‘A spiritual act of resistance’: Black consumers are boycotting corporations retreating from DEI

(CNN) — Treece Jones used to shop at Target at least once every other week, spending between $75 and $200 on each trip.

Jones, a 32-year-old Black woman from Dallas, said she enjoyed browsing the store aisles for some of her favorite Black-owned brands including Pattern, Ezra Coffee and Design Essentials.

But when Target announced in January it was pulling back from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives — including a commitment to expanding Black employee representation by 20% — Jones said she felt betrayed.

“It was very easy for me to say, ‘Oh well, I can spend my Black dollars elsewhere,’” Jones told CNN.

She said she would no longer shop at Target. Instead, she plans to patronize locally owned retailers and buy directly from the Black-owned brands sold at Target.

Jones, a finance manager, joins a growing number of Black consumers collectively boycotting Target and other retailers that have reversed DEI programs in recent weeks amid backlash from President Donald Trump and his conservative allies.

Last month, Trump ordered all federal DEI workers to be placed on paid leave and signed an executive order targeting private companies with DEI programs.

Trump has suggested DEI disregards merit in hiring practices, saying his administration is “elevating competence over everything else, instead of the DEI policies that were pursued by the Biden administration.”

Across the country, faith leaders and civil rights activists are calling for boycotts, urging Black consumers to redirect their spending to Black-owned businesses or stores and companies that remain committed to DEI.

The Rev. Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, is leading one such boycott. He is urging Black Americans to stop shopping at Target and to sell their stock in the retailer for Lent, a 40-day period of prayer and fasting that this year lasts from March 5 to April 17.

Bryant told CNN he hopes at least 100,000 people will register for the ”Target Fast,” described on its website as a “spiritual act of resistance.” Participants are encouraged to purchase products from Black-owned businesses during this time.

He said the Minneapolis-based retailer has shown an “absence of conscience” by making pledges to the Black community after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and then reversing them nearly five years later.

“It is a slap in the face to that local community and to the family,” Bryant said.

Bryant said he is demanding that Target restore its commitment to DEI, including honoring the company’s $2 billion pledge to the Black business community.

A spokesperson for Target declined to comment on the boycott but shared a document outlining the retailer’s “Belonging at the Bullseye” strategy.

The strategy emphasizes a commitment to “recruit and retain team members who represent the communities we serve” and offer an “assortment of products and services that help all guests feel seen and celebrated.”

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney, said local activists are calling for Black consumers nationwide to boycott Target indefinitely, or until the retail chain reinstates its DEI investments.

Armstrong said many Black Americans viewed Target as an ally when it began partnering with popular Black businesses and promised more investment in the community. She added that the Minneapolis community, in particular, felt reassured by Target’s messaging following the uprisings across the city after Floyd’s death.

Now, she said, Black consumers feel as though Target has deceived them.

“There is a lot of frustration and disappointment with Target’s decision to cower to the Trump administration, especially after building a lot of their business model around diversity,” Armstrong said, noting Target was praised for featuring Black-owned brands each year for Black History Month. “It was shocking to see Target fall into their trap and abandon their core customer base.”

Taking a stand against corporate America

Faith leaders gathered in Washington, DC, on Presidents’ Day to call for mass boycotts.

Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, urged the Black faith community to unite in opposing corporations that retreat from their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“We’ve got to tell corporate America that there’s a consequence for turning your back on diversity,” he said. “My brother, my sister, if our diversity is not good, our money isn’t good. So, let us send a message that if corporate America can’t stand with us, we’re not going to stand with corporate America.”

Plans for a boycott scheduled for Friday, known as the “Economic Blackout,” have been widely shared on social media. This boycott urges consumers to avoid patronizing major stores and restaurants, instead spending money at local businesses.

The “Economic Blackout” is a reaction to the rollback of DEI programs and corporate price gouging, said John Schwarz, founder of the grassroots group The People’s Union USA.

“They are sitting in board rooms making decisions to benefit themselves,” Schwarz told CNN. “They need to understand that we are the economy.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) announced on January 22 it would identify two companies to boycott within 90 days for reversing their DEI pledges.

