Op-Editorial

By strategically organizing their annual, combined, $5.3 trillion in national spending power, a newly-united Black, Hispanic and Asian community can play a pivotal role, in very short order, in the effort to restore economic equity and justice to what has recently been called “Trump’s America.”

People of virtually every nation on earth had an opportunity to view the ceremonies on the ironic 20th day of January this year, as Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as the 47th U.S. president of the United States of America.
Few of the millions who were able to attend the event or to watch, in real-time, on broadcast news coverage or online platforms, could have had any idea that they were viewing the first official day of what turned out to be the first day of a rapid-fire, historically disruptive, process that would encompass executive orders to initiate mass deportations of immigrants who happened, also, to be people of color; for abrupt mass firings of tens of thousands of federal employees, including those at the FBI, the CIA, the IRS, the FAA, and the country’s nuclear defense agency, and the dissolution of the Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Also targeted for immediate dismissal has been the African-American four-star general who headed the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, among numerous other respected federal agency heads.
Even in the midst of the sweeping, Trump-generated chaos that impacts Americans at every level of the country, we believe the following information carries the potential to create a meaningful, grassroots resistance to those plans.
We are convinced that, with the support of everyday Americans, especially those from the nation’s especially targeted Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities, we can successfully implement a national campaign that can dramatically reduce the financial capacity of the president’s corporate and wealthy enablers to further implement his self-destructive national agenda.
We also feel very strongly that the proposed consumer spending initiative may very well be the last meaningful, amicable, citizen-driven opportunity to prevent the further dismantling of what has been the world’s leading democracy and its primary protector of global human rights.
If this effort, designed to be driven by strategic changes in consumer spending patterns with Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities, is not successfully carried out, we believe that flustered Americans might be drawn into a series of more severe, confrontational tactics in defense of their families.
Without minimizing the negative impacts that the new administration’s illegal actions have also had on other communities, we are, at the same time, making an unvarnished call to have Black, Hispanic, and Asian consumers join the nationally organized boycott against businesses that have withdrawn from their DEI commitments.
Indeed, we will be inviting Americans of conscience from every other community to join with us and to increase our impact, if they so choose.
**
It appears, now, that Donald Trump, and his minions, have begun to believe, mistakenly, that millions of beleaguered, frustrated, Americans have no options available to them other than to “cave in,” obediently, to the president’s ongoing, illegal, and insulting efforts to subvert the country’s national electoral processes and to systematically lessen the quality of government services that the world’s most respected democracy provided, without meaningful disruption, since its establishment in 1787.
On the contrary, many of us believe that there is no better time (at all) to finally inject an emphatic, course-changing action into the “mad dash to racist autocracy” that Trump’s illegally-managed second term is proving itself to be.
It’s time to introduce emphatic, course-changing action to this issue
That “emphatic course-changing action” we believe could certainly be a plan that would include the organized encouragement of our consumers (nationwide) in a strategic, “selective patronage” campaign.
Such an effort has been proposed by two national activist organizations, the Public Union and the recently founded Latino Freeze Movement–designed strategically to change the spending patterns of the nation’s Black, Hispanic, and Asian consumers, it is an effort to cease the purchases of goods and services from national corporations and retailers that have publicly announced the termination of their DEI-related commitments.

Choose to make purchases only from businesses that support us
The campaign organizers are also recommending that consumers seek out and patronize Black, Hispanic, and Asian businesses, and others that have not waivered in their support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), at every level of their operations.
In addition, the organizers are recommending that consumers seek out and patronize Black, Hispanic, and Asian-owned businesses to make their purchases for goods and services rather than to do so at businesses that have branded themselves as “DEI-deniers.”

Lists of supporting businesses & those that are boycott targets
Please remember that the “selective patronage” organizers and our local Philadelphia supporters, will be developing and distributing, in printed materials and on social media platforms, separate lists of companies that are “DEI-deniers,” and DEI-supporters,” as well as businesses owned by Black, Hispanic, and Asian entrepreneurs, for use by participating consumers as alternative sources for the purchase of goods and services, during the campaign, and afterward.

Combined consumer spending power, Blacks, Hispanics, And Asians
Those who might wonder whether organized community spending power can effectively impact sales and profitability levels at “DEI-denier” businesses, should be aware that the combined spending power of Black, Hispanic, and Asian consumers nationwide now stands at $5.3 trillion, a substantial increase over previous-year levels.
We also completely understand that there is no better time to leverage the fact that, together, our national communities now constitute more than 42% of the total U.S. population and 66% of the total population of Philadelphia.
We have faith that these facts can provide a foundation for relieving our current socioeconomic challenges and for ensuring the continued GROWTH And prosperity of the nation as a whole.

