Recently, I visited Greensboro Civil Rights Museum. Although, it was not my first time attending the museum, I had a different experience due to our tour guide, Robin. During the tour she said something that really resonated with me concerning protesting. We have all heard of the infamous marches during the Civil Rights Movement, however, what we fail to really evaluate are the boycotts. Robin began to criticize the recent marches, stating how groups march for any reason, but stated we fail to see a significant change because lack of boycotting. After thinking, I realized how true that was.
The Civil Rights Movement was able to be successful in many areas, because they were able to cause a financial burden on many businesses. Now, I won’t say Black people haven’t attempted to boycott businesses. I’m sure we’ve all gotten the Facebook chain messages telling us to boycott certain businesses for one month. Boycotts take unity and discipline. Many Black people were prepared to sacrifice convenience through boycotting businesses for months at a time in order to see change. This also brings the question, do we have anything to boycott today? Majority of our issues in the Black community stem from the systematic racism weaved within America. Can any financial sacrifice dismantle this system? I often wonder if we’ll ever deconstruct America’s institutionalized racism without a complete reworking of the government. Even with that, is it possible? The marches of The Civil Rights Movement did accomplish much for our community, yet the system is still constructed for the failure of people of color. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting a different result. Are we insane as a people to march and boycott in hopes of ridding America of her structured racism? These are questions we must consider. Questions I wish we had the answers to. Until then, we will continue to make a difference the best way we know how.