(Headline USA) Leftist activist Al Sharpton called for a boycott this week of companies ditching diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
A growing number of major corporations have announced in recent weeks that they are getting rid of their DEI departments and initiatives.
More could follow in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order this week banning DEI across the federal government and ordering agencies to encourage private corporations to abandon DEI as well.
Reacting to the news, Sharpton pivoted to his usual race-baiting.
“Why do we have DEl? We have DEl because you denied us diversity, you denied us equity, you denied us inclusion. DEl was a remedy to the racial institutionalized bigotry practice in academia and in these corporations. Now, if you want to put us back in the back of the bus, we gonna do the Dr. King-Rosa Parks on you,” Sharpton said at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C.
REV. AL TO CORPORATIONS DROPPING DEI PLEDGES: IF YOU ABANDON US, WE’LL ABANDON YOU
Civil Rights Leader Announces New Initiative to Identify, Boycott Companies that Abandon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as President Trump Vows to Scrap Federal Policies During First Days in… pic.twitter.com/xXdSH2RlSP— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) January 21, 2025
Sharpton also announced that his activist organization, National Action Network, will launch a new council to organize a leftist boycott of companies abandoning DEI.
He specified that he already has two companies in mind, though he did not say which ones they were.
“NAN and its allies form a council that over the next 90 days will examine what companies have shirked on their DEl commitments, as well as their profit margins,” he said. “Two companies will then be subjected this spring to a boycott by Black Americans, whom McKinsey estimates will have a collective buying power of $1.7 trillion by 2030.”
Since Trump’s election, companies such as Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Walmart, and even Meta and Amazon, have announced they will be significantly scaling back their DEI programs and hiring initiatives.
In a December memo announcing the change, Amazon called the policies “outdated.”
Both Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have cozied up to Trump in recent weeks and were invited to attend his inauguration on Monday.
