Because some of y’all are determined to misunderstand me: I’m not saying you must continue to shop at Target and that it’s useless to shop anywhere else. I think divestment—which is meaningfully different from boycotting—is a good thing. I’m saying that your individual choice is not a *sufficient* replacement for your political voice.
I agree with everything you said and I also think people buying directly from businesses instead of through Amazon or Target, while it won’t make a difference to Amazon or Target, makes a big difference to those brands.
While buying less is ideal, it's not reality for most people. As long as we're inevitably buying things, I agree that directly supporting small businesses founded by people of color and those whom you respect is still beneficial. No existing major retail is a viable positive alternative to direct support. From the beginning, I had issues with movements like The Fifteen Percent Pledge because, fundamentally, we should be building our own spaces rather than begging for shelf space where we're clearly not wanted. The original dream when I started Revisionary was creating a retail marketplace with these values built into its foundation - like carrying majority BIPOC owned brands and using profits to create funding grants for new small businesses. But I realized that taking VC money is totally at odds with that ambition. So the only way it could happen is if a very wealthy person of color decided they wanted to spend a ton of their money building it. Most very wealthy people are just money hoarders though. So shopping directly from the small founders you choose to support is the only answer right now.
Because, as you so eloquently wrote Marion, unorganized boycotts definitely don't get us anywhere.
This is what I have been doing. Honestly, it hasn’t cost me any more, and at least my money is going directly to those businesses without a cut going to Amazon or Target. It’s mean, it’s a couple more clicks. I have time to do that AND other things….
Too many fucking quotes to choose from, wow!! So good. Intentional consuming/not consuming is not NEVER a political action obv (so much power in a sustained and specific boycott as you point out!!), but it is a bit crazy-making/depressing that it’s become the automatic default for any action beyond a hashtag
Anyway, put your money back into your community or small businesses that you feel drawn to support. If you have a local farmer buy produce, eggs & plants from them. Start your own veggie & fruit garden, become a member of a local co-op. Frequent farmers markets. Etsy is a viable alternative to both Amazon and Target. Seek community of likeminded ppl who are making actionable choices— there are plenty out there, I’m involved w 2! If you don’t have access to these things in your community, collaborate with those who do— many of these communities can be found online and meet frequently, look into ride shares if necessary. Your contribution to your community matters & is worth the effort, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise
I’m also pretty sure most of the tarot readers I have run across on Etsy (I was one but dropped those listings) are using some kind of AI since all their titles and everything else are starting to look alike.
Ever since the EBay CEO took over, it’s gone down hill. It’s hard for true homemade to make it because the resellers have low prices that a real handmade shop can’t
They are also asking how handmade something is and seeming to gatekeep the whole concept of making. (Making it feel like if we aren’t making the supplies we use to make our products, we are basically glorified resellers)
It's all nonsense. Small businesses. Buying local. Etsy. All of it nonsense. I purchase something beautiful on Etsy. It cost 35$. I then am trolling the internet feeling pretty good about myself. I see an advertisement for Temu selling the exact same item for 2 bucks. I can't. Drop shippers and resellers and folks in multilevel marketing schemes are abundant and everywhere. There is no such thing as local anymore.
Temu also rips off independent local artists. So if you (people generally, not you specifically) have a choice and the means, buy from the artist every time. If people who have the ability to financially support independent artists/small businesses constantly choose the less expensive alternative, that’s when there actually will be no such thing as local.
Yes, thank you. And the most pressure is always put on people least able to bear it. Disabled people sharing Amazon wishlists do not need a lecture about how Amazon is bad, they need money. Same for all the low income people struggling to get by shopping at Walmart and other stores. Your local grocery store chain is also doing terrible things. Maybe there’s an independent grocery store in some communities that isn’t but that’s not where most people are shopping. Food and basic supplies are still going to be needed and as prices rise because of fascist government policies, the people in the most precarious situations aren’t going to be able to afford to select where to buy based on morality as if they ever could.
But if someone has the disposable income to make that decision to not support mega-corporations and buy direct from small businesses, go for it!
“That market solutions to structural problems are a myth, written for you by the people who run the market and built the structure?” This whole piece was phenomenal and incisive, but I loved that part most of all. You articulated so well my misgivings about corporate boycotts. Thank you for this, and for the reminder that the real work and progress is in community.
