Holiday sales took a big dip over the weekend and some attribute it to #BlackOutBlackFriday. Get the deets inside along with info about President Obama's requests for police body cameras.
The numbers are in and both online and in stores sales dropped 11 percent, to $50.9 billion, from $57.4 billion last year, according to preliminary survey results released Sunday by the National Retail Federation.
While experts may place blame on the weather, gas prices or other external factors, we'd like folks to remember that a national call was issued on social media to "Black Out" Black Friday in light of the shooting death of Michael Brown and the uprising in Ferguson,
Maybe sales dipped because Black people care? And maybe people who aren't Black care? Rahiel Tesfamariam a social activist, founder of Urban Cusp, and the figure behind the Black Friday protest #NotOneDime told TheGrio,
“The fact that there was any decline in sales on Black Friday, but 11 percent at that, is absolutely significant and celebratory. The decline matters despite the fact that the mainstream media is not acknowledging its role. Ironic that so many cable news networks covered the boycott throughout Friday and online news outlets wrote about it last week but are not making the connection in their coverage of a sales decline.”
Hmmm....food for thought.
In Ferguson related news...
President Obama proposed a new funding measure that would potentially help improve relations between police departments and minority communities. On Monday, President Obama asked for $263 million in funding for police body cameras and training in the wake of the Ferguson protest.
The program would offer a total of $75 million over three years to match state funding for the cameras by 50 percent, helping to pay for more than 50,000 of the devices.
"This is not a problem just of Ferguson, Missouri. This is a national problem..."This time will be different because the president of the United States is deeply vested in making it different," said POTUS.
Sounds good right? We hope so. But, the measure needs congressional approval...and you know how Congress feels about anything attached to President Obama's legacy. Fingers crossed...
Photo via @UnitedBlackOut Twitter
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