Last week, we talked about how Target is currently panicking because their stock value, profits, and foot traffic are all down this year. This is a direct result of a nationwide boycott that’s in response to their caving to the president’s demands that American businesses get rid of their DEI initiatives. While Target is the most prominent example, there have also been softer boycotts of other companies like Amazon, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, all for the same reason.
Black Friday is one of the biggest retail days of the year, which gives consumers a huge opportunity to let certain companies know just how they plan on spending their money. A new boycott is being organized ahead of Black Friday. It’s called “We Ain’t Buying It,” and it’s asking people not to shop at Amazon, Target, and Home Depot from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. Organizers are asking consumers to shop at local “Black-, minority-, and immigrant-owned businesses” instead.
The “We Ain’t Buying it” economic pressure campaign, led by Black Voters Matter, Until Freedom, and Indivisible, calls on consumers to boycott Target, Amazon, and Home Depot from Black Friday, Nov. 28, through Cyber Monday, Dec. 1.
“From cravenly abandoning their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to enabling the terrorizing of our communities, corporate collaboration must stop,” the groups said in a press release.
They urged the boycott “until these major retailers cease collaborating with and enabling this administration’s harmful policies.” Instead, the advocacy groups, joined by the Working Families Party and the grassroots movement 50501, said they and consumers who join them will “invest our collective dollars in Black-, minority-, and immigrant-owned businesses, small and local shops and retailers that have stood firm for the rights and freedom of the American people. “
The coalition notes Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest shopping days of the year, with sales expected to reach $80 billion. U.S. online sales are expected to reach $253.4 billion between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025.
“From the day he stepped foot into office, Donald Trump has done everything he can to tear apart the fabric of our communities and strip us of our power and the necessary tools to help us resist his fascist agenda. Instead of fighting back and supporting the very people who put money in their pockets, corporations and retailers have bowed at Trump’s feet. But we ain’t buying it,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter.
“We ain’t buying that the wealthiest country in the world will punish the poor during the holiday season by withholding SNAP benefits. We ain’t buying that families can be torn apart and people kidnapped off the streets by masked ICE agents. We ain’t buying that DEI and racial justice commitments can be tossed aside at the whims of political convenience. And we ain’t buying that corporations are powerless in all of this.”
Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom, said, “These corporations can’t keep cashing in on working people and pretending their hands are tied.”
“They get billions in tax breaks while their executives pocket record paychecks and bonuses, but when it’s time to stand up against fascism and racism, they go silent. We see it, and we ain’t buying it,” she added.
The “We Ain’t Buying It” campaign follows the successful “Target Fast” boycott over its rollback of DEI initiatives, which resulted in Target losing significant store foot traffic, stagnant sales revenue, and, eventually, laying off more than 1,800 employees.
“We’re gonna make it a real blackout,” LaTosha Brown told theGrio of the holiday economic pressure campaign. “You can’t sit over there and we continue to give you our money and not hold them to account. And so I’m hoping that people start looking out for how we use our economic power.”
Instead of spending dollars at the targeted companies, the “We Ain’t Buying It” campaign is asking consumers to “shop small, local, or with businesses affirming our humanity.” The campaign is also asking the public to sign its pledge to be a “conscious consumer” and amplify its mission by spreading the word in their communities and online.
At this point, grabbing these big companies by the profit margin is one of the biggest ways that the rest of us can fight back. You want billions of dollars in tax exemptions? Then the people paying the taxes and living through the terrible financial consequences of the administration that you supported are going to spend their money on companies that align with their values. As evidenced by Target’s recent scrambling, it is working, even if none of them are willing to admit the real cause of their troubles yet. (They absolutely know, though.) I fully support and will be participating in the “We Ain’t Buying It” boycott. I hope it’s so successful that it we can hit these big companies so hard that they can’t ignore how badly they’ve f-cked up and begin to right what they did wrong.
In the meantime, here is a list of companies that did not capitulate to the president’s and his administration’s awful demands. It’s a little bit farther for us to travel, but we do most of our shopping at Costco and Wegmans now. Thankfully, they are close enough to one another to make it worth going there in one big trip. You can also always check the Goods Unite Us app, which keeps track of political donations that each company makes.
