The Mike Brown verdict, tonight,  was yet another slap in the face of a community brought to its knees with the lack of justice shown to those like Trayvon Martin, Michael Dunn, and Renisha McBride. So many people, especially young people like me, are furious. We’re frustrated with a nation that has told us our entire lives that things have changed drastically and we’re a post-racial society. We’ve been indoctrinated with lessons about Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, since Kindergarten, and assured that what happened in the 1960s ensured equality for everyone in our nation. We’ve been told that race doesn’t matter, and all we have to do is work hard and get an education and we too can grab a piece of the American dream. It’s not about color, it’s about character. All lies! Tonight was another reminder, that none of what we’ve been told is true. Things are starting to look more and more like the Jim Crow South and less like the post-racial utopia we’ve been told we’re living in.

Tonight was a reminder to every single one of us that color does matter and it matters as much as it did 50 years ago. Tonight showed us, without a shadow of a doubt, that if your skin is black you do not matter. You are not valued. It doesn’t matter whether you live or die and if you happen to die at the hands of a white police office, rest assured that justice will not be served. It’s an infuriating and agonizing reality to grapple with. It hurts and it is frustrating to not only know that black bodies are not valued in this nation, but to know that we were naive enough to believe that wasn’t the case. With that said, I can understand being enraged. As an African-American woman, I am enraged. I can understand wanted to protest and rally. I can even understand wanting to riot and loot. However, I don’t think that’s the answer. What’s the point of protesting, putting your body on the line, when the system doesn’t value black bodies in the first place? What’s the point of standing on the front lines, rioting, when those in power could care less whether your body lays in the street for 4 1/2 hours like Mike Brown’s body did? This is a system that doesn’t value black lives in any shape, form or fashion unless money can be made by commodifying us. This is a system that places high value on the almighty dollar and that is where our power lies. African-Americans have $1.1 trillion of spending power. $1.1 trillion. That is power and it’s a form of power that this system responds to. Our communities need to start boycotting and stop funding the very system that has shown time and time again that it doesn’t care about us. Let’s start boycotting as a people religiously and start with Black Friday. If this nation doesn’t value our precious lives, then surely they don’t need our precious dollars. There’s nothing wrong with protesting and praying, rallying and ranting, but let’s make sure we’re not standing in long lines giving our money and our power away on Friday either. #boycottblackfriday