Calls for Economic Boycott Grow After Georgia Adopts Voter Restrictions
Dennis Romero, NBC News, March 29, 2021
Following Georgia’s approval of new voter restrictions Thursday, a number of voices are considering a boycott of state businesses.
The Republican-spearheaded legislation, which imposes an ID requirement for mail-in voters, has been criticized by President Joe Biden as “a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.
One of the loudest voices belongs to Bishop Reginald Jackson of the AME Church’s Sixth Episcopal District, who told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he’s calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola products until the company declares strong opposition to the new law.
“We will speak with our wallets,” he said. {snip}
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Others are targeting the state’s burgeoning film industry. Director James Mangold (“Girl, Interrupted,” “Logan”) tweeted Friday, “I will not direct a film in Georgia.”
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, has started a campaign to pressure Georgia-based businesses to oppose the voter restrictions.
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Voting rights platform Democracy Docket said in a statement Friday that Aflac, Delta Air Lines, Home Depot and UPS are among the companies being pressured to speak out against the law.
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Not everyone thinks a boycott is the answer. Bernice King, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, said such action could hurt some of the very voters it seeks to help.
“Please stop the #BoycottGeorgia talk,” she tweeted Thursday. “That would hurt middle class workers and people grappling with poverty. {snip}”
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