Spending dollars with businesses supporting our communities

By Dr. Anne T. Sulton, Esq.

JA Senior International Correspondent

This year’s Black History Month Theme is “African Americans and Labor”. Unquestionably, where African Americans spend their dollars significantly impacts the labor market and African Americans’ participation in various segments of the labor market.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) states: “We note forthrightly that Black Americans spend $2 trillion dollars annually as consumers of products and services throughout the United States. We now must evaluate and realign to question why we continue to spend our money with companies that do not respect us.” 

Dr. Chavis is referring to one of the reasons for NNPA’s call for African Americans to engage in a “selective buying campaign”. This national public education campaign encourages African Americans to forego spending their dollars with the following companies having publicly abandoned and dismantled their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, including Target, Walmart, Amazon, Meta, McDonald’s, Ford, Lowe’s, John Deere, and Tractor Supply.

NNPA Chairman Bobby R. Henry, Sr. said: “We are the trusted voice of Black America, and we will not be silent or nonresponsive to the rapid rise of renewed Jim Crow racist policies in corporate America.”