Tell the Billionaires We Ain’t Buying It
This week, we use our wallets like a weapon and remind every corporate giant that people—not profits—set the terms.
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In This Issue
Learn how collective consumer power becomes a weapon when we use the year’s biggest shopping week to hit corporations where it hurts.
Share bold videos and posts that call your friends, family, and followers into the pause — and remind them their dollars are a form of resistance.
Tap into directories and tools that help you redirect your spending toward local, Black-owned, immigrant-owned, and POC-owned businesses that actually invest in our communities and our future.
We’ve Done This Before. We Can Do It Again.
Corporations love to pretend we are powerless. They count on us to shrug, click “add to cart,” and keep their stocks afloat no matter how they treat our communities. They want us to believe Black Friday is inevitable. They want us to believe we cannot move the needle. But we have already proved them wrong.
When they tried to silence Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, viewers walked. Subscriptions tanked. Disney, Hulu, and Paramount watched millions vanish from their platforms. They lost the audience they took for granted. Our choice to leave hit harder than any petition. We showed them something simple and thrilling. If we choose to walk away together, they feel it fast.
The Big Three Made Their Choice. Now We Make Ours.
This Thanksgiving week, the We Ain’t Buying It campaign gives us a chance to use that same power with precision. It targets three companies that chose political access over people.
Target ripped out its diversity and equity commitments, cut support for Black employees, and removed LGBTQ+ products to appease this administration. Amazon funneled millions into Trump’s inauguration, as outlets like Axios reported, while its workers face unsafe conditions. Home Depot turned its parking lots into fear zones where ICE agents target day laborers who are simply trying to work. These companies made a clear choice to stand with cruelty. We get to respond with clarity. No spending. No excuses.
Black Friday Gives Us Leverage They Cannot Ignore
Big retailers treat Thanksgiving week like a sacred artery. Nearly one fifth of annual retail sales flow through this short window, and roughly 196 million Americans usually show up. They rely on us. They need us to behave predictably.
That is why this moment matters. When shoppers coordinated against the studios during the Kimmel and Colbert fights, those companies never expected us to pull the plug. We did anyway. Now we turn that same focus toward the companies enabling state violence, rolling back DEI, and chasing tax cuts while our communities struggle.
A temporary pause can echo. It can remind every boardroom that our dollars are conditional. That we notice. That we do not reward harm.
No More Corporate Holidays. This One Is Ours.
We Ain’t Buying It offers a simple blueprint. Skip Target, Amazon, and Home Depot this week. Redirect your spending to small and local businesses, especially Black, immigrant, and POC-owned shops. Take the pledge to become a conscious consumer. Then tell your people why you did it and invite them in.
This week gives us more than a boycott. It gives us a chance to practice the future we want: a community that defends each other, that refuses to fund cruelty, and that knows exactly how much power sits inside a collective decision.
If they want our money, they need to respect our humanity. Until then, we ain’t buying it.
Share these videos everywhere!
Where to Spend Instead
If we refuse to fund companies that undermine our communities, we get to lift up the ones that honor our humanity. Start local with Yelp’s Black-owned and Latino-owned filters and find the shops that keep your neighborhood alive.
For national options, browse the ByBlack directory at byblack.us, the Official Black Wall Street marketplace at obws.com, or the ShopBIPOC listings at shopbipoc.com. If you need online alternatives to Amazon, try BlackNile at blacknile.co.
I wont be buying ANYTHING this week unless I forgot something very important for Thursday's meal. In the event I forgot something? I will be buying it from a small mom and pop type of local store. As far as Friday goes? Nope!! No black Friday shopping for us! I dont buy a lot from big stores as it is but, its more than I would like. The not so much turns into nada for the week. I usually spend around 200-300 on house hold crap and a few non perishable grocery items. (All meat and produce bought locally or regionally.) It's not much but, if we all spend $800 less at Walmart every month, maybe they will take notice. But this week, especially Black Friday will teach them the hard way.. They are rich because of us. We can make them less rich too!"
I’ve never done Black Friday or Cyber Monday and don’t plan to start