Black consumers can wallop Walmart

A large part of the campaign arsenals of President-elect Donald Trump and Republican candidates was an all-out attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. 

Conservatives successfully argued that DEI policies are discriminatory and, following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in summer of 2023, pressured corporations to drop them. 

To date, companies including Ford, Toyota, John Deere, Lowe’s and Walmart have given in to pressure that included threats of boycotts from some right-wing groups.

“Multiple companies in the United States have begun to walk back almost a decade of DEI progress, seemingly in a domino effect,” John Bowman, president of the St. Louis County NAACP, said in a recent press statement.

“The latest to join the rollback is Walmart, once a community partner with the St. Louis NAACP. In a disappointing statement, Walmart has decided to pull out of the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality index and not renew a five-year commitment to a racial equity center.”

Although Bowman’s press release didn’t specifically call for a boycott of Walmart, he did acknowledge the power of a social media boycott campaign against the retail giant aimed at Black shoppers on Black Friday.

Calling for “an appropriate community response,” Bowman went on to say, “Our dollars matter just as much as our voices. We are not powerless, and we can’t afford to sit back.”

Although Bowman’s press release didn’t specifically call for a boycott of Walmart, he did acknowledge the power of a social media boycott campaign against the retail giant aimed at Black shoppers on Black Friday.

“Physical boycotts are hard to sustain,” Bowman said. “But the social media campaign has caught on nationally and it’s very effective.”

There’s no empirical evidence of the latest boycott’s effectiveness but several videos posted online showed empty or near-empty Walmart stores on Black Friday.

One self-identified group of “Black organizations” wrote on TikTok: “We as community members recognize the power of our dollars. By choosing where it’s spent, a clear message is sent that corporations must prioritize supporting and uplifting minority communities.”

Boycotts initiated by either the “left or right” can be effective. Last year, conservatives lambasted another retail behemoth, Target, for selling so-called “woke” merchandise during Pride Month.

Activists organized boycotts, while other online “influencers” threatened the store’s employees or caused disruptions at locations. The campaign was so effective, this year, Target decided to eliminate its Pride collection.

Like the NAACP, another leading civil rights agency, the National Urban League, hasn’t endorsed a national boycott. It has condemned Walmart’s recent decision to end its DEI initiatives.

Marc Morial, the organization’s president and CEO said he was “dismayed by this decision.”

“I think what they did is succumb to a smear campaign, to threats, to bullying and to black mail by a handful of extremists,” Morial said on a recent episode of CBS Mornings.”

Bowman went even further than Morial, questioning the rationale behind the DEI siege.

“The whole thing is totally made up,” he said.

“As we all know, the initial inception of it back in the civil rights movement of the 60s and 70s was to address the issue of equity and inclusion in education and things of that nature. It was all about getting access which was never on an equal playing field.

“Since the end of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the civil rights eras; that hidden or suppressed racism has been there ever since. Then Trump came along and gave the green light saying, ‘white is right and everything else is wrong.’

“And now, they (MAGA supporters) have been emboldened.”

According to Bowman, (boycotts) are a great form “of attention-getting.” It’s also, along with protest marches, part of the NAACP’s legacy to attain equal rights.

“There’s an all-out attempt to openly revert systems back to the Jim Crow era,” he said. “I’m not going to roll over for that. The NAACP has been around since 1909. We have endured all types of obstacles and barriers and we’re here to do it again and again.”

Considering Trump and the Project 2025’s agenda, Bowmen suggested economic boycotts may have to serve as a precedent for what is to come.

“I think that’s the only way forward,” he stressed. “It’s just going to be a way for us to economically empower ourselves. This early round that’s been fired off should serve as a catalyst for how we should move in 2024 and beyond…it’s the only fight that they understand and the only fight that will empower us economically.”   

Recalling a recent conversation with his son-in-law, Bowman said he stressed the importance of the next generation joining the resistance movement.

“He’s a part of the next generation and I told him, ‘you guys have to level up!’” Bowman recalled. “I’m in the winter of my life and what they are about to do will be more impactful on my children and my grandchildren in a negative way.

“They have to get in this fight full throttle because they are about to see the rawness and the ugly hand of racism like they’ve never seen before.”

Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.