Al Sharpton says DEI practices are a must for companies and he's got a plan to support those who are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion ... by buying their products.
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00:00Our position has been, we announced on Martin Luther King holiday and a big rally we had
00:07in Washington, that we're going to, in 90 days, release a boycott list all over the
00:14country.
00:15But in the interim, we're going to do a boycott.
00:19We're going to go and support those that support diversity.
00:22And you must remember these DEI programs are not only for blacks, it's for blacks, it's
00:28for LGBTQ, it's for disabled, it's for veterans.
00:33So our position is very simple.
00:36If you do not want to commit that you will have diversity in your workforce, diversity
00:41on your board, diversity on your C-suite, then why would you want to have diversity
00:46among your consumers?
00:47Yeah, there's some in the black and brown community that say, if you boycott stores
00:53that sell our products, that that actually hurts us.
00:57Tabitha Brown, in particular, said this.
01:00But I think that that is like saying in segregation time that if you fight for desegregation,
01:11I'm going to lose my job that is unfairly paid and unfairly done.
01:16We want black businesses to prosper, but we don't want them to prosper at the expense
01:22of dealing with the larger issue.
01:25We should take those companies and support them, put them online.
01:29We'd rally for them.
01:30We'd have buyouts with them.
01:32They should be calling us rather than trying to defend people who may give them shelf space,
01:39but we're not guaranteed that for the community.
01:41So there's a way to make both things happen at the same time.
01:44If Mr. Trump and his supporters can tell you, you cannot make sure that you have a diversified
01:52workforce, then they can't make a law to make us shop and spend our money where we're
01:57not guaranteed that there's going to be fairness.
02:01Diversity programs started because there was bias against those communities.
02:07Now you're going to tell me when we're trying to correct the bias that you're going to penalize
02:13the companies?
02:14No, I don't think so.