its the notion of boycotts
you wanna know why the bus boycotts of the civil rights movement were so successful?
because an alternative black run transportation system was created for those who couldn’t walk to work or whatever they had to go
they didn’t just tell people “oh the bus enforces racist policies so don’t take it and FUCK if you can’t get to work on time or where you need to be!”
they said “hey you’re paying to get on the bus and not even being given a seat let alone being ejected if a white passenger needs your seat. here’s a potentially better alternative where you pay to sit down and get to where you need to go”
all this “boycott Target, Walmart, Monsanto owned companies” comes from a notion of boycott located in the politic of privileged white people
and that’s why they are largely unsuccessful
its why Obama just gave Monsanto the green light to commit even more fuckery to your food
its the reason why cooperation are considered people
its the reason why Walmart is allowed to usurp safety and labor regulations in their factories, and underpay their American workers
because you say “don’t spend your money there” and that’s the end of the story
you expect people to locate their survival in a politic of “abstaining from unethical choices”
and then from there those unethical choices are somehow supposed to magically disappear. when really only a small percentage of people are able to boycott so many things
there wouldn’t be a movement located around the “99%” if 99% of people could really afford to stop shopping at the unethical places and stop buying the unethical brands
good luck with your hocus pocus activist logic
hocus pocus lol. but this shit is hella real.
It’s the fact that people ignore that the Civil Rights Movement would involve months of planning and prepping before hand - alternate methods to get to work/school, lawyers to press the demands for change of laws, etc.
But all you see is the marches and protests. The “exciting” part. Which is why a lot of modern activism suffers from lots of effort for little payoff. (There’s also a good portion of anti-blackness in the unwillingness to pay attention to the level of intelligence and planning that the CR movement had to do and to talk to people who were involved).
And it was long! The bus boycott was nearly a year. 358 days I think? That takes stamina! And determination. Not just one season of TV show. Not just a few weeks of think pieces. It takes commitment and long term work.
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