Now that Pastor Jamal Bryant has seen success from the Target boycott he has been spearheading due to the company’s rollback of its DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies, Bryant is setting his sights on Dollar General. In an interview with CNN, the pastor explained why he is focusing on Dollar General out of the many other companies that have also pulled back on DEI.
“We chose Dollar General because, quite frankly,” Bryant told CNN’s Erin Burnett, “they are three times larger than Target and Walmart combined and have never given to any organization within the Black community.”
“Dollar General is within five miles of 75% of Americans’ homes,” Bryant said, “and still no accountability. They are a contributor to food deserts—not just an absence of food, but absence of fairness—and so we wanted to hold them accountable.”
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Dr. Jamal Bryant is pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in the Atlanta area. In February, he called on the “conscientious Christian community” to participate in a fast from Target during the season of Lent.
Various corporations, including Target, have pulled back on their DEI initiatives because of President Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI. In a statement published Friday, Jan. 24, Target said it would conclude its “three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals” and also conclude “our Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025 as planned.”
Another action item was “stopping all external diversity-focused surveys, including [Human Rights Campaign’s] Corporate Equality Index.” The Human Rights Campaign is an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.
The final action item listed was “evolving our ‘Supplier Diversity’ team to ‘Supplier Engagement’ to better reflect our inclusive global procurement process across a broad range of suppliers, including increasing our focus on small businesses.”
Bryant had a goal of getting 100,000 Christians to make their commitment to the Target Fast official by signing a form at targetfast.org, and the pastor later said that 200,000 people did so. The Target Fast website, which has been revised as the boycott has progressed, named Target as committing the “highest insult” out of a number of companies rolling back DEI initiatives.
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