Black Church leaders are stepping up pressure on corporate America as businesses continue to roll back diversity, equity and inclusive policies, and are trying to act as a countervailer to President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to DEI initiatives across the country.
The pressure comes as liberals try to figure out how they will respond to Trump’s culture war, and as Democrats work to improve Trump among black and Latino voters in the 2024 election.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion are not charity. It’s not handouts. The African American community is a valuable partner,” said Georgia-based pastor Jamal Bryant. Boycott of the target rear Retailers cut DEI initiative January. “That’s why we want to know. If you can take our dollars, why are you not standing with us?”
Shortly after Trump’s election, large companies like Meta and Google reiterated their DEI commitment in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Within the first week of returning to the office, Trump signed Presidential Order Eliminate DEI practices in the federal workplace. he Such a program is called “Danger, mean, immoral race and gender-based preferences.”
“President Trump is regaining common sense by removing DEI policies and once again deserving standard,” White House assistant reporter Liz Houston said in a statement. “Performance-driven companies see the value in President Trump’s policies and are following his initiative.”
But black church leaders see these boycotts, Bryant Announced in May That dollar public will be the next goal as a way to oppose the Trump fuel wave and hold businesses accountable.
Bryant says his movement has gained support from 2,000 other churches and over 200,000 people I signed his pledge Boycott the target.
Frederick Haynes, pastor of 13,000 Friendship Western Baptist Church in Dallas, said that participating in the movement reflected how he grew up in the influence of the civil rights values. He said that companies must recognize that they have a “moral responsibility” for profit.
“They have a responsibility to go morally inward, check themselves and recognize that you don’t have a US that is not diversity, fair, or inclusive,” Haynes said.
In a statement to Politico, Dollar General said, “Our mission is not to “serve others,” but simply to “serve others.” “Since its founding, we have been continuously evolving our program to support the long-term benefits of all stakeholders.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader who supported Bryant’s target boycott, said boycotting the company was one of the most effective ways to oppose rollbacks.
“The success of the Montgomery boycott is that it changed the law,” says Sharpton, founder and president of the National Network of Action, to protest quarantine by referring to the bus boycott of the mid-1950s. “We can’t do things as a complaint. We have to go for their revenue.”
It’s difficult to tell exactly how many boycotts are damaging a company’s revenue. However, Target CEO Brian Cornell confirmed that in May At least some of that sales will fallincluding a Quarterly sales drop by 2.8%which is due to “headwinds,” including “reactions to January attribution updates,” which refers to the company’s announcement to end the DEI program, along with concerns about consumer trust and tariffs.
A Target spokesman told Politico the company is “absolutely dedicated to promoting inclusion for everyone.”
“Today, we are proud of the progress we have made since 2020 and believe we can better serve our customers’ needs,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
But Sharpton said boycotting is still a powerful tool.
“The power that a black church has is that the people who attend the church are your main consumers,” Sharpton said. “You go to a black church with 2,000 people, of which 1,900 people shop.”
Sharpton is planning his own demonstration this summer. This is the Wall Street rally on August 28th, the 62nd anniversary of the march in Washington, for the work and freedom that Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “dream dream” speech. Sharpton said he deliberately chose the date of the meeting on Wall Street.
“This year I wanted to show the pressure to be doing these companies with DEI, and hoped to go straight to where there is an industrial fortress and stock exchanges, and said in your boardroom that if you don’t want to be diversified in contracts and employment, then you don’t have diversity in your consumer base.
But boycotts present challenges to church leaders. In some cases, the congregations have forgotten that boycotts are still on, Sharpton said – and he says that it’s part of Trump’s blaming this.
“One of the things I learned during the civil rights movement from [Rev. Jesse Jackson] And others, you have to keep people’s attention,” Sharpton said. You have to remember that people are “I’m not supposed to shop at that store.” Paying public attention is a challenge. ”
But Adam Clark, an associate professor of theology at Xavier University, said the church cannot be burdened on its own, especially when the president takes the stance.
“The attacks on DEIs are much broader than certain companies,” Clark said. “Trump is the pinnacle of all this type of white attack on Day. He has the authority to do what is happening in certain parts of the country. He makes it federal law. I don’t think the church itself has the ability to overturn everything that’s going on.”
