Boycotts are about speaking up for what you believe is important. With so many decisive issues, and political opinions, the question is, where do you draw your line?
KANDAS MERRIAM
As the political climate in the United States has grown tense, and the nation’s issues become more polarizing, society has begun to search for a way for individual voices to be heard. Companies and corporations have started to voice their opinions and support those who align with them. We believe that boycotts are a positive way to stand up for what you believe in; but for protests to be successful there needs to be a conscious decision made, and we believe that the boycott must be purposeful.
Most people don’t understand what boycotts are or even what they stand for. Boycotts are about speaking up for what you believe is important. With so many decisive issues, and political opinions, the question is, where do you draw your line? Historically, boycotts have been used to protest civil rights injustices, gender inequality and human rights violations. With the rise of social media, boycotts have become less organized and widespread; recently they happen for a variety of problems that most often relate to current political issues. The success of boycotts has been incredibly varied. Over the past decade, it’s noticeable that most often a boycott is used when an organization’s political opinions or morals do not align with your movement.
It is important to note that a boycott can have effects past what your intention is. When a company starts to struggle financially, the first group impacted are the employees. However, the purpose of boycotts have stayed the same: to monetarily impact and economically exclude a company, not its workers, according to an article by NPR.
Oftentimes, people’s intentions are to harm the company or their sales revenue. Forcing the company to acknowledge the injustices, a change is made. Though, with social media gaining popularity, boycotts are changing. Media coverage can spread awareness about the issue to support what people are boycotting, but it can also raise questions as to moral integrity. Pew Research performed a poll that showed a vast majority of the participants questioned celebrities’ true intentions while speaking up or boycotting. The polls seem to indicate a common belief the influencers only did those things for clout, or to gain popularity. This led the public to wonder whether influencers truly believed in the cause, or if they simply wanted views, and more attention. According to the Museum of Protest, most boycotts never make an impact on the intended audience, as boycotting often requires an active sacrifice, and most protesters aren’t willing to make those choices.
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This begs the question, if someone “boycotts” a company or organization they were never planning on buying from, does it count as a boycott? According to Merriam Webster, for a boycott to be considered a true boycott, you need to stop buying or providing services for a company. Simply continuing to not buy from a company does not constitute a boycott. If the boycott does not affect your routine, or thought process, it is not really a boycott.
Overall, the Peoria Academy Journalism Club believes that boycotts are a positive way to stand up for what you believe. For protests to be successful there needs to be a conscious decision by many people to stop supporting the company. We believe that your boycott must be intentional and change a routine or a decision-making process. Media influence can impact how boycotts are interpreted, and their effectiveness, but overall, a boycott should give hope that when people stand together, anything is possible.
— By Lea Lagache, Ammini Guzzardo, Iyla Robinson & Emelia Stevenson