Philadelphia’s leading Black- and Hispanic-owned media outlets (Scoop USA Media, the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, Al Dia News Media, and the “Dishing’s” Daily Audio Podcast (DAP) have agreed to be key supporters of the two, national, game-changing, “selective patronage”/boycott campaigns that will launch on February 28, 2025.

Mario Ruiz, Co-Founder, Infinity Ventures: “Find founders who are Latino/Black who are going through the same experience as you are, and share. Those founder stories, you’ll realize, are very similar. A lot of the walls you want to break through are similar.”

Once we absorb the data below, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in Philadelphia and across the U.S. can more fully recognize the fundamental value, especially during politically stressful times, in working more diligently together, to unify and strengthen our communities.
At the same time, fortified with this information, we can comfortably begin to focus, more effectively, on developing new relationships and additional mechanisms that will enable us to work more cooperatively across imagined racial and cultural lines.
That would be, finally, the “Gift from God” that our communities have long needed.
Indeed, those same false divisions have led us, for far too many years, to keep our communities unnecessarily divided. They have also kept the country’s Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities from making productive use of their combined resources and brainpower and from being able to maximize the resulting tangible benefits that should have always flowed into our family units and our neighborhoods.
Once we look, closely, at the comparative population and spending power data here, we can more readily understand why our political adversaries have been so invested in efforts to keep us apart from one another.
The numbers tell us, among other things, that, with the power of our collective economic, political, and population resources, we can no longer allow ourselves to be simply dismissed as “minority” participants in U.S. society or its related, world-class economy.

How Strong Are We, Really, In Numbers?
Indeed, here in Philadelphia, as of 2022, the White community’s population percentage stands at 33.9%, and the combined Black, Hispanic, and Asian populations comprise the balance at 66.1%.
Such population diversity also occurs in most of the other urban centers across the U.S., wherein Black and/or Hispanic residents have become the largest population segments.
By way of example, the following specific listing includes a small but geographically representative selection of cities (nationwide), wherein the largest population segments, in addition to Philadelphia’s, now happen to be comprised of Black, Hispanic, or Asian persons:
*Selected Cities nationwide with the largest “Black Alone” population segments:
Detroit, Michigan: 80.38%; Birmingham, Alabama: 69.82%; Beaumont, Texas: 49.15%; Newport News, Virginia: 46.35%; Rochester, New York: 44.55%; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 42.01%.
*Selected Cities nationwide with large “Latino Alone” population segments:
Laredo, Texas: 95.15%; Miami, Florida: 70.20%; Allentown, Pennsylvania: 54.22%; Los Angeles, California: 47.2%; Providence, Rhode Island: 43.90%; Chicago, Illinois: 29.6%.
*Selected Cities nationwide with large “Asian Alone” population segments:
Honolulu, HI: 54.8%; Daly City, CA: 55.6%; Edison, New Jersey: 50.3; Enterprise, NV: 21.2%; St. Paul, Minnesota: 17.9%; Ashburn, Virginia: 21.6%
**According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Ashburn is a suburb of Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County.
We might even begin to think differently and more confidently about the roles we can play, together, in helping to produce positive changes across the nation and on both sides of the political spectrum.
As Malcolm once advised: “Once you change your philosophy, you change your attitude. And, once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern… and then you’re ready to take constructive action.”
**
Since the second presidential inauguration of John Trump, on January 20, 2025, Black, Hispanic, and other historically marginalized U.S. communities, here and across the country, have been faced, disproportionately, with a steady stream of mean-spirited, family-destructive, life-threatening pressures, including presidential orders to eliminate “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” program commitments, in both the public and private sectors.
Among other things, executive orders have been issued by Trump, which have been designed to strip those who now represent more than 42% of the country’s population and who possess an annual consumer spending power of $5.3 trillion as of year-end 2024 of our basic rights, for Black and Hispanic and Asian communities, to feed our families, to have the basic capacity to earn fair wages, or to establish our own businesses, and to have access to affordable healthcare.
Even as these disruptive, life-altering guise of saving yet-undocumented “billions of dollars” of “waste and fraud” have been made, we noticed that the recent, Senate-approved national budget also includes a whopping $4.5 trillion in additional TAX CUTS for larger corporations and for the wealthy.
BTW, that’s a trillion with a “T.”

