One concrete step being advocated by many mainline Black denominations is the boycott of Target during Lent, from March 5 through April 17. “We’re asking people to divest from Target because they have turned their back on our community,” the Rev. Jamal Bryant said in an interview with CNN. Bryant, who is leading the boycott, is the pastor at an Atlanta-area megachurch.
Target was previously a major advocate of DEI programs as well as LGBTQ+ issues. But after Trump’s executive orders vilifying DEI, it was particularly quick to backtrack.
Bryant says that 140,000 people have signed up at targetfast.org, which has also taken off on TikTok. Here’s how the group explains its thinking:
In recent days, we have witnessed a disturbing retreat from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives by major corporations—companies that once pledged to stand for justice but have since chosen the path of compromise. These rollbacks represent more than just corporate decisions; they reflect a deeper erosion of the moral and ethical commitments necessary to build a just society. As people of faith, we cannot be silent. We are called to resist systems that perpetuate exclusion and inequity.
And leaders of some of the largest Black denominations in the country will be in Chicago on Thursday, Politico reports, to announce a campaign to call out companies that have dumped DEI. So stay tuned.
It is, of course, not only Black church leaders who are resisting and urging resistance.
also this is just objectively incorrect and defeatist historiography. the Montgomery bus boycott was a boycott that worked; the Delano grape strike won because of a consumer boycott of non-union grapes; South Africa was brought to heel in large part because of popular opposition to apartheid, leading to large-scale divestment and eventually economic sanctions from even the most resistant countries (the US and UK primarily). hell even in recent years you don’t have to look far for the efficacy of boycotting tactics: David Hogg successfully got dozens of sponsors to stop running on the Ingraham Angle, and there’s a massive consumer boycott movement ongoing in Southeast Europe. the fact that it is more difficult to effectively organize a consumer boycott in the US does not mean it is impossible, and it is very silly to pretend that Americans have somehow—effectively—become mindless consumerists who can no longer voluntarily change their habits at scale in support of a cause they agree with
tbh I was only aware of the Montgomery boycott. thank you for the examples, I have some reading to do.