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A group made up of community leaders, pastors and faith leaders are calling for a boycott of an Alabama Walmart store in response to the company’s recent decision to rollback diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to a press release.
The group said its boycott at the Roebuck Walmart location in Birmingham, which is part of a larger, national organization effort to boycott Walmart and other large corporations, will draw attention to the company’s decision, which the group said would harm minority contractors and workers.
“We as community members recognize the power of our dollars,” the press release stated. “By choosing where it’s spent, a clear message is sent that corporations must prioritize supporting and uplifting minority communities. Our spending habits have driven change throughout our nation’s history and can still do so. We must ensure that our dollars are spent with those who reflect our values.
“If Alabama has shown anything, it’s that when we stick together, we can create lasting change with the power of our persistence!”
Walmart announced earlier this week that it would join other major corporations in bending to rightwing pressure to roll back DEI efforts and ignore promises they made in the wake of the George Floyd protests to correct systemic discrimination in their hiring, contracting and company promotions. After several years of pushback from rightwing groups, many with ties to white supremacist and documented hate groups, and in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning affirmative action laws, numerous companies, including Walmart, are bending to the pressure.
The Associated Press reported that Walmart’s rollback of diversity efforts will be particularly appalling. The company plans to pull out of numerous commitments to diversity it made in 2020, following Floyd’s death, and will no longer consider race and gender when determining supplier contracts. It also plans to stop participating in a Human Rights Campaign annual survey that tracks LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace.
Walmart also said it plans to pay special attention to sales of items on its third-party marketplace to ensure products of a sexual nature or “transgender products” are not marketed for kids, according to the AP.
The boycott of the Roebuck Walmart begins at 8 a.m., according to the press release.