I am so disillusioned with the disorganized flash in the pan individual calls for boycott. I will respect to my best ability BDS because there is over a decade work put into it. Bus boycotts worked because people meticulously organized community transportations alternatives and car polling that would last for months. Today people are arguing en masse whether it’s selfish to ask a friend to pick you up from the airport, and validating the refusal to do these favors for friends as “maintaining boundaries”… a mess
I mean yeah on doing more than just not shopping at amazon or target. But absolutely stop fucking shopping at amazon or target. Fuck them. It’s not deferred anything, it’s a total refusal to buy from businesses that are, like, demonstrably evil. Amazon will never see my money again. ‘Until when?’ Until forfuckingever. I will hunt down the stores individually. I will skip some purchases. I will look for local alternatives. I have been doing it for over a year now and my biggest shock is at how not at all hard it was. Amazon might have as well burned down for all I care. Same with Starbucks and McDonalds. They can go die in a ditch. I have no demands. I am not exerting pressure. I am refusing to have anything to do with them, forever, the end. Honestly it’s liberating.
Yes! I was watching the “Costco buy-in” the other day with my eyes popped like what in the performative capitalist “protesting” is going on here!?! We are never going to shop ourselves to liberation. Mutual aid, community food sovereignty, compassion, those are going to be the actions that carry us forward…as they always have.
There are not many alternatives for us poor and working class folks, especially living in a small town. There is Walmart (which I boycotted years ago but my mom won’t) or Target. During Covid I became an Amazon shopper but now that’s on the list. So, boycotting is just not feasible.
When do we start uniting and investing in ourselves? How do we get out of the distracting and hyper-individualized society and start living in community? I’m here for it! Unity and Community
"Like, at this point in what we keep calling “late-stage capitalism,” we have to accept that consumer citizenship has run its course, no?" Thank you!!!! You articulated so many of my thoughts that I've been too frustrated to untangle
There were a lot of thriving black business districts under segregation, out of necessity. Integration, and the federal highway system, served as an excuse to destroy a lot of these neighborhoods. Ironically, white supremacists make the argument that black businesses were stronger prior to integration, and thus argue this is proof that segregation works. What it actually proves is that integration never happened, and hearing the business owner in the video suggesting we should just continue to accept this because it personally benefits her business, and in such a condescending manner, is insane.
Because some of y’all are determined to misunderstand me: I’m not saying you must continue to shop at Target and that it’s useless to shop anywhere else. I think divestment—which is meaningfully different from boycotting—is a good thing. I’m saying that your individual choice is not a *sufficient* replacement for your political voice.
I agree with everything you said and I also think people buying directly from businesses instead of through Amazon or Target, while it won’t make a difference to Amazon or Target, makes a big difference to those brands.
I think you’re right. Divesting, rather than boycotting. And just buying less in general!
Buying less in general! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽.
While buying less is ideal, it's not reality for most people. As long as we're inevitably buying things, I agree that directly supporting small businesses founded by people of color and those whom you respect is still beneficial. No existing major retail is a viable positive alternative to direct support. From the beginning, I had issues with movements like The Fifteen Percent Pledge because, fundamentally, we should be building our own spaces rather than begging for shelf space where we're clearly not wanted. The original dream when I started Revisionary was creating a retail marketplace with these values built into its foundation - like carrying majority BIPOC owned brands and using profits to create funding grants for new small businesses. But I realized that taking VC money is totally at odds with that ambition. So the only way it could happen is if a very wealthy person of color decided they wanted to spend a ton of their money building it. Most very wealthy people are just money hoarders though. So shopping directly from the small founders you choose to support is the only answer right now.
Because, as you so eloquently wrote Marion, unorganized boycotts definitely don't get us anywhere.
This is what I have been doing. Honestly, it hasn’t cost me any more, and at least my money is going directly to those businesses without a cut going to Amazon or Target. It’s mean, it’s a couple more clicks. I have time to do that AND other things….
Too many fucking quotes to choose from, wow!! So good. Intentional consuming/not consuming is not NEVER a political action obv (so much power in a sustained and specific boycott as you point out!!), but it is a bit crazy-making/depressing that it’s become the automatic default for any action beyond a hashtag
Thank you!!
Anyway, put your money back into your community or small businesses that you feel drawn to support. If you have a local farmer buy produce, eggs & plants from them. Start your own veggie & fruit garden, become a member of a local co-op. Frequent farmers markets. Etsy is a viable alternative to both Amazon and Target. Seek community of likeminded ppl who are making actionable choices— there are plenty out there, I’m involved w 2! If you don’t have access to these things in your community, collaborate with those who do— many of these communities can be found online and meet frequently, look into ride shares if necessary. Your contribution to your community matters & is worth the effort, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise
Agree with all of this except that Etsy is now quite overrun with dropshipping fronts 😣😣
I’m also pretty sure most of the tarot readers I have run across on Etsy (I was one but dropped those listings) are using some kind of AI since all their titles and everything else are starting to look alike.
