This is the Injustice Boycott.
December 5, 2016 11:18 AM Subscribe
Today We Launch the Injustice Boycott in Standing Rock, San Francisco, and New York City
Intro: Here is how we will boycott injustice and police brutality in America
Intro: Here is how we will boycott injustice and police brutality in America
I heard about this a few days ago. They hadn't announced what cities they were planning to boycott, because they wanted to... drum up suspense? Or something?
People complain about hashtag activism, but I'd say it's nowhere near as annoying and useless as clickbait activism.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:30 AM on December 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
People complain about hashtag activism, but I'd say it's nowhere near as annoying and useless as clickbait activism.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:30 AM on December 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
That's a lot fewer cities than I was expecting, given the build-up. Also, it seems to boycott hypocrisy more than (or at least as much as) injustice. Cities that are known to be cesspools of injustice and don't pretend otherwise get to just carry on boycott-free.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:35 AM on December 5, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:35 AM on December 5, 2016 [6 favorites]
Obviously it's a broad movement in its infancy so understandably they are light on the details.
May their OPSEC be strong and the 0-days merciful.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:55 AM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
May their OPSEC be strong and the 0-days merciful.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:55 AM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is a great example of why I, someone who is nominally represented by some of the bigger activist movements in the U.S. this year have a really hard time actually supporting them.
As far as I can tell, this is all hype at this point. The NY daily news article was published on 9/30, but as far as I can tell, they've done basically no substantive planning since then.
The "official" Injustice Boycott webpage right now consists of a link to the Medium article and a link to a web form to provide my personal information to an unknown organization. I tried to parse the Medium article, to figure out what was actually going on but it's just vagueness:
Today, December 5, they are "launching" the boycott, but what they are actually launching is 9 weeks of "planning" for a boycott, and at the end of 9 weeks, if the cities, other governments, and businesses don't "meet the reasonable and humane demands" (which are not listed anywhere) they will "begin" do to a bunch of stuff.
Infancy or not, I have no way of knowing whether this is something I can actively support (by joining in), passively support (by not acting against it), or something I need to work to fight against. I don't know who "they" are, I don't know how to learn about or influence their policies. All I know is that "they" make vague threats and want my email address. It doesn't sit well.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:01 PM on December 5, 2016 [13 favorites]
As far as I can tell, this is all hype at this point. The NY daily news article was published on 9/30, but as far as I can tell, they've done basically no substantive planning since then.
The "official" Injustice Boycott webpage right now consists of a link to the Medium article and a link to a web form to provide my personal information to an unknown organization. I tried to parse the Medium article, to figure out what was actually going on but it's just vagueness:
Today, December 5, they are "launching" the boycott, but what they are actually launching is 9 weeks of "planning" for a boycott, and at the end of 9 weeks, if the cities, other governments, and businesses don't "meet the reasonable and humane demands" (which are not listed anywhere) they will "begin" do to a bunch of stuff.
- They will "begin" a "full tourism boycott." Ok, I know that that means. No travel to [places].
- They will "begin" a "comprehensive divestment plan." There's a definition of what that that means pretty much, but no details on whether 1/17 is "ok, divest now" day, or if it is "let's start identifying things to divest" day.
- They will "announce" a targeted national boycott of large corporations headquartered in those cities. I know how to boycott corporations, but how will corporations know if they are targeted? Has that been decided? will the list just go live on 1/17?
- They will "begin" creatively disruptive protests in those cities designed to inconvenience and shut down both commerce and government work. I'd want to know a hell of a lot more of who was doing this "designing" and what their ideas of "creative" are before I'd want to sign up for anything having to do with this.
Infancy or not, I have no way of knowing whether this is something I can actively support (by joining in), passively support (by not acting against it), or something I need to work to fight against. I don't know who "they" are, I don't know how to learn about or influence their policies. All I know is that "they" make vague threats and want my email address. It doesn't sit well.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:01 PM on December 5, 2016 [13 favorites]
I also find bizarre the "the cities know what the demands are!" demand. That is...not how boycotts work.
posted by corb at 12:22 PM on December 5, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by corb at 12:22 PM on December 5, 2016 [8 favorites]
Chiming in to also see if anyone has insight, especially to the NYC boycott bit, where Shaun King (the organizer) works for the NY Daily News. I just want to understand.
posted by knownassociate at 12:22 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by knownassociate at 12:22 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
so it completely muddies the waters for anything authentic and genuine? excellent intervention design by whichever agency
posted by infini at 12:22 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by infini at 12:22 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
How to defeat activism:
Start a really terrible activist movement and drum up a ton of publicity, thereby making everyone else working on the same issues look equally idiotic.
