Viriginia-based entrepreneur DeShuna Spencer launched a website to track corporate responsibility for DEI initiatives. DEI Watch aims to help consumers decide which brands to support (or not).
A former journalist, Spencer, created the site to promote transparency and empower buying decisions. Though she is not promoting boycotts, she says, “But if you want to, we wanted to create a platform that’s as accurate as possible,” Spencer told Axios.
Spencer is also the founder of kweliTV (sometimes referred to as Black Netflix), a streaming service with over 800 international films, documentaries, and kids’ shows focusing on Black storytelling.
How does DEI Watch work?
Sections are categorized by “dismantled” (companies that have ended or rolled back DEI efforts), “committed” (companies with active DEI initiatives), and “funded,” marking important Trump donors — all with connections to company pages or news sources.
Spencer told Axios that she was shocked to find companies like Aldi, who had quietly scaled back their DEI initiatives, removing any evidence linked to DEI from its website.
How are Black consumers responding to companies’ DEI rollbacks?
After Target announced it was rolling back on its DEI efforts, many Black consumers shared their disappointment with the retailer and called for boycotts. Megachurch Pastor Jamal Bryant urges Black consumers to engage in a 40-day boycott, starting at the beginning of Lent on March 5, according to The Christian Post.
“McDonald’s, we can drive right through there. Facebook, we could log right off. I’m telling you that Ford, we can switch it over for a Chevy, but Target, how dare you insult and spit in the face of black people,” the pastor said.
Activists in Minneapolis, like civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, have been boycotting the brand since Febuary 1 to coincide with Black History Month. She called Target’s removal of DEI initiatives “completely unacceptable.”
Akshay Rao, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota, told MPR news that “Choosing to not incorporate those points of view is going to limit their ability to cater to those people, and that will have an effect not only because those people will go elsewhere but because competitors will then leap into the fray and say, ‘hey come talk to me. I’m friendly to you.”
Image credit: Kenya Downs
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