If only great ideas didn’t have to face a little thing called reality. Then again, if reality wasn’t an obstacle, every Liberal idea would have worked by now.

Such was the case for Actor Isaiah Washington when last week in a Facebook post he called for blacks to boycott work on September 26, 2016. He was “very sure that within 72 hours from Wall Street to the NFL…Black Lives Would Matter.”

Initially, the idea was hailed by his supporters…

If the whole US caught on to #StayAtHomeSeptember262016 it would literally be the biggest movement of all time!

— Aliana? (@_dontcomeforme) September 26, 2016

But then there was that whole reality thing and folks reminded Washington that they couldn’t afford to take a day off.

Isaiah Washington can tell everyone to skip work cuz he’s rich and doesn’t have rent and bills to pay

— Kimberly Anne Parker (@imanib123) September 23, 2016

Maybe that’s why he said “from Wall Street to the NFL”. People in the NFL and Wall Street are the wealthy. And Uber-rich liberals can afford to take days off and skip silly things like work.

What an entitled suggestion by @IWashington… everybody is not a millionaire like you. Most people HAVE to work. #StayAtHomeSeptember262016

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) September 25, 2016

Washington’s call to action was not only something only the wealthier could afford, it completely overlooks the value created by work, not to mention the inherent value of work itself.

Which is maybe why students at Reed College supported the idea and stayed in their dorms.

Reed College students boycott class in solidarity with the #StayAtHomeSeptember262016 move… https://t.co/DubfFf7aTK pic.twitter.com/aljP9jv8Ht

— Michael Mckenna (@michaelhmckenna) September 27, 2016

Thanks to the astronomically high unemployment numbers in the black community, African-Americans “staying home” from work is almost a foregone conclusion. That’s especially so for black teenagers who have among the nation’s highest unemployment of any demographic. For many, every day is #StayAtHomeSeptember262016 day.

Oddly enough, given such a high unemployment rate, it might almost have been more effective if blacks were to show up for work at randomly chosen work sites.

Perhaps Washington could have evoked real change by calling for something productive.  For instance, why not all pitch in to repair broken windows of innocent business owners whose buildings were caught up in recent riots? Or, maybe organize a collection from those wealthy Wall Street and NFL players to replace cop cars destroyed by rioters?

What is left unanswered by Washington and the boycotters was how does staying at home from work actually do anything to improve race relations, or their communities?

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Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson is a business and political strategist, and the host of the I Spy Radio Show (www.ispyradio.com), Oregon’s 2nd largest radio network show. He has written for journals, newspapers, and Laura Ingraham’s LifeZette.

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