ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) – An Atlanta-area pastor is calling for Black shoppers to boycott Target after it eliminated its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policy.
Dr. Jamal Bryant, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, is encouraging the Black community to “fast” from Target for 40 days beginning Wednesday, WANF reports.
In early February, Bryant joined other leaders and activists in supporting a call to boycott the Minneapolis-based store, saying it “spit in the face of Black people” by cutting out its DEI policy.
After George Floyd’s death in 2020, Target began its “Belonging at the Bullseye” strategy to connect with the Black community by building employees’ careers, improving their shopping experience and promoting Black-owned businesses. The company announced it was ending the policy Jan. 24 in response to a White House push to remove DEI initiatives.
Bryant called for at least 100,000 Christians, no matter the race, to fast from the store by signing a pledge on Targetfast.org.
The pastor is pushing for Target to lose revenue, saying that “racist America does not respond to speeches but to dollars.” He said his plan is to “break the spirit of ‘white entitlement,’” as he explained that he believes the federal government’s push to eliminate DEI is a way to bring the United States back to Jim Crow-era living.
“We’re going to break the spirit of racism and sexism. The spirit is encroaching back into our community, back into our country and back into our corporations who are intending to take us back into the 1950s,” Bryant said.
The pastor said the fight against DEI is a spiritual issue that he, his congregation and the Black community will have to come face-to-face with.
Bryant highlighted how much Black people spend at Target – over $12 million a day – and challenged the company to give back to the community through employment and scholarships.
“If you’re going to take our money, you better open up your doors and open up employment and open up scholarships,” he said.
The boycott began Wednesday, the start of Lent, and will end April 17. The March start date was intended to give Black-owned businesses time to move their products from Target’s inventory.
Other companies that have recently scaled back or set aside their DEI initiatives include Pepsi, Google, Amazon, McDonald’s and Walmart, according to the Associated Press.
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