Boycotts, Bombs, and Blood Money: “What the Brands of Today Can Learn from the Slavers of Yesterday” by Salaaheddin www.allstarsunitedenterprise.com
- Edward Clark
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
It started with a video going viral on social media.
A white man in a supermarket parking lot confronts a young family, just trying to load groceries into their car. The father swipes a SNAP card inside, and cash outside—picking up a scratch-off ticket. It's hardly a revolution. But to this man, it was treason. He storms out of his own vehicle, camera in hand, indignant, self-righteous. “This steak is for taxpaying citizens,” he yells, ripping it from their cart, like he's Robin Hood with a truck bed. “Not freeloaders.”
He’s not alone. There’s a growing army of civilian soldiers armed with indignation and ignorance. They’ll go toe-to-toe with a hungry family over government assistance, but they whisper like cowards when government officials hand $9 billion in taxpayer funds to private defense contractors—to build nuclear warheads designed to obliterate hospitals, schools, and apartment complexes in foreign countries that most Americans can't even locate on a map.
Where is that same tenacity when Congress signs off on genocide?
Where is the confrontation when a politician uses your taxes not for bridges, books, or breakfast programs, but for bombs?
Genocide is Good for Business?
Right now, around the globe, people are rising up—boycotting Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Disney, Puma, and dozens more. The reason? Their silence, complicity, or outright support of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Billions of dollars in lost revenue, plummeting public trust, and relentless global backlash.
But here’s the question no one is asking:
What happens next?
Because we’ve seen this story before.
Yesterday’s Slavers, Today’s Giants
JPMorgan. Wells Fargo. Bank of America. Aetna. Lloyd’s of London. Levi Strauss. These aren’t just brands—they're legacies.
Not of innovation, but of exploitation.
These companies profited from slavery—some insuring enslaved Africans, others accepting them as collateral, some selling policies on their lives like livestock. They looted bodies, generations, and dreams. And what happened? They issued apologies—in some cases 150 years later. They rebranded. They grew. Today, they manage trillions.
So how will McDonald's or Starbucks look in 150 years if they weather this storm?
Will Disney one day issue a PDF apology for standing on the wrong side of history—while still licensing their characters to whoever can pay?
Will Nestlé, the company accused of child labor in Africa, and now accused of moral bankruptcy in Palestine, continue feeding children on one continent while contributing to the deaths of others on another?
If history is any guide: the answer is yes.
Unless we stop them now.
Boycott is the Bare Minimum
Boycotts are important. They are nonviolent weapons of mass accountability. They bring corporations to the table when conscience fails to. But they are also *the floor*, not the ceiling.
Real resistance comes when we understand the system, not just the symptoms.
This isn't just about one company or one country. It’s about a global order where *brands double as governments*, where *corporations fund war*, then **sponsor concerts** to clean their image, and where the people holding steak from poor folks' carts won’t lift a finger against trillion-dollar institutions stealing from all of us.
Future-Proofing Justice
Here’s the truth no one wants to say: the companies supporting genocide today already know they’ll be fine tomorrow*.
They’re betting on forgetfulness. On consumer amnesia. On our addiction to convenience.
But what if they’re wrong?
What if this generation doesn't let them forget?
What if, 150 years from now, someone says:
"Starbucks grew rich during the Gaza War. They tried to sue their own workers for standing with Palestine. They never paid reparations. But the boycott never stopped. And eventually, it worked."
What if Nike isn’t remembered for Just Doing It, but for Justifying It?
What if we finally broke the cycle?
Be the Disruptor. Be the Mirror. Be the Memory.
The man in the parking lot thought he was protecting America. In truth, he was a symptom of its sickness. Policing poor people with moral rage, while billion-dollar companies commit moral crimes with bipartisan blessings.
The next time someone takes steak from a hungry family's cart, ask if they’d dare do the same to a senator who signed off on genocide.
Ask if they’ve ever screamed at Raytheon, or Lockheed Martin, or ExxonMobil for stealing more than food—for stealing futures.
If they haven’t, then they’re not patriots.
They’re just bullies with bad priorities.
We Don’t Need Another Apology in 150 Years.
We need justice now.
And if history is repeating itself, then we must be the interruption.
Not for the next boycott—but for the last one we ever have to make.
By Salaaheddin
Artist. Activist. Architect of Accountability.
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