Tuesday was "Blackout Day" — a day many in the Black community, as well as supporters, refrained from spending at anything other than black-owned businesses.
The day was inspired by a video posted online May 8 by Texas activist Calvin Martyr after the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
"The only way that we as a people will get any change is if we unite solidarity with the dollar," Martyr said in the video. "We spend one trillion dollars in this economy every year. We are a nation of people within this nation. We keep it going."
According to a 2018 Nielsen Report, Black consumers spend up to $1.2 trillion a year in the U.S. economy.
Martyr's video was picked up by the Black Lives Matter movement following the deaths of George Floyd and Black people. The movement plans to not only pause Black purchases for one day, but to put Black dollars back into the Black community year-round, Mashable reports.
"In order to break free from the chains of financial servility, we will organize days, weeks, months, and years if necessary when not one Black person in America will spend a dollar outside of our community," the BLM website said.
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