The Black Friday Blackout
This year, as the capitalist empire is demolishing the economy while revealing its fascist leanings, it’s hard to know how to balance finding joy while also not lining the pockets of our oppressors. Our communities are calling for a Blackout of all spending during all of Black Friday Weekend, including Cyber Monday. Target, Home Depot, Amazon, and Walmart are everywhere; and all of them are feeding the fires of violence against our BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and immigrant relatives. They do not deserve our money - but without them, where do we get gifts to bring joy into the darkest months of the year? Here are some ideas.
Your Local “Buy Nothing” Group
These can be found on sites like Facebook and NextDoor. This time of year, my daughter and I have a good time picking out good quality toys that she has stopped playing with, cleaning them up, and then offering them to someone on the “buy nothing” group so another kid can have a great Christmas surprise.
if you can’t find one of these in your local community, you might consider hosting a swap night with friends, or seeing if a community center or church can host that kind of event.
Make your own gifts
I am one of those people who goes deep into many crafts, so I have a lot of skills and supplies at my fingertips. That’s not mandatory to make nice handmade gifts. Salt dough ornaments, chocolate truffles, candy-filled Christmas poppers, and tea cookies are all gifts that can be made perfectly without prior experience, and about $10 covers gifts for the entire family. For more adventurous crafters, there are some cute ideas here at varying price points.
This year, I plan to take some of the craft supplies we already have in our cabinet and aren’t using enough because it’s disorganized; and making craft kits out of things we already own. You may find that making gifts out of inexpensive materials, when they come from the heart, still give our loved ones that spark of joy.
Give Experiences
Gift cards or certificates are often considered an impersonal gift; but when you take the time to choose your loved one’s favorite local business or restaurant, it can be a gift that lifts up your local community and shows thoughtfulness. Gifting trips to Children’s Museums, art museums, the zoo, or OMSI, support local educational organizations while giving your loved one a joyful time.
One of my favorite gifts ever was obtained in trade - my relative traded canning classes with a potter, and received a coupon for pottery classes. I love working with clay, although it’s an expensive hobby that I don’t spend money on these days, so it was an exceptional gift. If you have skills you can offer in trade, that gift doesn’t need to cost any money at all!
Support Tribal Businesses
Both tribes and tribal members have shops that may not specialize in toys, but may include them among the options for gifts for your adult relatives. These can be challenging to find as they’re not always clearly advertised as indigenous, however some of the easiest places to find them are at Tribe-owned enterprises like casinos and museums; and at tribal events like powwows and Tribal conferences.
Go to a Local Toy Store
While many of these stores have a lot of mass-produced wares, there are often small sections here and there that are dedicated to local artists or small toy makers. The map below includes a few wonderful examples across Oregon. Go to one near you, or make it an adventure and find a new one!
Buy Used
Kids grow up so fast and many of the items for sale in these shops are in pristine condition. My daughter found a beautiful sequined sweater at one that she has treasured for 2 years straight, even though it’s now getting short in the sleeves. Some examples around the state include Emma’s Bowtique in The Dalles; Piccolina and Beanstalk in Portland; Peppypotamus in Eugene; and Bugs & Butterflies in La Grande. The map linked here highlights many locally owned toy stores and consignment kids clothing stores across the state!
It can be hard this time of year to feel like by giving gifts, you are not contributing to harm against our human and animal relatives, or to the environment. It’s even harder when the economy is poor, and some of us who have had bountiful Christmases in the past are not able to do so now. But capitalists wants us to forget that there are so many ways to give gifts that don’t require spending a lot of money on lots of new plastic toys that will end up in a landfill in a year or two. Instead of filling their pockets, we can slow down, use our hands, and feed and care for our community; and that is truly a gift.
Know Your Rights
Boycotting: to withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest. (Oxford Dictionary, 2025)
There have been efforts to make the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) movement illegal, specifically related to conflict in the Middle East. This is not considered to be a settled area of law, as this specific conflict has seen counter-arguments that it is discrimination on the basis of a protected class, such as nationality or religion.
But generally, each person has the right to choose who they do or don’t do business with. And recommending that other people also boycott an organization is speech that’s protected by the First Amendment (NAACP. vs. Claiborne Hardware Co., 1982). It can get a little more complicated for non-profit organizations, or for organizations who accept grants from or engage in contracting with the US government. But when regular people choose not to purchase from a particular company, and encourage that behavior by others, we are exercising well-established free speech rights. The easiest way to avoid legal issues in that exercise is:
1. Make sure public statements about the boycott subject company are well-documented as true and accurate; and
2. In boycott-related public statements, avoid using discriminatory language related to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
The Path Forward
Each newsletter will pose a question, which you can answer on the Discord Server, and engage in building the movement.
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