Ever since the EBay CEO took over, it’s gone down hill. It’s hard for true homemade to make it because the resellers have low prices that a real handmade shop can’t
They are also asking how handmade something is and seeming to gatekeep the whole concept of making. (Making it feel like if we aren’t making the supplies we use to make our products, we are basically glorified resellers)
Exactly why I closed my apothecary on Etsy some time ago. It was beyond frustrating.
Oh no! Is there a way to spot shops that do this?
It's all nonsense. Small businesses. Buying local. Etsy. All of it nonsense. I purchase something beautiful on Etsy. It cost 35$. I then am trolling the internet feeling pretty good about myself. I see an advertisement for Temu selling the exact same item for 2 bucks. I can't. Drop shippers and resellers and folks in multilevel marketing schemes are abundant and everywhere. There is no such thing as local anymore.
Temu also rips off independent local artists. So if you (people generally, not you specifically) have a choice and the means, buy from the artist every time. If people who have the ability to financially support independent artists/small businesses constantly choose the less expensive alternative, that’s when there actually will be no such thing as local.
Yes, thank you. And the most pressure is always put on people least able to bear it. Disabled people sharing Amazon wishlists do not need a lecture about how Amazon is bad, they need money. Same for all the low income people struggling to get by shopping at Walmart and other stores. Your local grocery store chain is also doing terrible things. Maybe there’s an independent grocery store in some communities that isn’t but that’s not where most people are shopping. Food and basic supplies are still going to be needed and as prices rise because of fascist government policies, the people in the most precarious situations aren’t going to be able to afford to select where to buy based on morality as if they ever could.
But if someone has the disposable income to make that decision to not support mega-corporations and buy direct from small businesses, go for it!
“That market solutions to structural problems are a myth, written for you by the people who run the market and built the structure?” This whole piece was phenomenal and incisive, but I loved that part most of all. You articulated so well my misgivings about corporate boycotts. Thank you for this, and for the reminder that the real work and progress is in community.
I’m so glad it resonated!
I am so disillusioned with the disorganized flash in the pan individual calls for boycott. I will respect to my best ability BDS because there is over a decade work put into it. Bus boycotts worked because people meticulously organized community transportations alternatives and car polling that would last for months. Today people are arguing en masse whether it’s selfish to ask a friend to pick you up from the airport, and validating the refusal to do these favors for friends as “maintaining boundaries”… a mess
I mean yeah on doing more than just not shopping at amazon or target. But absolutely stop fucking shopping at amazon or target. Fuck them. It’s not deferred anything, it’s a total refusal to buy from businesses that are, like, demonstrably evil. Amazon will never see my money again. ‘Until when?’ Until forfuckingever. I will hunt down the stores individually. I will skip some purchases. I will look for local alternatives. I have been doing it for over a year now and my biggest shock is at how not at all hard it was. Amazon might have as well burned down for all I care. Same with Starbucks and McDonalds. They can go die in a ditch. I have no demands. I am not exerting pressure. I am refusing to have anything to do with them, forever, the end. Honestly it’s liberating.
Yes! I was watching the “Costco buy-in” the other day with my eyes popped like what in the performative capitalist “protesting” is going on here!?! We are never going to shop ourselves to liberation. Mutual aid, community food sovereignty, compassion, those are going to be the actions that carry us forward…as they always have.
There are not many alternatives for us poor and working class folks, especially living in a small town. There is Walmart (which I boycotted years ago but my mom won’t) or Target. During Covid I became an Amazon shopper but now that’s on the list. So, boycotting is just not feasible.
When do we start uniting and investing in ourselves? How do we get out of the distracting and hyper-individualized society and start living in community? I’m here for it! Unity and Community
"Like, at this point in what we keep calling “late-stage capitalism,” we have to accept that consumer citizenship has run its course, no?" Thank you!!!! You articulated so many of my thoughts that I've been too frustrated to untangle
Incredible here. Thank you. This is what I needed this morning.
I’m so glad 👊🏽
You told no lies!
I appreciate you!
There were a lot of thriving black business districts under segregation, out of necessity. Integration, and the federal highway system, served as an excuse to destroy a lot of these neighborhoods. Ironically, white supremacists make the argument that black businesses were stronger prior to integration, and thus argue this is proof that segregation works. What it actually proves is that integration never happened, and hearing the business owner in the video suggesting we should just continue to accept this because it personally benefits her business, and in such a condescending manner, is insane.
Yup, I live in one of those neighborhoods. And it’s always sad to me when I see people still fervently believing that Black capitalism will save us.
Appreciate this share, short but I learned a lot.
This is so fucking on point. Thank you!!!
Thank you for reading!!