Consumers across the country are trying to hit large corporations where they hurt: their bottom line.

The group People’s Union USA is urging buyers to stop shopping at major companies like Walmart, Target and Amazon in protest of corporate control and following the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The first of the boycotts happened last month, with more scheduled in the coming weeks. The effort includes boycotts of various companies and retailers during different time periods.

John Schwarz, who started the movement, called for additional boycotts on Walmart from April 7-14 and a second broader economic black out on April 18.

The National Urban League backed last month’s economic blackout by urging consumers to be intelligent about how they spend their money.

“There’s a frustration in the community that only through the use of economic power can messages be sent to many in the nation, to businesses and others that rolling back equal opportunity, rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion, rolling back commitments that the nation has made and that many companies made and renewed and refreshed and enhanced during the murder of George Floyd is not something that we can support,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.

On President Donald Trump’s first day back in the White House he signed an executive order banning DEI programs and policies, claiming the practices created unfair opportunities for unqualified individuals. Private businesses — Target, Walmart, McDonald’s — swiftly followed suit, abandoning their DEI initiatives.

That resulted in an uproar of commentary on social media, encouraging consumers to boycott and pull their money from these corporations.

“Just getting people organized and getting the voice out, even through our own sort of apparatus of social media is viable,” said Robert Hanserd, an associate professor of African American culture and history at Columbia College Chicago. “But the kinds of things that we have to sort of be aware of is … boycotting in the context of broader strategies of resistance.”

Hanserd recalled similar historical economic boycotts such as the Montgomery bus boycott, the impact of that movement and the strategies used that could be mirrored today.

“I don’t think for folks in Montgomery and others who sort of got into the place of organizing this resistance, that they could see this continuum of this,” Hanserd said. “I think we have to look back as much as we look forward, in terms of our ways of resisting and organizing and using boycotting as part of maybe a broader strategy.”

The National Urban League and several other civil rights activists are also encouraging consumers to participate in a buy-cott — spending their money at local stores or corporations that did not roll back their DEI initiatives. The board of directors for Costco Wholesale unanimously opposed a proposal filed by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which asked the wholesaler to report the risks of maintaining its DEI policies.

Shareholders voted against the proposal at Costco’s annual shareholder meeting on Jan. 23, with 98% of votes cast against it.

“I think in this instance, the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion means a retreat from a commitment to equal opportunity and to civil rights, and we have to stand strong against it in every way,” Morial said.

The National Urban League’s legal defense fund filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging three of the anti-DEI executive orders. Morial said the economic boycotts will be a combination of movements and that the focus for these corporations should be on what their commitment is to diversity, equity and inclusion in terms of employment opportunity and business investment.

Experts say measuring the immediate boycott impact was slightly challenging. However, data from Momentum Commerce show Amazon sales increased 1% on Feb. 28 — the day of the first economic blackout — compared to the average previous eight Fridays. During the Amazon targeted boycott from March 7-14, sales increased 5.9% compared to the eight-week average. Another Amazon boycott is scheduled for May 6-12.

“How are we really going to generate something that’s maybe a combination of the social media, but also some in-person, or something that gets people maybe more connected, around some themes and in a better kind of way around the boycott and awareness, and certainly a way to reach people who are not always accessing the internet, because those voices matter, too,” Hanserd said.

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