Public relations 101.
posted by MrVisible at 12:23 PM on December 5, 2016 [14 favorites]
Start a really terrible activist movement and drum up a ton of publicity, thereby making everyone else working on the same issues look equally idiotic.
Public relations 101.
posted by MrVisible at 12:23 PM on December 5, 2016 [14 favorites]
Shaung King is not taken terribly seriously in the progressive circles I run in.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:34 PM on December 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:34 PM on December 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
soren_lorensen, can you elaborate?
posted by knownassociate at 12:40 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by knownassociate at 12:40 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
At first I misread. I thought everyone was supposed to boycott all cities except Standing Rock/NYC/SF. That honestly makes more sense if you are going to call out cities for being full of injustice.
With the "targeted national boycott of large corporations headquartered in those cities" part, I look forward to the protestors being not at ignorant of the fact the City of San Francisco and "Silicon Valley" are 30 miles away from each other. Also, I look forward to all of them deleting their Twitter accounts since that company is in fact headquartered in SF.
posted by sideshow at 12:50 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
With the "targeted national boycott of large corporations headquartered in those cities" part, I look forward to the protestors being not at ignorant of the fact the City of San Francisco and "Silicon Valley" are 30 miles away from each other. Also, I look forward to all of them deleting their Twitter accounts since that company is in fact headquartered in SF.
posted by sideshow at 12:50 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm not getting this boycott deal, but I am ever so glad that the Standing Rock situation has been rectified in the favor of the Native Americans. This nation has disgraced them time and again from the beginning and it is appalling. Their fight was justified. They deserve undisturbed waters and our greatest respect as well.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 12:56 PM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 12:56 PM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Shaung King is not taken terribly seriously in the progressive circles I run in.
Yes. And this kind of thing is why.
Compare this overly-broad nonsense with the targeted policy goals of, e.g. Campaign Zero or local BLM chapters, who are lobbying policymakers directly (while using public demonstrations as a show of support). Or to the NoDAPL leadership, who are calling for divestment from specific banks who are directly involved in funding the pipeline, rather than blanket boycotts of entire cities.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:12 PM on December 5, 2016 [6 favorites]
Yes. And this kind of thing is why.
Compare this overly-broad nonsense with the targeted policy goals of, e.g. Campaign Zero or local BLM chapters, who are lobbying policymakers directly (while using public demonstrations as a show of support). Or to the NoDAPL leadership, who are calling for divestment from specific banks who are directly involved in funding the pipeline, rather than blanket boycotts of entire cities.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:12 PM on December 5, 2016 [6 favorites]
San Francisco and NYC were chosen because they label themselves as progressive, but their police departments are some of the most racist, violent, and uncorrected bastions of race-based harassment and brutality in the country.
I'm not a huge fan of Shaun King, but thinking these cities are somehow "progressive" when it comes to policing is dangerously naive.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:14 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm not a huge fan of Shaun King, but thinking these cities are somehow "progressive" when it comes to policing is dangerously naive.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:14 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I was on board with the concept of helping this particular cause, but...I got questions.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
We will begin a comprehensive divestment plan where we ask people to pull their money out of banks, financial institutions, and investment plans which we have determined either directly support racial injustice and police brutality in those cities or have chosen to remain silent in the midst of this national crisis. We will give some of those financial institutions an opportunity to publicly endorse the reasonable reforms of local activists before we publicly announce our divestment plan.Okay, so...when will I know who to boycott? And, how much leadtime are you going to give me about pulling my money out of my bank account if mine is one of those accounts? because transferring all your financial info takes time - especially if you have automated payments, direct deposit where you work, etc. I'd like the time to get that lined up and all...
We will announce a targeted national boycott of large corporations headquartered in those cities that have either directly supported injustice there or have remained painfully silent in the face of it. Willful ignorance is no excuse.
We will begin creatively disruptive protests in those cities designed to inconvenience and shut down both commerce and government work.Um....they're aware that some of that government work may be legal advocacy and social services, meant to assist the very people they're trying to protect, right?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
I am glad to see that my initial reaction to this has been repeated here so far. It seems to be too broad to be in any way effective, too specific to be generally embraced and rather difficult to grasp as a call to action. How do i support it from afar? not go to a place i wasn't going to go to? will they count the 280 million people who aren't, at any given moment, in either of those cities as participants? how does one boycott standing rock?
