My Wallet Is a Tool of the Resistance

After spending the last month ranting and raving online as well as feeling powerless against the horrid Trump regime, it recently just dawned on me that I am using a powerful tool under my belt besides screaming into a void or a bubble of like-minded people. That tool is my wallet.

How and why I’m withholding money from corporations that don’t share my values

Every other week, more and more corporations capitulate to Donald Trump and are ditching DEI initiatives. The canceling of DEI is especially egregious to me because as a Black, queer, woman, it will be harder for me to get hired or find a place to live. In addition to highly publicized corporations such as Amazon, Target, and Walmart, other corporations, such as Nationwide, have suspended their DEI programs.

Nationwide’s long-time marketing slogan has been “Nationwide, we’re on your side.” Well, a few weeks ago upon seeing on social media that this company bent the knee and showed that they weren’t on my side as a Black queer woman, I went on their website and canceled the pet insurance I had with them for my cat Hazel.

Since Hazel is nearly 16 years old, the chances of me being able to get another policy for her are nil. Pet insurance companies generally don’t like setting up new policies for pets over seven years old. I’ve since opened a savings account and started putting money into it for Hazel’s veterinary care that would normally have gone to Nationwide.

Nationwide isn’t the only company I’m boycotting. I don’t have a Walmart in my city, so not being tempted to go there is easy. Even if Amazon didn’t suspend their DEI programs, I likely would still think twice about using them again because they did me dirty.

I bought a gift card for my mother this past Christmas through Amazon’s website. Only she never got it. Initially, the customer service representative I spoke to insisted that it was delivered and she told me the date and the time of the delivery. Upon my asserting that my mother never got the package, the representative conceded that the package could have been stolen. She also stated that for me to get a refund, we’d have to file a police report and send it to them, which we refused to do. No police department anywhere in the country is going to take the theft of a package seriously.

So, the money I spent on the gift card went down the drain. I’d already canceled Amazon Prime months earlier so this aggravation with that company was the last straw.

Lastly, out of all the other outfits that have capitulated to Felon 47, Target has hurt the most. It was one of the few brick-and-mortar stores I could tolerate going to in person. I haven’t set foot there since they betrayed my trust in them. However, I don’t need makeup or groceries that badly if the corporation doesn’t respect my humanity.

Are participating in boycotts only for the privileged?

Having said all this, I recognize that my decision to boycott these corporations comes from a privileged place because there is nothing I currently consume that I can’t get elsewhere. For some people, particularly those in rural areas, Walmart may be the only store within a reasonable driving distance from their home. For others, Amazon may be the only or cheapest outfit that has the items they need. For those people, they may not be able to boycott these corporations even if they wanted to.

Then there is the argument that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, which is the economic system the United States is based on. Under capitalism, companies prioritize increasing productivity and profits at the expense of the environment or the well-being of the employees who produce the product. Usually, the answer is to support local businesses as well as those that don’t harm the environment, exploit or abuse their employees.

However, one criticism of ethical consumption is that it can be classist since local or ethical companies tend to charge more for their products. In the end, only wealthy people or those with disposable income can practice ethical consumption. There is also the argument that changing consumer habits fails to redress the alienating and exploitative qualities of capitalism because it leaves the fundamental structure of producing commodities via wage labor for profit intact. Ultimately, some believe that ethical consumption is a very individualistic form of politics.

Boycotts are my ancestral legacy

In my case though, I’m not withholding my money from spineless corporations who are prioritizing the policies of an incompetent bigot in a vacuum. Plenty of other Black people are doing the same. There are also plans by various organizations over the next few weeks to do rolling boycotts of the corporations who’ve shown that they no longer welcome people who look like me at the table.

There are also indications that the boycotts so far are working in some instances as companies such as Target are reporting falling stock prices.

For privileged people who’ve never had their rights debated, they may question how effective a boycott can be. Their privilege affords them the comfort and security of never having to do without. Unlike them, I don’t have the luxury to debate the usefulness of a boycott. My elders and ancestors used boycotts in the past to obtain rights.

For instance, the Montgomery bus boycott that Martin Luther King headed in 1955 not only led to the right of Black people to sit at the front of the bus, but it also resulted in the bus company going out of business. The fact that some people may think boycotts are acceptable in one instance and not another shows how they don’t regard Black people as unique human beings.

Under an increasingly oppressive regime, a boycott may be one of the few avenues I can use to resist. So, I’m going to use that tool to the extent that I’m able. As long as these corporations don’t value me as a human being, they shouldn’t deserve my hard- earned money.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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