Why Pastor Jamal Bryant’s Target Boycott Demands Are Bigger Than a Storefront

Admin
May 24
4 min read

How Community Economics, Black-Owned Banks, and HBCUs Can Reshape Our Financial Future

On May 25, 2025 — the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder — Pastor Jamal Bryant will lead a boycott outside of Target. This protest is about the redistribution of power. And it’s about what true repair could look like when community economics take the lead.

The boycott isn’t calling for empty apologies or performative gestures. The demands are specific, actionable, and transformative:

Honor the $2B pledge to Black businesses through real purchasing and media investment.
Deposit $250M across 23 Black-owned banks to strengthen Black financial institutions.
Establish community retail hubs at 10 HBCUs to equip the next generation of Black entrepreneurs.
Fully restore and recommit to DEI across every level of the company.

These demands represent force multipliers for wealth creation in the Black community — and they align squarely with the work we do at Blaze Group.

Let’s break down why each of these four demands is vital — and how, together, they create a financial flywheel that lifts not just individuals, but entire ecosystems.

Shelf Space Is Capital

Demand: Honor the $2B pledge by purchasing Black-owned products and investing in Black media.

Retail access is as much about velocity as it is visibility. When large retailers like Target buy products from Black-owned businesses, they unlock:

Larger orders → higher revenues
Exposure → brand legitimacy → increased demand
Access to capital (since purchase orders support funding)

Black entrepreneurs face persistent barriers to getting shelf space. And when they do, it’s often one-time, short-run, or unsustained. Target honoring its pledge would create long-term, recurring revenue streams for Black-owned brands — the very thing we at Blaze Group help founders forecast and plan for inside our app and mentorship programs.

This is about circular capital, which builds jobs, competence, and intergenerational wealth.

Black-Owned Banks Must Be Capitalized to Serve Our Needs

Demand: Deposit $250M across 23 Black-owned banks.

Black-owned banks aren’t merely financial institutions — they’re mission-critical infrastructure across our communities. But many remain under-capitalized and underutilized due to decades of systemic disinvestment.

A $250 million deposit would:

Dramatically increase the loan capacity of these banks
Allow them to fund more Black-owned businesses, homeowners, and community projects
Keep capital circulating within the communities that need it most

At Blaze Group, we educate entrepreneurs on how to navigate and leverage banking relationships — but those relationships are only powerful when the banks themselves are resourced to say “yes.”

Funding Black banks is a systems-level play — one that builds economic durability for decades to come.

HBCUs Are Entrepreneurial Goldmines

Demand: Establish community retail centers at 10 HBCUs.

This is a visionary move — because entrepreneurship is learned best by doing. By creating retail centers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Target could:

Provide students with hands-on experience in merchandising, pricing, and inventory
Offer a space to test and scale their own product ideas
Foster local supply chains and expose students to real-time market dynamics

We’ve seen firsthand, through our Blaze Group accelerators, how quickly HBCU students absorb financial strategy when they’re empowered to own the entire process. Beyond building businesses — they redesign micro capital systems in real time.

This kind of program would not only develop individual leaders — it would create new industries from the ground up.

DEI Is Not a Marketing Strategy — It’s a Moral Obligation

Demand: Fully restore and recommit to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

DEI cannot be treated as a seasonal trend or a branding tactic. It must be a permanent, protected commitment to the lives and dignity of people who have been marginalized for generations.

When companies pull back from DEI efforts the moment they face pushback, they reveal the truth: it was never about justice — it was about image.

We’ve seen this pattern too many times. Performative pledges made during uprisings, followed by silence and abandonment when it’s no longer convenient.

But this work is not optional. People’s safety, livelihoods, and futures are at stake. DEI isn’t about a company’s bottom line — it’s about standing in the gap for those who’ve been beaten down, disenfranchised, and erased by systems in this country for centuries.

To withdraw that support when it matters most is not just disappointing — it’s disgraceful. And it’s exploitative to profit off of Black consumers while refusing to protect or uplift them within your institutions.

Restoring DEI at Target — or anywhere — is not about politics.

It’s about humanity.

It’s about doing what is right, even when it’s hard.

Especially when it’s hard.