Nearly five years have passed since I made Aurora James Instagram post This is not all.

In the wake of the death of George Floyd in 2020, and the conversation about the race in America that followed, the fashion designer went on social media and asked for adult retailers such as Whole Foods to adhere to the purchase of 15 % of its products from black -owned companies.

The campaign was very successful, and turned it Fifteen percent pledgedA non -profit organization that James has started to create a more fair economic future. Sephora become The first main company To adhere to the pledge in June 2020. So far, the organization says it has Restore approximately $ 14 billion of revenues for black owned companiesWhich are often small companies, through corporate partnerships. Currently, the organization says it has 29 active partners, including NordstromAnd yelp and Ulta.

But we now live in a different world. supreme court resolution To end the positive work in 2023, it was launched Cultural reactionAnd guarantee the first few weeks of President Trump’s second term Executive orders Specifically targeting the Dei programs in the government and the private sector. Many major companies have changed their programs and language about diversity and integration, either by making public data on canceling initiatives, or following a quieter approach by cleaning the DEI language from its annual reports.

Despite the decline in the company at the company, James says none of the companies that joined the pledges of 15 percent has bent this year. A surveyed by the organizationand In partnership with the Global Strategy Group, I found that 61 % of the registered voters said it was important for them that the companies they buy from companies are actively supporting Dei’s initiatives. Nearly 40 % said that if a company you buy from DEI obligations regularly or get rid of them, they will stop buying from them completely or will buy from them frequently.

James spoke with luck About the biggest misconceptions regarding DEI, the strength of the consumer boycott, and how its organization faces the DEI reaction.

This interview has been edited and intensified for clarity.

What do you think is the biggest wrong idea of ​​Dei?

This DEI gives people jobs or opportunities based on their gender or their skin tone without any data dependence. This is not what is going on around it. It comes to creating a variety of merit. Let’s actually make sure that we are doing an incredibly wide network, including people who cannot usually reach fire.

What do you think about The boycott that occurs now? There is “fast companies” among black shoppers in particular.

I think consumers definitely constitute the priorities of companies with their spending habits. I personally think that the provinces are really successful, but I also know that there is this huge group of consumers who really work, really, very difficult for every dollar they earn, and they only want to spend it in a place that is not in line with their values. There are many places to spend money, so why do you want to spend it somewhere you don’t feel satisfied with you? Or does not feel comfortable in the store, because you know that C-Suite or that their painting does not really appreciate you as a human? I fully think that we cannot ask people in this economy, when they work hard for their money, to shop anywhere that is not in line with their values.

How to feel the vision of companies like goal Which was previously very noisy about her support for Dei to make these comprehensive changes?

There are other people who have definitely flowing goal He is the big. The first idea I got for a 15 percent pledge was that I was on the phone with someone talking about the goal. They are their headquarters in this city, where George Floyd was killed [Minneapolis]. It was the pledge The general public discourse is somewhat continuous with themBecause they have always refused to take a pledge. I think this is because of [DEI] It was largely optics [for the company].

[Target declined to comment for this story.]

How do you think that companies that review their Dei initiatives will be in the long run?

If we look after a decade of time, it is true, we will see that many of these companies that have not been building a variety of thinking will really struggle. The biggest problems need the best and most diverse minds on the table to really solve it. And America, whether people want to embrace it or not, is a very diverse country. We know that small business is the backbone of the American economy, right? So what kind of effort to undermine diversity and integration is also a direct threat to small companies in America, which I think is a huge mistake.

How is the pledge of fifteen percent to move forward at this moment?

It was really about to double and try to support our partners.

I am a great supporter for small companies in America. I think this is the American dream. I think this is the way America is strong. I think this is how wonderful America. So the idea of ​​this giant [companies] Just to swallow everything is a disaster for me, and a disaster for ordinary Americans. I have a specific specific experience as a colored founder, and this helps me to do the work that I do in a pledge of fifteen percent.

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com

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2025-04-02 12:21:00