There’s a one-day Economic Blackout planned for today, 28-Feb-2025, partially in protest of the current administration’s attempt to rollback diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) efforts and boycotts of some large companies that have simply dropped their DEI efforts in response to the government’s discriminatory efforts. Many of the targeted businesses have been pulling in record profits for the past few years while increasing prices for the average consumer. Additional business-specific boycotts are planned for later this spring; some of them are detailed here.
Will this really help? I don’t know, I don’t recall seeing something like this done before. My thought is it can’t hurt. It’s a starting point, nothing more.
How else can you help? You could reach out to your representatives and senators, whether to thank them for voting against cutting our support services (my paycheck shows deductions for Social Security and Medicare, why should they cut those to give billionaires bigger tax breaks?) or reiterate your disappointment in their votes. You can find a local charity to support – a food bank, an LGBTQ+ organization, or something else – that will be picking up the slack as our tax dollars are misappropriated to help the rich.
You could even generate an Activism Bingo card if you want a checklist to work through.
It starts today, by simply not shopping.