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Black Lives Matter’s Annual ‘Black Xmas’ Protest Against ‘White Capitalism’ Targets Amazon This Year

   DailyWire.com
Protesters wearing Santa's hats hold signs as they demonstrate in front of the Amazon Book Store in the Waterside shopping center in the Marina Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles during a Black Lives Matter rally to demand social justice on December 19, 2020.
APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images

Black Lives Matter activists and allies descended on the California seaside community of Marina del Rey over the weekend as part of the group’s annual ‘Black Xmas’ protest to disrupt “white capitalism.”

This year, organizers targeted Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person with a net worth of $182 billion. The largest e-commerce company on the planet has benefited financially from the COVID-19 pandemic as cyber shopping soared throughout this year.

On Saturday afternoon, demonstrators met at Yvonne Burke Park and marched down the street to a nearby shopping center while chanting, “Jeff Bezos is a leach, that’s why we’re in these streets.” The procession ended in front of an Amazon Books and Lockers+ store, which provides secure pickup and free returns for items purchased through the online retailer.

A BLM-led coalition documented the protest on social media.

“Disrupting white capitalism with @BLMLA,” the group tweeted from the scene. “The malls are still open because our elected officials care more about protecting capital than anything else.”

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) told The Daily Wire that deputies were there to keep the peace, and the demonstration ended without incident.

In what has become a yearly tradition, BLM re-launched its Black Xmas campaign over Thanksgiving weekend, calling for “no spending with White corporations” through New Year’s Day.

Dr. Melina Abdullah, the lead organizer of BLM-Los Angeles and Black Xmas, has described Christmastime as a “frenzy of consumerism that’s rooted in white capitalism.” She has blamed capitalism for abusive policing, alleging America’s economic system utilizes “a violent, racist, police force to protect its quest for profit.”

“In order to eliminate police violence and the killings of our people at their hands, we must also target the economic systems that built it and rely on it,” Abdullah has written.

According to BLM’s Black Xmas website, the concept “is not a call to replace White capitalism with Black capitalism, but to engage in ‘cooperative economics’ (the Kwanzaa principle of Ujamaa), which is a call to develop models that bring collective benefit.” It promotes ideas like mutual aid organization and “Black cooperatives.”

The Black Xmas drive encourages allies to invest in “Black organizations that benefit our community” and  spend their money “intentionally with Black-owned businesses that provide vital services, resources, jobs, and other community benefits.”

“As our people are lured into spending this holiday season, it is important to remember that every dollar feeds something,” the Black Xmas website says. “Our choice is whether to feed the source of our oppression or whether to build Black community.”

Black Lives Matter provides more details:

As Black Lives Matter moves from its infancy into its institution-building phase, it is imperative that we engage beyond simple resistance to the immediate targeting of Black lives at the hands of police and focus also on the systems that require it, namely White capitalism. This means that while we must continue to stand for our people and respond to each and every killing at the hands of law enforcement, while we must challenge the policing system and reimagine public safety, we must also reimagine economic structures.

Rejecting economic structures that profit from our oppression and building our own institutions that offer collective benefit is a requirement for Black liberation.

Happy #BlackXmas!

Previous Black Xmas demonstrations include “justice caroling” at an upscale L.A. shopping center, where activists changed the lyrics of classic Christmas songs to reflect anti-capitalist and anti-police sentiments.

In 2015, BLM demonstrators blocked traffic near major airports during peak times of the holiday rush, inconveniencing many travelers.

About 65 BLM protesters disrupted Christmas Eve brunch at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, the following year.

According to BLM, 1000 demonstrators marched in last year’s action, when they “disrupted White capitalism” at the Hollywood & Highland entertainment center.

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