|
| 
Let's boycott boycotting
By James Clingman
Contributing Columnist
Columbus Post
As we continue to celebrate the life of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott that was started because of her defiant act, let’s take a look at boycotts and maybe even reevaluate Black folks’ participation in and support of them. After all, the very lady whose life we celebrate and are now planning, in some circles, to erect a statue in recognition of, the lady we call the “Mother of Civil Rights,” was the lightening rod for the most famous boycott called and sustained by black people. As we reflect on Rosa’s life, shouldn’t we also reflect on the power of boycotts?
The term boycott comes from a fellow named Charles C. Boycott, an Englishman who managed the estate of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. In defiance of an outcry for land reform lower rents called by members of the Irish Land League, Boycott refused to lower his rent, and he evicted his tenants. In response, the people refused to have anything to do with Boycott and his family, leaving them isolated and without workers, service in stores, servants, and even mail delivery. Boycott was boycotted and his name was adopted for this kind of treatment.
While other groups have initiated similar treatment against transgressors, white folks came up with the term boycott and still use it quite effectively today. Black folks effectively used it to obtain civil rights, public access, and reciprocity in the marketplace; but the success of our boycotts today is questionable at best.
Consider: A boycott was called by white folks, via television personalities and others, against France for its failure to support the Iraq war, thus, causing a loss of some $300 million. Most recently, the governor of Alabama called for a boycott of Aruba because the family of the missing girl, Natalie Holloway, cannot get justice.
White folks obviously feel that one of their children, missing or possibly killed on this popular island, is a serious enough occurrence for them to withdraw their money until they get justice. They also know that boycotting is the ultimate punishment and the most effective way to get what they want. Will whites get what they want? Yes. Why? Because it’s always about the money.
Black folks in Cincinnati called a boycott of the city’s tourism and entertainment industry because their children were being abused by police officers and in some cases even murdered. A boycott was called in order to get justice for the families of Timothy Thomas, and then Roger Owensby, who was choked to death by police officers prior to Thomas being killed, and even later for Nathaniel Jones, who was also killed by police officers. In addition, the boycott was called because of the city’s economic apartheid system, in which black people were (and still are) constantly discriminated against in public development projects.
For more, please subscribe to the Columbus Post.
|
