Small Movements for Broad Strokes: is society influenced by your support purchasing?

I was searching my email earlier for anything Michelle-related, and I came across a small, social network initiated mobilization that I would have otherwise missed! Here is an email from a group of friends back in June 2008:

Let's make history and let this be the BEST seller for Newsweek magazine. Pass it on.

This week make sure you purchase a copy of Newsweek Magazine with Mrs. Michelle Obama on the cover. I am VERY proud to see this beautiful, intelligent, African American woman on the cover of this internationally renowned magazine. GO TODAY, TOMORROW, or by THURSDAY and PURCHASE a copy of this publication. Make your voice and dollar count by making the newsstand sales of this issue surpass, not only their projected sales but make history. We have to continue to tell the media that WE DO PURCHASE and READ magazines featuring People of Color on their covers and this is a POSITIVE thing to do, not only for the 'political correctness' of it, but because we are AMERICANS of influence, power, and our presence 'Moves the proverbial needle' and sells product ( and not just CD's, Movies, Liquor, and Clothes).

Every day we are bombarded with images of African American women NAKED and DEGRADED. As Americans, we have sent images around the world that shows Black Women as objects and mindless subjects for men's pleasure. So it's a GREAT balance of TRUTH to have Ms. Obama standing Strong, powerful, and WITH A SMILE on the COVER of NEWSWEEK. Support this issue with your DOLLARS and let this media company know...GOOD JOB!!!!!

I'm not really sure what kind of organizing this is, but I think it can be considered the opposite of a boycott? For my purposes, I'll call it the support purchase. I understand that this is a traditionally important maneuver in the time when corporations controlled ideas of what America looks like. As a woman of color, I can understand the importance of this tactic, especially for marginalized communities to represent their interests. I've done it, too:

"Let's go to the new Filipino restaurant, because they're owned and run by Filipinos just like me!"

"Let's go see this band play, since they all do excellent community work!"

"Let's watch this film so that they know indie films matter!"
So, again, I am quite familiar with the sentiment.

While I think that building community is important, and how the above, as a mass viral email may have garnered support and pulled the recipients closer to one another for the sake of a united cause, I wonder what impact was actually made by the support purchase itself. There are a few objectives outlined in the email above:

To prove that Black/African-Americans "DO PURCHASE and READ magazines featuring People of Color"

Commend Newsweek for putting POCs "on their covers...is a POSITIVE thing to do" and to "let this media company know...GOOD JOB!!!!!"

To show that Black/African-Americans are "AMERICANS of influence, power, and our presence 'Moves the proverbial needle' and sells product" and that this community has economic influence beyond stereotypical associations with "CD's, Movies, Liquor, and Clothes"

To show that there is more dimension to Black/African-American women, despite being frequently depicted as "NAKED and DEGRADED" and "objects and mindless subjects for men's pleasure"

To show my best friend, "Ms. Obama standing Strong, powerful"

To make this particular issue a best seller.

Again, I am not questioning the good and supportive intentions of this email, but I find myself struggling with the lengths we need to undergo, as marginalized people of color, to qualify this idea that we simply belong in the United States. I'm just a little unsure of who support purchasing ultimately benefits: the community members who identify with MO, Michelle Obama herself, or the Newsweek media owners?

HOW DO YOU FEEL?
Do you think that support purchases really make a difference? If so, for whom? In this case, who do you think benefits from this? Again, in this case, should this issue have become a best seller, would that have been an accurate and genuine reflection of the "pulse" of American society?
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