It’s funny how corporations haven’t learned how we roll. Here’s what happened the last few times they tried to play in our faces.
During the Great Depression, businesses were showing their racism loud and proud everywhere, refusing to hire Black workers. Our forebears said, “bet.” “Don’t shop where you can’t work” became a nationwide movement. It led to massive financial losses for companies until those companies created jobs for Black workers.
Don’t sleep in Birmingham. Black residents boycotted restaurants and stores that had racist policies, putting those businesses in a world of financial hurt.
Remember the Montgomery Bus Boycott? For just over a year, 50,000 city residents, most of whom were Black, refused to ride segregated buses. Their boycott cost the bus system an estimated $3,000 a day or more than $1 million total (That’s almost $12 million today.) The financial pressure led to the Supreme Court declaring bus segregation unconstitutional.
In 1967 and 1968, Black residents in Greenwood, Mississippi, boycotted white businesses for 20 months, inflicting irreparable economic damage on the area and forcing the state to improve Black neighborhoods and encourage businesses to hire more Black employees. Today, corporations are rolling back DEI—but we can also roll back our dollars. Our money has power. Let’s spend it supporting each other.