This is absolute government budgeting hypocrisy!
It’s also a challenge that we, in the long-economically marginalized communities, need to understand and address ourselves, given that so many organizations and leaders that we have depended upon to “save” us over the years have failed to do so at this critical time.
That being the case, with our eyes now wide open, we must identify and harness our real, collective resources, such as our spending power, to generate the leverage we will need to return the federal government and the private sector to some semblance of fair and equitable economic and social policies.
In the case of the administration’s unrelenting efforts to demonize the concept of DEI, the country’s historically marginalized communities are being even more thoroughly excluded by disdainful executive orders, which are intended to result in even higher levels and more exclusionary public and private sector workforce recruitment efforts.
Disappointingly, too many of us have watched, helplessly as the doors of opportunity, with our government’s full support, have closed in our faces.
As a direct result of the administration’s aggressive, anti-DEI stances, Black, Hispanic, and Asian business owners have also been effectively eliminated from participation and large public– and private-sector contracts, bidding opportunities that situation well of course we will, of course, virtually eliminate the numbers of jobs those businesses have always created, in their respective communities.
Notably, at the same time that anti-DEI postures have become pervasive across the U.S., many business and public-sector leaders continue to agree with findings in numerous national studies, which have emphatically proved that the inclusion of people of color and women, in the nation’s business activities is not only morally appropriate, but it also carries significant potential for increased profitability, as compared to companies with less-inclusive business practices.
Specifically, studies produced by McKinsey & Company have found that companies with gender diversity on their executive teams show a 39% increased likelihood of financial outperformance.
Those same McKinsey studies uncovered evidence of a similar 39% better likelihood of financial outperformance among companies that recruited candidates who were people of color.
In addition, the esteemed Selig School of the University of Georgia has produced, for more than three decades now, its Multicultural Economy Report, which has consistently demonstrated that “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” have proved to be critically important policies for ensuring morally appropriate business environments, and that such environments also contribute, importantly, to the production of more profitable business outcomes.
Question: What could possibly be printed on the pages of those reports that would justify Trump’s economic advisors’ support for even further exclusion, in 2025, of qualified Black, Hispanic, and Asian job applicants who would be drawn from that 42% segment of the country’s population?
Appallingly, the rapid pace of excessive, vengeful regulatory impediments that the Trump administration wants to foist upon Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities and on the majority of working Americans has been historically unprecedented.
Sadly, far too many of us have felt isolated, powerless, and perhaps, even worse, lacking in support from our elected representatives. Those emotions have contributed to a loss of confidence in our own ability to respond effectively to the administration’s chaotic, illegal, and hurtful processes.

On February 28, the Peoples Union, and The Latino Freeze Movement, with solid, unified national participation and diligent support in Philadelphia, from independent Black, Hispanic, and Asian media outlets, are expected to be substantially effective in providing information to participating communities the coming year.

As Philadelphians, we have a rich history of community-led initiatives that have driven significant change.
As early as the late 1950s, grassroots Black community members in the City engaged in a highly successful “Selective Patronage” campaign under the leadership of Rev. Leon Sullivan, pastor of Zion Baptist Church, with a powerful “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” slogan.
Indeed, Rev. Sullivan launched his “Selective Patronage” plan in 1958, after recruiting 400 other Black Philadelphia ministers to encourage their congregations (300,00 people) to boycott Philadelphia companies that did not agree to provide job opportunities to the city’s Black workers.
Over a four-year period, beginning in 1959, Philadelphia’s ministers led successful consumer boycotts against 29 companies, and, by 1963, approximately 300 Philadelphia-area businesses had agreed to initiate fair employment practices that would, for the first time, include Black workers.
It should be noted that these actions all took place successfully, despite being afforded virtually no coverage (at all) by the City’s mainstream print or broadcast media outlets. The effort was highly successful, nevertheless, however, received strong and united support from the grassroots community’s shoppers, from the City’s Black church congregations, and from Black print and broadcast media outlets.
With that history of success, we should be extremely confident that we should be able to bring our critical messages and actions, forward to overcome the negative policies of the Trump administration and anti-DEI corporate interests for the benefit of Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities, and for all Americans of conscience, in 2025.
Let’s get this done!

This Op-Ed written by A. Bruce Crawley, for use by Al Dia, Scoop USA Media, and The Philadelphia Sunday Sun, concurrently