DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — There is a new call to boycott mega-retailer Target after the store rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
“I am calling for a 40-day fast from Target,” Dr. Jamal Bryant of New Birth Cathedral told his congregation on Sunday.
The announcement sent shockwaves through corporate America.
Bryant said the fast or boycott would begin on March 5.
“Racist America doesn’t respond to speeches it responds to dollars,” he said.
Target was one of several major companies to announce it would dismantle its DEI policies.
Walmart, Lowes, Ford, and Amazon, also rolled back on DEI.
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On Monday, Channel 2’s Audrey Washington asked Bryant why he chose Target.
“Black people across the country spend $12 million a day at Target. But I wanted to hone in on one initially,” Bryant said.
Target posted its new “belonging at the bullseye” strategy on its website:
- Concluding our three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
- Concluding our Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025 as planned.
- Ensuring our employee resource groups are communities fully focused on development and mentorship. These communities will continue to be open to all.
- Further evaluating our corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth.
- Stopping all external diversity-focused surveys, including HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
- Evolving our “Supplier Diversity” team to “Supplier Engagement” to better reflect our inclusive global procurement process across a broad range of suppliers, including increasing our focus on small businesses.
“After the George Floyd murder, they went bigger than anyone first. They made all these grand promises and for them a few years later to abandon that, it really hurt their base,” Economist and head of KCnomics, LLC, KC Conway told Washington on Monday.
Conway said a nationwide boycott can really hurt a company’s bottom line, especially If people start dumping stocks.
“It’s showing that we’re not only just going to put our shopping behavior behind it, we’re going to put our investment behavior,” Conway said.
Bryant said there is now a website where people can sign up for the 40-day fast against Target.
“When Target sees the economic strength of African Americans and how we impact their bottom line, they’ll be quicker to come to the table,” Bryant said.
Bryant said by June, he should have data on how the boycott impacted Target. He said he will then plan a similar fast for other companies who dropped their DEI policies.
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