Prof calls for ‘Black Xmas’ to 'disrupt' ‘white capitalism’
A California State University-Los Angeles professor is urging Americans to participate in a “Black Xmas” by divesting from “white corporations” and fighting “White Capitalism.”
In her op-ed for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Melina Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter activist and the chair of the school’s Department of Pan-African Studies, explains that “Black Xmas” is “an economic divestment from White corporations and an investment in building Black community through support for Black community organizations and businesses.”
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“This call is fundamentally tied to Black Lives Matter’s mission to end state-sanctioned violence against Black people,” the professor continues. “We know that state-sanctioned violence is rooted in White-supremacist capitalism.”
The official website of the initiative provides additional instructions to participants, asking Americans to stop “spending with White corporations” between November 24, 2016 and January 1, 2018.
“Donald Trump embodies White capitalism,” the website states. “If you are anti-Trump, you should hold back your resources from him and the like.”
Alongside general information, the organization also touts a list of “black businesses” around the country, and urges Americans to donate to a list of “black organizations,” including Black Lives Matter.
“Black Lives Matter is dreaming of and building for a #BlackXMas, where we divest from White corporations and invest in building Black community,” Abdullah writes in her op-ed. “Rather than lining the pockets of Trump and other White-supremacist capitalists, donate to Black-led organizations that are building new, liberatory structures in our communities.”
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According to The Blaze, Abdullah also recently explained her stance on “white capitalism” during an appearance on KPFK-FM radio’s “Beautiful Struggle,” where she noted a connection between race and economics.
“We say ‘white capitalism’ because it’s important that we understand that the economic system and the racial structures are connected,” she argued on the program. “We have to not only disrupt the systems of policing that literally kill our people, but we have to disrupt the white supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal, heteronormative system that is really the root cause of these police killings.”
Neither California State University nor Professor Abdullah responded to Campus Reform’s requests for comment.
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