Black Out Friday
blackoutfriday
In the wake of #Ferguson, it’s become painfully clear that people of color, and Black people in particular, are still unjustly targeted by law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
The lack of indictment in the deaths of Michael Brown of Ferguson, MO, John Crawford III of Ohio, and many, many more victims of police deaths are unacceptable in this modern society. To that end, we will cease spending money on American retail corporations until a change is made.
So why an economic boycott???
Because Black Americans Shape the Bottom Line
Black Americans contribute approximately $1. 1 TRILLION DOLLARS to the consumer economy. We buy. We shop. We shape trends in retail marketing and impact the bottom line. Our money counts.
Because Black Dollars Put Retailers in the Black
Black Friday is the single most profitable shopping day of the year. Large businesses make 25 to 50% of their yearly revenue during the holiday season alone. Many retailers go from being in the red (loss) to being in the black (profit), hence the name. If people refuse to spend on this day, companies take a huge hit for it. Our money counts.
Because Black Dollars Pay for Retailers’ Political Interests
Retailers and corporations have lobbyists who work on their behalf in the government. Retailers also donate to political campaigns that support their interests. These are common practices and are completely legal. We can influence how corporations lobby by speaking with our money. If we hold our cash back, the corporations will engage lobbyists and politicians to make the reforms necessary to get our dollars back into their stores. Our money counts.
Because Black Dollars NOT Spent on Black Friday Means A HUGE Blow to Retailers, And They Take NOTICE.
A concentrated, combined, focused, determined boycott will let corporations and lawmakers know we mean business.
Our. Money. Counts.
Blackout Friday – Urban Dictionary
The one day of the week that is specifically planned for drinking and smoking yourself into a state in which you’re no longer in control of any of your bodily functions. Blackout Friday usually involves pushing yourself past your limits, and sometimes includes starting fights. Upon waking up you have no recollection of the night before, and you have no grasp of reality. “fucking fight me faggot” “looks like matts doin it real big on his blackout friday””what happened last night? ” “I don’t know but atleast I survived another blackout friday. “”nicky boy didn’t drink enough, I’m out” “guess he wants a real blackout friday””zac just threw up everywhere. He even threw up on the kid from Germany” “some people just can’t handle blackout friday””Dude you woke up in a towel with throwup all over you. what a blackout friday. ”
Blackout Day – Wikipedia
This article is about the hashtag founded in 2015. For the June 2020 music industry online protest, see Blackout Tuesday.
Blackout Day is a social media-promoted event in which all supporters of the Black Lives Matter Movement are encouraged to not spend any money for a full day in hopes of attaining attention and resolve to end police brutality and racism towards Black people. It encourages the posting of content that was created by and features black creators. Specific tags (e. g. #TheBlackout and #BlackoutDay2020) are used to connect users to that content and to increase the visibility of that content. Blackout Day launched on March 6, 2015, and after December 21, 2015, is scheduled to be held on the seventh day of every third month, starting with March 6, 2016. [1]
Blackout Day 2020 has received widespread attention as a result of the murder of George Floyd, the shooting of Breonna Taylor, the death of Elijah McClain, and other victims of police brutality. [citation needed] The last Blackout Day event was July 7, 2020.
