Following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Black Lives Matter protests reached a high-water mark across the United States. The movement, which began in 2013 in response to police killings of Black people, became more militant, with protests engulfing major cities for weeks. The demonstrations spurred a national reckoning on systemic racism. In their wake, corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies ramped up the adoption of policies around diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI.
Such efforts were broadly popular: as recently as 2023, a Pew Research poll found 56 percent of employees positively viewed increasing DEI at work, and just 16 percent viewed it negatively. That same year, however, DEI professionals hired after 2020 were already being phased out, with tech companies leading the regressive charge.
Now, the backlash against DEI has reached a fever pitch. Since the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in 2023, dozens of state legislatures have advanced legislation aimed at outlawing DEI initiatives, and eleven have already signed such bans into law. Codifying such rollbacks is the latest shameful chapter in a decades-long push to undo the gains won by the Civil Rights Movement. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring DEI “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” and ordering federal agencies to terminate any “equity-related” plans, grants, and contracts. Following the order, the Air Force removed references to the Tuskegee Airmen from its training programs, the Department of Education put DEI employees on administrative leave and scrubbed websites of DEI training materials, and the Public Broadcasting Service closed its DEI office.
Retail corporations have largely followed suit. Target announced in January it would end a program designed to focus on selling Black-owned products and halt its DEI initiatives. Lowe’s scrapped their DEI programs, as did Walmart—the latter sparking a protest from shareholders. McDonald’s “evolved” its diversity efforts.
The People vs. Trump
In response to the corporate backlash against DEI, the NAACP launched a “Black Consumer Advisory” on February 15. Noting that Black people have $1.7 trillion of buying power, the advisory urges Black consumers to spend money at businesses that maintain DEI commitments, support Black-owned businesses, and stay informed about corporate rollbacks. In a press release, NAACP President Derrick Jackson said, “If corporations want our dollars, they better be ready to do the right thing.” In addition to listing corporations that rolled back equity initiatives, the advisory lists companies that have stayed committed to DEI, such as Costco, Delta Airlines, Apple, and Ben & Jerry’s.
Black-owned companies abound in Chicago. The local ecosystem of Black businesses boasts restaurants, salons, professional services, event spaces, retail outlets, real-estate developers, mom-and-pop stores and more. If you want to spend your dollar in the community, there are plenty of high-quality options to choose from.
Amid an ongoing authoritarian power-grab by Trump, his puppet-masters in the Heritage Foundation, and Elon Musk, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Feckless Democratic leadership seems unwilling or unable to mount an opposition to the coup, and ordinary people may feel our power is limited. But the dollar still reigns supreme in America, and it’s one thing the powerful—be they billionaires, corporate CEOs, or a president with dictatorial ambitions—pay attention to.
A boycott won one of the first victories in the Civil Rights Movement, and it remains a powerful weapon in the arsenal of justice. Shop local and buy Black.
