McDonald’s faces a national boycott in response to its January announcement that it would dial back some of its diversity equity and inclusion programs for employees.
The grassroots progressive group The People’s Union USA, has called for an “economic blackout” of the fast-food giant starting Tuesday. The group also helped organize boycotts of other major retailers this year, including Target and Walmart, for their retreat on DEI policies.
Earlier this year, Mickey D’s announced it would end its practice of aiming for specific diversity goals in senior leadership ranks. Additionally, the company stopped a program that urged its suppliers to implement diversity training and increase the number of minorities in leadership roles. It cited an “evolving landscape around DEI” for the changes. The January announcement came as President Donald Trump returned to the White House and issued several executive orders dismantling federal DEI programs and pressuring private businesses and institutions to do the same.
The boycott is slated to last through next Monday as “a show of strength, solidarity, people-powered change,” said John Schwarz, The People’s Union founder, in an Instagram post to the group’s 451,000 followers. “Let them feel it. Let them hear us. Let this be just the beginning.”
McDonald’s has not responded to NBC News’s request for comment. When McDonald’s announced the rollback of DEI policies earlier this year, it said it was doing so under a “shifting legal landscape,” such as the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to bar affirmative action in colleges.
The boycott means more pressure on the Golden Arches. Last month, the iconic burgers-and-fries brand said it had its worst quarterly U.S. sales since the early days of the pandemic. Even with an array of value meals, deals and promotions, “people are just visiting less,” executives said.
Beyond McDonald’s, Black faith leaders, including Jamal-Harrison Bryant, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside Atlanta, led a national boycott of Target starting in March. The retail giant also scrapped some of its DEI programs in January, citing “the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape.” The following quarter, during an earnings call, Target reported significant losses related to both the national boycott led by Black shoppers as well as instability related to tariffs being imposed by the Trump administration.
Other major companies like Walmart, Amazon, Harley-Davidson and John Deere, have dropped or altered their DEI programs in the wake of Trump signing an executive order to roll back DEI programs within the federal government, deeming them “illegal DEI.”
Many large corporations, like Delta Airlines and Costco, have publicly maintained their commitment to DEI.
McDonald’s has had a long relationship with Black franchise owners who set up shop in neighborhoods catering to communities of color, as well as decades of job recruiting for Black workers and marketing toward Black consumers.