Over before it even began.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:29 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
Over before it even began.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:29 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
He repeats Montgomery like an incantation. There's a sense of imminence and apocalyptic menace in the article's length. I'll call it an expression of psychosis. And who knows? Maybe he is, or has been, simultaneously empowered and agitated by intelligence agendas, consciously or unconsciously (as frickin' Eisenhower qualified) seeking control. That's one interpretation of David Koresh.
Or maybe the attention and "activist" calling card alone is sufficient motivation for tons of people. I recently met someone like that on an onlline dating site.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 1:54 PM on December 5, 2016
Or maybe the attention and "activist" calling card alone is sufficient motivation for tons of people. I recently met someone like that on an onlline dating site.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 1:54 PM on December 5, 2016
SF and NYC not only have their own real policing problems, but--I initially felt very weird about it, and then realized, well, what else do you do? If you boycott Chick-fil-A, you know what happens? Every racist homophobic evangelical around starts deciding that it's actually their God-given duty to eat at Chick-fil-A, and Chick-fil-A--or Hobby Lobby, or wherever--starts feeling simultaneously persecuted and vindicated.
These are the two police departments in major cities that seem to me to both have serious problems, and be in cities where the population is capable and potentially willing to demand better of them. The places that can't necessarily just dig in their heels forever.
I'm not sure this is going to be successful, but on that particular score, I think they're targeting the right places. Clean up NYC and after that you can point to the NYPD and say that if they can do better, so can police in St. Louis, Cleveland, Houston, wherever, and they've no longer got the excuse that they're just doing what they need to do.
posted by Sequence at 1:55 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
These are the two police departments in major cities that seem to me to both have serious problems, and be in cities where the population is capable and potentially willing to demand better of them. The places that can't necessarily just dig in their heels forever.
I'm not sure this is going to be successful, but on that particular score, I think they're targeting the right places. Clean up NYC and after that you can point to the NYPD and say that if they can do better, so can police in St. Louis, Cleveland, Houston, wherever, and they've no longer got the excuse that they're just doing what they need to do.
posted by Sequence at 1:55 PM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
"You want to boycott cities (that are way more liberal than average for the US)?"
Wait, progressives weren't already boycotting very conservative cities post election? Um, because I sure have been. Red states generally, actually.
I will not disagree that there are some problems with the boycott as initially presented; and I am not here to say that I have all off the answers - but re-frame the concern here:
What cities should be targeted for a boycott-like thing, if not ones with a complacent liberal base to rile up into activists? This isn't Montgomery in the 1960's, we're not talking about bus fares not being sufficient to keep routes running and thousands of POC visibly walking their commutes.
You want to piss off people and get them motivated to make change? Go after their money. Wait, why should we target mostly liberal/progressive cities? Because though a city like NYC is Liberal Paradise for some, there remain nontrivial issues relating to race and class that are not well addressed. If 1% of people who do business or travel to these cities were to stop, that is a huge amount of impacted money. That's enough to get attention.
And all I have to do is take a look at my banking statements, figure out if my bank is based in NYC, and if so, find a different bank, and let my former bank know that is why I left.
"HAHA, I am not participating in your silly liberal boycott! I am making America GREAT again!" - please, conservative person, defy that boycott, and spend your money in our progressive enclaves - hotel prices are cheaper because of a lower demand and you get to see how the other half of the country lives...Maybe you'll be able to afford tickets to Hamilton and learn something about our Founding Fathers...Maybe you'll see an accepting LGBTQ culture in SF.
posted by enfa at 1:58 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wait, progressives weren't already boycotting very conservative cities post election? Um, because I sure have been. Red states generally, actually.
I will not disagree that there are some problems with the boycott as initially presented; and I am not here to say that I have all off the answers - but re-frame the concern here:
What cities should be targeted for a boycott-like thing, if not ones with a complacent liberal base to rile up into activists? This isn't Montgomery in the 1960's, we're not talking about bus fares not being sufficient to keep routes running and thousands of POC visibly walking their commutes.
You want to piss off people and get them motivated to make change? Go after their money. Wait, why should we target mostly liberal/progressive cities? Because though a city like NYC is Liberal Paradise for some, there remain nontrivial issues relating to race and class that are not well addressed. If 1% of people who do business or travel to these cities were to stop, that is a huge amount of impacted money. That's enough to get attention.
