1 trillion. Other projections project that Black spending will increase to $3 trillion by 2030.
The revelation only emphasizes the demand to hold the discontinued pennies, crumpled or smoothed-out dollars, or easy plastic.
Several groups are organizing this ‘Mass Blackout.’ Their tagline is, “We’re not asking. We’re shutting it down. No backing out. Prepare for impact.”
The list of their no-can-dos is significant—no work, no spending, no events, no restaurants, etc.
“To prevent spike spending before and after the blackout, we ask that all participants purchase goods needed from community-owned stores leading up to and after the date. This helps with sustained impact, and keeps our money.”
People should only be purchasing from small, local businesses for non-essential items like food, medicine, and emergency supplies, organizers suggest.
While the 43-day shutdown is now over, its impact had a domino effect. There are a myriad of issues fueling the national grassroots organizers’ call for a one-week complete economic boycott.
The activism is similar to the February boycott spurred by President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies. There were nationwide rallies, protests, and boycotts of major stores for the 24-hour Economic Blackout held on Friday, February 28, 2025, from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. There were several ongoing and recurring boycotts of companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Walmart.
Repeated reports reiterated that after dropping their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI policy, the resultant organized rolling boycott had Target losing $15.7 billion.
Although disputed in some arenas, stating that the loss occurred a couple of years before that action, nonetheless, Target’s share prices fell 22% during the still ongoing boycott.
The February 2025 ‘Not My President’ and the June’ No King’s Day’ countrywide protests were examples of how this coordinated action can achieve the success that organizers are hoping for.
This is aimed to be another March 2025 ‘Hit them In Their Profits—no Buying from Amazon,’ type boycott.
However, the proactive aspect of the week-long protest is that the community should turn its intentional, active focus to Black and small businesses.
During early boycotts this year, Raymond Dugue, 1st Assistant President General of the United Negro Improvement Association, told Our Time Press that the UNIA has always pushed a race and community-first self-empowerment and cooperative economics, adding that with their Queens-based well-stocked store, “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 own institutions – schools, banks, etc – is the only practical long-term solution that will lead to our eventual salvation as a race.”
The recent government shutdown exposed a revealing underbelly with federal workers going unpaid but forced to work for weeks, SNAP benefits halted for 42 million Americans, and airlines in disarray with air traffic controllers and TSA agents taking go-slow, no-show action.
This, on the backs of months of Elon Musk’s and Trump’s now defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)–decimating agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, USAID, USDA, food safety inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration.
The national mass boycott will have a host of demands from city to city.
“I will not go against the call in support of the Black community, to spend my money with white stores, corporate businesses, and conglomerates,”
Bed Stuy businessman Mark Lawson told Our Time Press. “I didn’t know about the boycott, and to be honest, I was going shopping in Jersey next week, but I am not going to argue with Black people to spend my money with white companies. I will stay local. There’s lots of great stores right here in Brooklyn.”
Pablo Blanco- Garinagu Scholar- Pan Africanist Researcher told Our Time Press,
“Our fight is multifold. It has a layer of social activision, social justice, economics and politics. Our ancestors showed us we can pivot the system. It requires us to move as one unit to effectively challenge the system, with strategic allies at the local, national, and international level. This is a long-term fight. We must prepare future generations to embark on the fight to keep it going.”
He continued, “Engaging in the fight requires a level of class consciousness, class collaboration, and understanding. The system was not designed for us to thrive in. Therefore, we must force it to.”
