Erica Caines: Anti-Consumerism

<p>In this episode, we sit down with Erica Caines to discuss Anti-Consumerism. Erica is&nbsp;a poet, writer, and organizer in Baltimore, D.C, Maryland, and Virginia. She is an organizing committee member of the anti-war coalition, the Black Alliance For Peace as well as an outreach member of the Black-centered Ujima People’s Progress Party. Caines founded Liberation Through Reading in 2017 as a way to provide Black children with books that represent them and created the extension, a book club entitled Liberation Through Reading BC, to strengthen political education online and in our communities.</p>

<p>Erica defines consumerism as the "buy, buy, buy" mentality where we are constantly bombarded with advertisements inducing us to buy goods we don't need with money we don't have. She goes on to speak about the subtleties of marketing or Influencer-based marketing. Erica unpacks the relationship between the promotion of luxury and consumerism and <strong>influencer networks </strong>across social and mainstream media. She faults the capitalist system for making happiness e synonymous with consumerism. Finally, Erica shares the strategies for shedding consumerism.</p>

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