And all I have to do is take a look at my banking statements, figure out if my bank is based in NYC, and if so, find a different bank, and let my former bank know that is why I left.
"HAHA, I am not participating in your silly liberal boycott! I am making America GREAT again!" - please, conservative person, defy that boycott, and spend your money in our progressive enclaves - hotel prices are cheaper because of a lower demand and you get to see how the other half of the country lives...Maybe you'll be able to afford tickets to Hamilton and learn something about our Founding Fathers...Maybe you'll see an accepting LGBTQ culture in SF.
posted by enfa at 1:58 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
It seems like an alarming number of people have forgotten that punishment is not the only means of promoting positive change.
posted by yorick at 2:59 PM on December 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by yorick at 2:59 PM on December 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Reminds me of the logic of looting and burning down your own neighborhood, rather than the one where all the people who caused your anger live...
Boycotts in today's era seem useless to me. Unless 50% of the country participates, and is truly willing to stop driving, cut off their TV options and shop where they can't afford...
posted by Chuffy at 8:49 PM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Boycotts in today's era seem useless to me. Unless 50% of the country participates, and is truly willing to stop driving, cut off their TV options and shop where they can't afford...
posted by Chuffy at 8:49 PM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Here is how we will boycott injustice and police brutality in America
Lord, I hope it gets better than this.
posted by Sphinx at 8:51 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Lord, I hope it gets better than this.
posted by Sphinx at 8:51 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ain't so easy to boycott the police if they want to come beat you up anyways. It's easy to boycott DAPL backers :
How to Contact the 17 Banks Funding the Dakota Access Pipeline
How to Decide Whether to Install Solar Panels for Your Home
And avoid buying so much gasoline if humanly possible. Tesla's are wonderful if you're rich, but anyone can buy less stuff to reduce the gasoline burned in shipping.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:56 AM on December 6, 2016
How to Contact the 17 Banks Funding the Dakota Access Pipeline
How to Decide Whether to Install Solar Panels for Your Home
And avoid buying so much gasoline if humanly possible. Tesla's are wonderful if you're rich, but anyone can buy less stuff to reduce the gasoline burned in shipping.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:56 AM on December 6, 2016
They will "begin" a "full tourism boycott."
Oh my gosh, this will reduce our tourism from a humongous slathering horde of sidewalk-blocking idiots to a humongous slathering horde of sidewalk-blocking idiots minus like three people.
posted by fungible at 8:08 AM on December 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh my gosh, this will reduce our tourism from a humongous slathering horde of sidewalk-blocking idiots to a humongous slathering horde of sidewalk-blocking idiots minus like three people.
posted by fungible at 8:08 AM on December 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
FWIW, the first 'action steps' released today from this project:
Here is how you can join us in this effort. (Please do these actions only. We will step up the pressure day by day.)
Write the following tweet or craft your own with similar information. Be sure to include: @NYCMayor in any tweets you write. Here are examples you can cut and paste:
Example A:
Dear @NYCMayor - I am calling on you to immediately fire NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo. It's long overdue. #FirePantaleo #EricGarner
Example B:
Dear @NYCMayor - I am calling on you to fire NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo. He killed #EricGarner TWO YEARS AGO. #FirePantaleo
-- Ready, set, go!
posted by knownassociate at 12:01 PM on December 6, 2016
Here is how you can join us in this effort. (Please do these actions only. We will step up the pressure day by day.)
Write the following tweet or craft your own with similar information. Be sure to include: @NYCMayor in any tweets you write. Here are examples you can cut and paste:
Example A:
Dear @NYCMayor - I am calling on you to immediately fire NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo. It's long overdue. #FirePantaleo #EricGarner
Example B:
Dear @NYCMayor - I am calling on you to fire NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo. He killed #EricGarner TWO YEARS AGO. #FirePantaleo
-- Ready, set, go!
posted by knownassociate at 12:01 PM on December 6, 2016
Given how I don't use Twitter, today's call to action is a little... problematic.
posted by meese at 4:51 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by meese at 4:51 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
And avoid buying so much gasoline if humanly possible. Tesla's are wonderful if you're rich, but anyone can buy less stuff to reduce the gasoline burned in shipping.
Unless you charge your electric car with solar power, you're not doing much to avoid fossil fuels. Electric power plants don't work by magic...
posted by Chuffy at 9:36 AM on December 9, 2016
Unless you charge your electric car with solar power, you're not doing much to avoid fossil fuels. Electric power plants don't work by magic...
posted by Chuffy at 9:36 AM on December 9, 2016
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