Hey John,
Together, we've been celebrating #BlackXmas for the past few weeks. Good news – we're continuing to do so!
#BlackXmas is about disrupting white-supremacist-capitalism. It is about refusing to allow the same system that steals the lives of our people to throw us up into a consumerist frenzy and profit from us…especially during the holiday season. It is about being intentional with our dollars. Let's use our dollars to #BuildBlack, #BuyBlack, and #BankBlack.
Today, we're talking #BankBlack.
This is something meaningful and free that you can do for #BlackXmas that directly challenges white-supremacist-capitalism and builds Black economic power.
John – move your money to a Black-owned bank or credit union.
Did you know that white corporate banks like Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, Chase, and TD Bank finance everything from gentrification to private prisons to environmental degradation?
Citibank and Wells Fargo even financed the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Even after #FamiliesBelongTogether and ongoing protests got Chase and Wells Fargo to stop lending to private prison corporations like the Geo Group and CoreCivic,
Bank of America continued to lend to private prison corporations.
The gentrification of neighborhoods and displacement of Black residents is fueled by racist banking practices like redlining, with all major banks on the list and
TD Bank on record as the worst offender.
We could go on about how many
banks wrangled their initial profits from chattel slavery (including Chase, Fleet, and Wachovia), how they profited from segregation, and continue to engage in institutional racism, much of it detailed in Keaanga Yamatta-Taylor's book,
Race for Profit. Banks use the dollars that they are holding from their customers to do their dirt.
So when we bank with white corporate banks, we are literally financing our own oppression.
While banking in and of itself is a capitalist venture, none of us are stashing our cash under our mattress, nor should we. Many smaller, Black-owned banks actually build Black economic empowerment and racial justice into their mission. Banks like
One United have contributed to the Black Lives Matter movement and to the families of those killed by police. The newly established
Greenwood Banking seeks to recapture the power of Black Wall Street and advance Black cooperative economics.
When you move your money to a Black-owned bank, you are literally withdrawing it from the white-supremacist-capitalist system…and it doesn't cost you a penny.
For #BlackXmas, let's put our money where our mouths are!
-
#BuildBlack: Support Black-led, Black-serving organizations.
-
#BuyBlack: Spend exclusively with Black-owned businesses.
-
#BankBlack: Move your money to a Black-owned bank or credit union.
Let's use every tool in our toolbox, including our dollars, to make Black Lives Matter this holiday season, and
always. For resources and tools, including a
complete list of Black-owned banks, go to
blackxmas.org.
In love and solidarity,
Black Lives Matter