Background[edit]
The event was conceived in early February 2015 by Tumblr user T’von Green. [2] Green noticed that there was a lack of black representation on social media, specifically on Tumblr;”Damn, I’m not seeing enough Black people on my dash. Of course I see a constant amount of Black celebrities but what about the regular people? Where is their shine”. [1][2]
In addition, he noticed that when Black people were depicted, it was usually in a negative light. [3] Research has shown that Black images in the media adversely affect how members of the Black community view themselves. [4] These harmful images are not only seen by the Black community, but by everyone who has access to a media outlet. Although images of Black people have increased in mass media, those images have been disproportionally harmful due to their violent and crime related content. [5] Generally, if Black people are not being depicted as criminals, they are represented as entertainers such as athletes or musicians. [5] Having these two polar identities of a lawless individual and highly adored star leaves a spectrum of people in the Black community unrepresented. While associating Blacks with athleticism is not harmful in itself, it becomes harmful when that is one of the only things Blacks are associated with. This reality led to an ethical need for positive and relatable images of the black community on platforms like social media. Concerned about these issues, Green decided to gain feedback on his idea by going on Tumblr and through those interactions he met Marissa Sebastian, who came up with the name behind the movement and later on became the PR and CEO of the movement, and Tumblr user V. Matthew-King Yarde (known as Nukrik on social media), the creator behind the various logos for the event. [6][7][8] Blackout Day was created as a 24-hour event that would expose the online Black community and others on social media to positive images of everyday beautiful Black individuals, through selfies, videos, gifs and other media. Its goal was to shed a positive light on Black individuals and cripple stereotypes. The idea spread quickly once given a name, and gained supporters within the Black Tumblr community. An official website was created[9][citation needed] to help the online black community access up to date information on when and how it would work. Before the event, the creators posted guidelines on who could participate and how to do so. [1][9][citation needed]
After the event launched, the creators decided to make it a monthly event, on every first Friday of every month, but the frequency was an issue for a majority of supporters who believed that the event would not have a significant impact if it was too frequent and they felt as though it should be a yearly event on the day it was first launched, which was an issue for the creators and also other supporters who thought the frequency should be increased. [6][citation needed] They changed it to a seasonal themed event that would occur on the 21st of September and December until January 2016, when it would be changed to fall on the 6th of every third month. [1][citation needed] Each Blackout Day would be themed around black heritage/history and participants are encouraged to post content surrounding the given theme. [1][citation needed]
Guidelines[edit]
The guidelines to Blackout are as follows:[1]
If you identify as Black, either from Africa or from within the African Diaspora, mixed (or part) Black, you can post a picture of yourself for others to admire and re-blog/re-tweet/re-post
You’ll tag or mention #Blackoutday or #TheBlackout for it to count
You’ll scroll through the tag and re-blog, re-tweet or re-post other photos within that tag to help support
If you are not Black/non-Black or White, you’re just re-blogging what’s in the tags to show your support
Look for people with low notes and show them some love as well.
Official hashtags used are #TheBlackout and #BlackoutDay.
Reception[edit]
According to Twitter analytic service Topsy, the hashtag #BlackOutDay was one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter in the United States, with over 58, 000 tweets by noon[10] and was a trending topic on Facebook. The creators received national attention for their creative digital activism[11][citation needed] and used this attention as leverage to start a dialogue about race and the portrayal of black people in the media in and out of social media. Outside of social media they seek to keep the dialogues open through partnerships and have collaborated with Book Riot, and extended the partnership by sponsoring 22 black avid readers and writers. [12] However, the event did not go without opposition hashtags such as #Whiteout were created as a public objection against the movement. The principle was the same as Blackout, but featured selfies of white people. The creators addressed this issue politely by reiterating their movement’s goal. [8] Other minority groups have tried unsuccessfully, to mimic the movement by creating variations that are similar to the original #Blackoutday e. #Yellowoutday, #Brownoutday, etc. The creators suggested that they be more original and create tags that were more distinguishable from theirs. [8]
References[edit]
^ a b c d e “#TheBlackout – Home of #BlackoutDay, Official #BlackoutDay Masterpost (Created: March… ” #TheBlackout – Home of #BlackoutDay. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
^ a b “T’von ( expect-the-greatest), creator of… | Color The Future”. Archived from the original on 2015-03-05. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
^ “#BlackOutDay: Trending Twitter Hashtag Celebrates Black People, Fights Negative Stereotypes”. Yahoo. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
^ Fujioka, Yuki (2005). “Black Media Images as a Perceived Threat to African American Ethnic Identity: Coping Responses, Perceived Public Perception, and Attitudes Towards Affirmative Action”. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 49 (4): 450–467. doi:10. 1207/s15506878jobem4904_6. S2CID 145591600.
^ a b Watkins, S. Craig. “Black Youth and Mass Media: Current Research and Emerging Questions” (PDF). Research Center for Group Dynamics. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 11, 2003. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
^ a b “#TheBlackout – Home of #BlackoutDay, Official #BlackoutDay Masterpost (Created: March… Retrieved 2015-11-16.
^ “How #BlackOutDay is empowering people of color”. The Daily Dot. 2015-03-07. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
^ a b c “#BlackOutDay Takes Over Social Media, Interrupted By #WhiteOutDay”. The Inquisitr News. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
^ a b “What Whites Will Never Know • Official #BlackOutDay Masterpost Note (March 30,… ” What Whites Will Never Know. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
^ “Today Is The First #WhiteOutDay, And It Is Wonderful”. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
^ “What Is #BlackOutDay? “. ABC News. 2015-03-09. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
^ “A Call to Action for Librarians”. Book Recommendations and Reviews | BOOK RIOT. 2015-09-21. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
