During the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped to organize boycotts all over the South in an effort to send an economic signal to those in power that you would not be able to discriminate against Black Americans and still get their business. The boycotts were meant to have a negative economic impact on those racist businesses or local government agencies, not Black-owned businesses and workers.
Fast forward to 2021 and you have major corporations and business entities having an open discussion about boycotting and pulling their business out of Georgia because Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats like Raphael Warnock have spread lies about an election integrity law that actually expands voting and makes voting more secure by doing things like showing ID.
The difference between the Civil Rights Movement and this “Woke Cancel Culture Movement” is that today, Black-owned businesses are intentionally being hurt economically because of organizations like Major League Baseball (MLB). On March 31, when asked if Major League Baseball should move the All-Star Game out of Georgia, Joe Biden stated: “I would strongly support them doing that.”
The President doubled down and made it clear that he was not going to oppose and call on MLB to back down off moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.
Biden set the tone that the White House and Democrats were going to encourage a decision that would hurt Black workers and businesses, giving MLB and others the push, they needed to carry out their devastating decision.
Following a call with Stacy Abrams and other liberal Black leaders, MLB moved the game from Atlanta, GA to Denver, Colorado, costing an estimated $100 million loss to the Peach State. Vendors, restaurateurs, car services, dry cleaners, barbershops, hotels, clubs, bars, accountants, churches, ride share drivers, hair and nail salons, clothing stores, and so many other businesses will lose out on the opportunity to grow their businesses.
Can you imagine holding on to your business through the pandemic, getting a PPP loan to keep the business going, and having a ray of hope come in the form of the Coronavirus vaccine and a major sporting event that would help you get back to normal only to have it taken away from you over politically motivated lies from the left?
These Democrats knew full well that Black entrepreneurs and workers all over Georgia would pay the price for this and they did not care.
On April 6th Biden admitted, “The other side to it too is when they in fact move out of Georgia, the people who need the help the most, people who are making hourly wages, sometimes get hurt the most.” Additionally, his own White House Council of Economic Advisors Chair, Cecilia Rouse, reflected Biden’s callousness towards Black small business owners hurt by this Georgia boycott when she appeared on Face the Nation and said, “there’s undoubtedly going to be a cost, I think that was the point.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) took issue with the way this Biden boycott was handled and how it would impact minority-owned businesses in Georgia. Last week, the RNC took out a full-page ad in the Atlanta Journal Constitution in the form of an open letter to MLB from our Chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, affirming how devastating this decision is and pointing out exactly who will pay the price…Black-owned businesses.
Part of the RNC ad in the AJC read, “…that’s how mobs work: with total disregard for fact, due process, and debate. Need proof? The MLB All-Star Game will now be held in Denver instead of Atlanta. Colorado also has voter ID requirements and has fewer days of early voting than Georgia (15, compared to Georgia’s 17). And whereas Atlanta is one of the most diverse cities in America and a center of Black American culture, Denver’s population is less than 10% Black. Facts just don’t matter to the mob.”
Tudy Rodney of Rodney’s Jamaican Soul Food said,“We’re trying to build back from a pandemic that happened last year, and something like this is not good for business. Rodney’s will suffer.” and Alfredo Ortiz who is a Georgia business leader said, “Your decision is punishing the very group you claim to be defending. Small businesses in Georgia are hurting and you pulled a multi-million-dollar rug out from underneath them…Don’t let activist groups weaponize America’s pastime to push radical ideas that MLB fans don’t support.”
The sad thing is there are many more people like Tudy, who want to speak out but are afraid of cancel culture and the powers that be in Georgia coming after them and further hurting their business. The woke mob already advocated for MLB to carry out this baseless boycott based on debunked claims about Georgia’s election integrity law that Biden and other Democrat influencers insist on pushing.
Georgia’s workers are paying the price, and the full impact of this $100 million loss in revenue is followed by threats of more from the woke left. Their cancel culture could mean that many of these Black-owned businesses will close for good because of the action of Democrats trying to prove a politically motivated point based off a lie.
Paris Dennard is the National Spokesperson and Director of Black Media Affairs for the Republican National Committee (RNC). Follow him on Twitter: @PARISDENNARD.