In contrast, Sharpton has also led what his organization calls “buy-cotts” at stores like Costco, which continues to support its DEI programs. NAN defines “buy-cotts” as intentionally patronizing a company because you support its policies.

NAN shared footage on Instagram of hundreds of its members walking together through Costco stores in Harlem, New York, and Union, New Jersey, to shop.

“Donald Trump can cut federal DEI programs to the bone, he can claw back federal money to expand diversity, but he cannot tell us what grocery store we shop at,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Companies that think they can renege on their promises to do better, bring in new voices, or abandon us will see the impact of Black buying power.”

The power of Black buyers

While civil rights activists maintain that the boycotts will impact Target’s earnings, some economists express skepticism.

Vicki Bogan, a professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, said Black Americans make up roughly 8.9% of consumer spending at Target.

The retail giant’s annual revenue for the fiscal year ending in February 2024 was more than $107 billion, according to a company news release.

Bogan said she believes Target, along with most other major retailers, would likely be able to withstand a boycott from Black consumers.

“The real power that people have found in boycotts is it raises awareness around particular issues,” Bogan said. “Raising that awareness could create negative reputational effects that can be costly in the long run.”

Adam Swart, founder and CEO of Crowds on Demand, said to make a significant impact, consumers would need to commit to boycotting Target beyond the 40-day Lenten season.

The boycott would also need support from beyond the Black community to be effective, Swart added.

Target “needs to see that this is going to be a permanent stain in their bottom line and they are going to permanently lose consumers concerned about these DEI programs,” Swart said. “And in an ideal world, it wouldn’t just be the Black community, it would be the broader community that is also concerned about those programs.”

Armstrong, the civil rights lawyer, said she believes Target will certainly feel the impact of losing Black consumers.

“To pretend that our dollars don’t matter I think is part of the problem,” she said. “We have huge buying power.”

The challenges of a boycott

Bogan said she worries the boycott may be difficult to sustain for many Black consumers, particularly those in “financially fragile” households, who might find local businesses and Black-owned merchants less affordable and accessible.

Many families are already seeking to save money due to inflation and job losses across both the public and private sectors, she said, and shopping at value retailers like Target and Walmart is often their best option.

“People that have lost their jobs, people who don’t have the wherewithal to weather economic downturns, they are not going to have the luxury of making more financial sacrifices for a cause,” she said. “Some people can, and some people don’t have that option.”

KJ Kearney, a community organizer from North Charleston, South Carolina, agreed it is hard to boycott value retailers.

“I’m in these Black communities, these poor black communities …” Kearney said. “And I’m telling you these people, their best option is Walmart or the Dollar Tree. You cannot hate these corporations more than you love your own people.”

Still, Bryant said that during the Lenten season, “the sacrifice is an inconvenience.”

A page out of history

Boycotts have historically been a strategy for political and social resistance in America.

Some of the most successful boycotts took place during the civil rights era, as activists sought to advance equality for Black Americans.

One of the most historic boycotts was led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, when Black people stopped riding the buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest racial segregation.

It followed Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a White man on a Montgomery bus. The city’s bus company suffered financially, losing 30,000 to 40,000 bus fares each day, according to the National Park Service.

The boycott led to the US Supreme Court ruling in 1956 that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

The Montgomery bus boycott was a “template for how to challenge racial segregation in the United States: nonviolent resistance; church-based; mass mobilization; litigation and negotiation and lobbying,” said Howard Robinson, associate library director for Archives and Cultural Heritage Services at Alabama State University.

But boycotts have also been used by conservatives to challenge brands promoting equality.

In 2023, conservatives called for a boycott of Bud Light after it collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, resulting in a 28% sales drop in the first three months, according to the Harvard Business Review.

“In the aftermath of the Bud Light controversy, many consumer brand marketing departments have become acutely aware of the potential pitfalls of taking stances on controversial social issues and have become fearful of experiencing a similar backlash and the accompanying financial and reputational costs,” according to the Harvard Business Review.

Bryant stated that his 40-day Target boycott was largely inspired by King’s work in Montgomery during the 1950s.

“I’m not reinventing the wheel, I’m just putting rims on it,” Bryant said. “What it is that we are doing is we are taking a page out of history of how it is that you effectively voice your objection to oppression.”

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