In protest of perceived current injustices facing the black community, members of the Black Student Alliance will be participating in National Blackout Day on Friday. On this day, the black community will not be making purchases for the entire day.

According to a Oct. 11 news release, radio talk show host Warren Ballentine is calling for National Blackout Day throughout America. The black community is advised not to make a mad dash to the stores before and after the event in order for the full effect to be felt.

This event is being held in response to the Jena Six, Genarlow Wilson, Megan Williams and response to “all of the nooses being hung all over America lately,” according to a media advisory released by The Power Blog.

The case of the Jena Six took place in Jena, La., earlier this year when several black students sat under the “white” tree at their school; the next day, nooses were hung from the tree, allegedly by three white students. The events that followed left a white student beaten and six black students charged with second-degree murder for a school fight. Although Mychal Bell, one of the black students, was originally tried as an adult and faced up to 22 years in prison, he now faces a smaller sentence in juvenile court.

Genarlow Wilson was convicted of child molestation at the age of 17 for having oral sex with a 15-year-old white female in Douglasville, Ga. In 2003, the law in place charged Wilson with child molestation because the girl was a year under the legal age of consent. Although Wilson was offered a plea bargain, he refused to plead guilty, saying afterward in an MSNBC article, “It’s all about doing what’s right.” Wilson was given 10 years in prison, but was released from jail by the Georgia Supreme Court on Oct. 29.

Twenty-year-old Megan Williams was tortured and sexually assaulted Sept. 11 of this year by six white assailants. She was reportedly forced to eat rat droppings and dog feces by these assailants and was repeatedly beaten.

“This day is not just for black students, it’s for everybody. We are just trying to get the word out,” said Courtney Thomas, junior in pre-journalism and mass communication and secretary for BSA.

Peter Orazem, university professor of economics, feels this day will have zero effect on the U.S. economy and compared it to an event in May of this year in which participants agreed to not purchase gasoline.

“It is similar to when you have a strike,” he said. “If I know that I’m not going to buy anything on a given Friday, I have to stock up on what I need on Thursday for what I’m going to need on Friday or I’ll wait until Saturday to buy what I didn’t buy on Friday. At the end of the day, there is not really going to be much of an effect. It has more of a political effect than an economic effect.”

In order to spread the word effectively, a mass e-mail to the 700 BSA members was sent out and fliers have been posted around campus. Although the primary focus will be Friday, the event will take place throughout the weekend.

Thomas said although she cannot force BSA members to partake in this event, she has high hopes that this event will be a success.