Activists plan to protest some Greater Cleveland Home Depot and Target stores on Black Friday to bring economic pressure on companies that support Trump administration policies they say have been harmful, especially to immigrants and the Black community.
A protest directed at the Home Depot and Target stores on West 117th Street in Cleveland, scheduled for 10:30 a.m., is included in a national boycott that starts on Black Friday and continues through Cyber Monday. A 9:30 a.m. protest, aimed at the Home Depot at Severance Town Center in Cleveland Heights, will focus on immigration raids that have occurred at stores throughout the United States that are part of the home improvement chain.
The West 117th Street protest is officially part of the We Ain’t Buying It campaign, which includes the national four-day boycott of Target, Amazon and Home Depot. The campaign urges shoppers to redirect their spending to Black entrepreneurs, businesses owned by other people of color and small and locally owned businesses.
Money talks. As long as these corporations think it is more economically viable to just go along with this Trump administration, they’ll keep doing that. We need to leverage our collective economic power and our ability to withhold our purchasing, so they won’t do that.”
Kameron Damaska, organizer of the Black Friday protest of the Home Depot and Target stores on West 117th Street, on the national boycott of Home Depot, Target and Amazon.
Protesters will gather at 10:30 a.m. at Madison Avenue and West 117th Street, near the RTA station, before marching to demonstrate near the Home Depot and Target stores, said Kameron Damaska, an organizer with 50501, a national protest movement against Trump administration policies, who is in charge of the West 117th Street demonstration.
“Money talks,” he said. “As long as these corporations think it is more economically viable to just go along with this Trump administration, they’ll keep doing that. We need to leverage our collective economic power and our ability to withhold our purchasing, so they won’t do that.”
The campaign is taking aim at Target for rolling back DEI initiatives after the Trump administration opposed them, Damaska said. Many Black organizations and consumers have been boycotting Target for months, including in Greater Cleveland.
Target has invested $100 million in Black-led community organizations and intends to complete its commitment to invest $2 billion in Black-owned businesses, a Target spokeswoman emailed Signal Cleveland. Her email didn’t address questions about the planned protest.
Among the reasons We Ain’t Buying It is boycotting Amazon is that the company contributed to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. The campaign is boycotting Home Depot because it says the chain has not spoken out against ICE agents arresting or taking into custody day laborers posted outside of its stores looking for work from area contractors.
“At the very least, Home Depot could put out a statement condemning the operations that are happening because businesses have certain rights when it comes to allowing anyone on their private businesses,” Damaska said.
Signal Cleveland has contacted Home Depot about the Cleveland area demonstrations. We will update the story with the company’s comments when we receive them.
Black Friday protest near Home Depot at Severance Town Center
Cleveland Heights resident Rebecca Weiss said that she decided to organize a protest near the Severance Town Center Home Depot because she believes “Home Depot is not protecting its own employees from ICE raids.”
“This really isn’t about my views about the Trump administration, but it is what Home Depot is doing in response to Trump administration policies,” she said.
The two-hour demonstration will take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on public property at the Taylor Road entrance to Severance Town Center. If the weather is too inclement, Weiss said, she will call off the protest. While it will not be an official We Ain’t Buying It demonstration, Weiss said she supports the campaign, including the boycott. Members of organizations that are part of the We Ain’t Buying It campaign are expected to be part of her protest.
Boycott rationale: ‘Communities, not corporations, hold the power’
Black Voters Matter, Indivisible, a resistance organization against the Trump administration, and Until Freedom, a social justice organization, launched We Ain’t Buying It earlier this month.
“The groups are calling on consumers to make clear to retailers that communities, not corporations, hold the power,” they wrote in a news release announcing the campaign.
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists is among the organizations supporting the campaign. Pamela Mason, who is active in CBTU’s Cleveland chapter and is an organizer for the region that includes Ohio, said she plans to attend a Black Friday protest.
She emphasized that boycotting of these major retailers doesn’t mean people can’t do Christmas shopping. She said there are alternatives.
“I would highly recommend that Black people and others take their dollars and spend them with Black entrepreneurs and small businesses,” she said. “These multi-billion dollar corporations are not doing anything to stabilize democracy.”