Quick reflection on #BlackPoundDay. These types of #BuyBlack Campaigns keep popping up in part because they are relatively easy. Easy in the sense that you don't need to build relationships with people in order to buy from them, though a relationship can be a welcome by-product. You don't build community through a series of transactions between people - even if you're all of the same ethnic group. ✊🏿 The main problem with things like Black Pound Day is that they pose absolutely no threat to the dominant Capitalist system. Consumption is an intrinsic part of the Capitalist system. We are programmed to be consumers - from cradle to grave. Buying Black is still consuming. It fits nicely within the system and in fact helps strengthen it by giving the appearance that we Africans can thrive within it. "See, look at all these black businesses, what is this White Supremacy you speak of?" It was for this very reason that the concept of Black Buying Power was created in the first place. As Dr Jared Ball breaks down so frequently and eloquently, the concept of #BlackBuyingPower was popularised by White Corporate think tanks as a way persuading Black Americans that they could indeed succeed within the system and to discourage them from bothering with confronting the system. In this sense, these Buy Black campaigns are waving the white flag of surrender (pun intended). ✊🏿 I believe that we need to engage in genuine cooperative economics. This must be grounded in relationship with one another. For example, we need to create cooperatives owned by the members/workers, in which decisions are made democratically, whose surpluses are distributed among the members and which are focused on directly benefiting our communities. We need to rediscover our rich history of mutual aid, whereby we pool our resources to help one another in time of need. Relationship not retail. Cooperation not competition. #cooperativeeconomics #groupeconomics #solidarityeconomy #mutualaid #blackouttuesday #blackliberation #panafricanism https://www.instagram.com/p/CCErn1og9JO/?igshid=mn8hlhkziyyi
