Powerless NAACP Quiet as a Church Mouse on Game Day [Boycotts are a Collective Activity Not Individual & Symbolic]
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NAACP - "Negro Anglo American Corporate Preserve." Like he awakened from a dream, Dr. Bobby Wright observed something obvious that we all seem to take for granted, due to either ignorance and/or a deep, deep sleep. He said, ‘although the world is 90% non-white, everywhere one finds Whites and Blacks in close proximity to each other, the Whites are in Control. Yet Blacks rarely question this extraordinary universal phenomenon which defies every known statistical law of probability.' [MORE]
Racist/white supremacist white people are in control of everything of material value in all areas of people activity [see above chart]. Neely Fuller explains that "in a socio-material system dominated by White Supremacists, all major decisions involving non-white people are made by White Supremacists. When a Black person needs serious help, he or she goes directly, or indirectly, to the White Supremacists and asks for that help. Whatever a Black person gets, and/or is allowed to keep, is the result of decisions made by White Supremacists. This is the functional meaning of White Supremacy (Racism) that many people — particularly non-white people — prefer not to acknowledge. [MORE]
The system of racism/white supremacy is a system of vast unequal power between whites and non-whites. This means Black & Latino people are powerless or unable to stop or neutralize white people from practicing racism against them.
Racists practice racism because they have the power to do so. As explained by Dr. Amos Wilson, 'to end racism/white supremacy we must end or neutralize white power.' [MORE]
Like a child to a parent, powerless people cannot make demands. For example, go to court and watch a Black criminal defendant come into the courtroom "from the back," - that is, come into the courtroom transported from jail in shackles and then stand next to his lawyer to face the judge. As he looks up from the floor to the judge he has no real power. He can make requests and argue but he is not at an arms length position to make any demands. Any experienced defense attorney knows that something must be done or occur, if possible, to change his relationship with the Government and his bargaining position. Negotiating with no leverage is called begging (indeed, most plea “offers” are never negotiated). Similarly, when the NAACP makes its demands at the NFL, where is its source of power coming from? ‘Do what we ask’ and if you fail to do so what will be the consequence? Nothing of tangible value – just press releases, speeches and finger pointing.
Blacks & Latinos who are still expecting justice or liberation based upon the moral suasion of whites have missed the point and are somnambulistically stupid at this point in history. [MORE] Right now, we have no power to stop white people from practicing racism, no real power to solve our problems. So we beg and plead with them but that is not power.
Black people should stop pretending they have power they do not have. Belief that we have some illusional power is actually submission to and/or cooperation with white supremacy. [MORE] How gullible [or psyched out by white people] are we to believe that idle threat talk about doing a symbolic “boycott” or having your own personal boycott against the NFL would actually produce justice for Black & Brown people? Understanding this reality may be a path to actually do something about our zero status.
We need some power. Gay people got some power by unapologetically being themselves. Is it easy for an elected official or corporate entity to disrespect or ignore gay people nowadays?? Did gay people integrate or compromise themselves to accomplish political goals? Did they beg straight people to accept them? Do gay people engage in politics 'on everyone's behalf' or do they aggressively do so in their own self interest as they see it?
As stated by Dr. Blynd, "racism/white supremacy it is a power group dynamic, i.e., a defined group cooperatively via legacy institutions exerting structured, systematic injustice and power over another group. Racism is not individualistic, but institutional, cultural, economic, political, linguistic, self perpetuating and systematic. Racism is economic discrimination by a group against another for the purpose of subjugation and/or maintaining the imbalance of power through cooperative control and oppression." [MORE] Racism involves the power of one race to impose its will upon another. White supremacy/racism is the ultimate affirmative action and the ultimate form of identity politics.
This "group dynamic" concerns a relationship between whites and Blacks. We need to re-examine our role within this relationship. No one can play master without servants - it is a two way relationship. As stated by Amos Wilson, ‘Black people's uncritical acceptance of the rules, moral beliefs, perspectives, and their customary traditional participation in the American (White) political-economic process and system is tantamount to the legitimization of their own oppression and to the consensual ensurance of their own powerlessness.’ [MORE]
Wilson explains,
'the white man’s so-called power, is to a great extent based upon the nature of the relationship he has with the Black man. We empower him by the nature of our own behavior and attitudes as a people. He cannot be what he is, unless we are, what we are. To a good extent, the European is our creation … yes. If we look at our behavior, we will see that to a good extent, it is our behavior, our values, our consciousness, the kind of personalities we’ve established in ourselves, our taste, our desires and needs; that maintains the European in its position.
