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Enter your city into the Atlas by emailing harrisandmans@gmail.com

Stay tuned tour dates for April coming soon!! 

Poet & Friend Jasmine Mans and I are launching a tour April 2015. More to come. stay tuned with momma-atlas.tumblr.com and join the mailing list If you wanna be sure our tour makes it to your town, university or venue email harrisandmans@gmail.com for booking. 

For the mothers out there. "Will Not Go Without" ft. JP Cooper and his song Grey Skies 

From White Guilt to White Grief

Any time we step outside of our reality and find that the world is not as we had thought, or as we expected, or as we had hoped, that experience is immediately disconcerting. We feel naked, exposed, vulnerable, naive, silly, complicit, uninformed and sometimes when we step back into our own perspective, we feel guilty.

I love all of my friends. I understand that sometimes when I talk about race it makes you feel guilty. You feel guilty not because you are white, but because you are safe. I ask that you would think of that uncomfortable semi-culpable feeling not as guilt but as grief. Grief that you did not know until now. Grief that you were not told until now. Grief that someone kept the truth from you until now. Grief that other people have been suffering under your nose all along. Grief that history was not equitable nor is society. Grief that America is not as it should or could be.

Mourn that grief. Sure it is uncomfortable but discomfort is what compels us to change. Then be comforted, and remember that you are in a great position to use your safety, your privilege and power to change your society. Don't let the discomfort of guilt keep you from empathy. Rather let your grief at injustice inspire you to listen, and learn, and challenge our current reality until it looks more and more like our ideals, until we all live in safety.

HANDS UP DON'T SPEND

In the wake of the Grand Jury's failure to indict Darren Wilson in the slaying of Michael Brown, we refuse to invest in a system that values our money but not our lives.  The black community has 1.1 trillion dollars in spending power, most of which does not go to our communities. Please join us in boycotting Black Friday from 11-27 to 12-01. 

  Some might be asking how boycotting can affect change? The owners of commercial companies are precisely the ones that fund campaigns, buy political officials, affect policy, and gentrify neighborhoods. These companies control property, they control advertising and they control jobs. Effect their profits and our demands will be heard. 

  You might be saying what about buying Christmas presents? To that we challenge you to be creative: make presents, cook a meal, volunteer to do a chore, go on a little outing. The cause is worth more than consumerism. Best Buy might got 50'' TV's for $200 but cops got that boys life for free. We can no longer make moral appeals to an immoral system. Instead we must target it where it hurts, its finances. Peaceful protests are ignored. Righteous rebellions are vilified. But the system cannot ignore nor afford a loss of revenue. 

  Does it work? Well, here are two examples of successful boycotts 

  Fruit of the Loom Boycott 2010- "The company crumbled in the face of pressure from the largest ever student boycott. In an incredible about-face the company re-opened a Honduran factory it had closed after workers had unionised. Furthermore, it also gave all 1,200 employees their jobs back, awarded them $2.5 million in compensation and restored all union rights. The campaign was estimated to have cost the company $50million." 

   Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955 -  This boycott beginning with Rosa Park's famous refusal to give up her seat on a bus, lasted over a year and lead to a supreme court ruling which desegregated Alabama buses. Black people walked to work for over a year, and effectively changed American legislation. For more information see the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott

For a more comprehensive list see this website.

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/successfulboycotts.aspx

The history of boycotting is a long one, with many successes and failures. What makes a boycott successful is not simply attacking a company's bottom-line but attacking their reputation. The most important boycotts are ones with the most media attention. We levy the charge against these companies that they are directly involved in funding a racist system that devalues the lives of its black consumers. In addition to not buying, we ask you to publicly voice your frustrations at these cooperations. Post your indictments on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Four Square. Hashtag #boycottblackfriday #black4brown 

  Furthermore we are calling for a boycott of Walmart throughout the entire Christmas season due to the death of John Crawford a black customer who was shot by police in a Walmart in Ohio for playing with one of their toy guns. Again, the grand jury failed to indict. Walmart did not protect its black clients. As a result, we shall strip them of all their black patrons. 

  We are asking that you distribute the flyer attached in this email any and everywhere for an hour today (Wednesday). Go to stores, malls, put them on cars. Wherever you can think of. Get the word out so that we can stand strong and stand together. 

  " 'Riots' are what happens in mega stores during consumer holidays. What happened in LA, Chicago & Watts [and now Ferguson] were 'rebellions'." - Ferrari Sheppard. "Let's export this rebellion to each of our communities. 

BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY. 

Sincerely,

Alysia Harris + Jennah Bell