We talk about the Civil Rights Movement, and the Apartheid system of the South, when Blacks decided to just get out of the buses and just walk, the system changed. Yes, when they stopped sitting behind the white driver, just changing that relationship, changed the nature of power, in that system. When they decided then to walk side by side, when they decided to walk abreast and line themselves up, because they had not walked that way before … for the ends to be fought, the relationship changed. When they kept their monies in their pockets, when they sat on the stools and blocked the other people from them, and change the nature of the interactions between themselves and Europeans, the nature of the system changed.
So therefore we have tremendous Power. It depends upon how we align ourselves as a people, and how we decide to relate to other people in the world, because they cannot have what they have, unless we are who we are. And that is why we don’t have to waste a great deal of time always appealing to them, and analyzing them, because we can better appeal to our own sense of self, and our own consciousness, and we waste a lot of time trying to transform them, when through transforming ourselves, they will be transformed automatically.
The Power is in our hands. We are not destined to be the servants of white folk, that is not the destiny of Black folk, no way.' [MORE]
A boycott can be a way to alter this relationship. It is “the great power of withdrawal” of our consent or participation in this system. African Americans' collective purchasing power is an estimated 1.3 trillion dollars. [MORE]. Black dollars matter. Rather than begging or trying to persuade racists to change a particular course of conduct a successful boycott can force change.
However, boycotts cannot be random or individual. Personal boycotts or symbolic boycotts are not boycotts. They are simply an individual consumer choice and have only a minimal, symbolic effect. This is more "protest" actually in cooperation with and submission to white supremacy/racism.
Rather, a boycott is a collective, group effort to inflict some economic loss to compel the target to change its conduct. A boycott must be an actual organized campaign that directly communicates to Black consumers to mobilize their participation via social media & grassroots organizing in Black & Brown communities/organizations and then targets specific businesses. Recently for example, Bill O'Reilly was fired [not over racism] for his foul treatment of women after corporate sponsors began to pullout from FoxNews when advocates began to apply pressure to them [MORE] and [MORE]. After O'Reilly was fired, the financial markets responded positively to the decision by Fox News, and its parent company 21st Century Fox rose over two percent in the stock market the next day.[MORE] Other examples include the gay and lesbian boycott of advertisers of the "Dr. Laura" talk show, gun owners' similar boycott of advertisers of Rosie O'Donnell's talk show and (later) magazine, and gun owners' boycott of Smith & Wesson following that company's March 2000 settlement with the Clinton administration. They may be initiated very easily using either Web sites (the Dr. Laura boycott), newsgroups (the Rosie O'Donnell boycotts), or mailing lists, twitter etc. Internet-initiated boycotts can "snowball" very quickly compared to other forms of organization [MORE] -by individuals who are serious about changing something.
It is not practical to ask Black NFL fans to stop watching the NFL. Besides, NFL television ratings are based on Nielsen ratings. So unless you are a Nielsen viewer, whatever you decide to watch or not watch on Sundays will not be measured in any way to actually threaten the NFL. Clearly, the NFL makes its money from its sponsorship and merchandising. It makes no practical sense to turn off the games but then go out and spend your money on all the corporations that the NFL profits from.
However, activist minded Black fans might be willing to boycott many of the NFL’s sponsors such as Papa-Johns, Anheuser-Busch, Ford, McDonald’s, Nationwide, Verizon, Visa, etc. and many others that are white owned & controlled. All these sponsors have competitors and their services or products could be easily substituted by other brands by Black consumers. For example, Mecca Cola and Qibla Cola have been purchased and marketed as substitutes for Coca-Cola among Muslim populations. Such corporations who adverstise and enable the NFL to reap billions could be targeted in a 'for real' boycott.
In theory, a successful boycott can empower Blacks & Latinos and simultaneously disempower elite whites and change the relations and structure of social power." However, it must be executed to be more than a media stunt or another beggar politics episode. Boycotts also require an African or pro-Black centered group consciousness which does not exist at this time - as Black people's individual and group consciousness has been falsified and other directed by racists. Those who control Black consciousness and culture do so to advance the interests of racism/white supremacy. [MORE] As such, BW predicts no meaningful boycott of the NFL will take place. First we must de-program ourselves and cut the leash.
Unlike Kaepernick, the NAACP will apparently take no real risks to actually “advance” colored people and awaken itself from its zombie state. Although the NAACP will organize and advertise for the Democratic Party with targeted mail, registration drives and television commercials, it will not make similar efforts for an NFL boycott that could meaningfully alter Blacks & Latinos’ relationship with this white run and controlled entity. Such risky business probably would jeopardize the NAACP’s relationship with its own corporate, white masters.
