TAKE A STAND: It’s Time To Boycott Segregated Businesses

I have a call to action and it’s simple: boycott businesses who enforce vaccine checks at their doors. 

Those who know me know I’m not much of a revolutionary. I don’t protest. I have never even marched for life. Through the past countless controversies from the NFL to Nike to Starbucks canceling Christmas, I don’t think I have boycotted a single product, service or event. So for me to find an issue so insidious and so morally wrong in the context of American values that I am willing to actively boycott businesses, it has to be a pretty big deal. 

Segregation is fundamentally, critically, wrong. Throughout history lawmakers have tried to tell us that we are safer when we are away from each other. They used this argument to separate races in the south. They used this argument to put the intellectually disabled into jails they called “homes.” They used this argument to imprison hundreds of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry without trial. They did all of this pretty recently in relative terms. And there was no nuance, as they left might say there was. They said, flat out, it was dangerous for those “others” to be in the same room with those deemed pure. “This time it’s true!” They would say. This time, the threat is really real.

Across the country, liberal cities have instituted a mandate on businesses that requires all patrons to be vaccinated for COVID-19. This means that any individual who chooses not to be vaccinated for whatever reason cannot participate in society. They cannot have dinner out. They cannot attend a conference or an in-person meeting. They can’t go to the gym. They cannot receive a warm meal if they are experiencing food insecurity. This is medical segregation and it has to be stopped. 

The powerful have so far convinced the collective not to participate in boycotts because they cry “it’s not the businesses fault! They are just trying to survive!” But the truth is that if we all continue to financially prop up these businesses within communities with mandated segregation there will never be change. We will enforce the notion that there is no penalty on lawmakers for facist policies. 

When our forefathers decided that the King had gone too far with taxation policies – at no fault of the tea and sugar growers, distributors or retailers – they boycotted tea. And we don’t look back and say “wow that was really unfair to the grocery man.” When the segregated south made black citizens ride in the back of public buses, black Americans and allies boycotted the buses. When the government enforced a minimum taxi fee to make sure black Americans couldn’t use the taxi system instead of buses, they boycotted those too. And we would never look back and say “well they were just doing what they were told we shouldn’t punish small business.” 

The time is now to have the least amount of courage humanly possible. From a girl who protests nothing, it’s time to not go out to dinner. Boycott all businesses who enforce vaccine mandates as best as you can. You don’t have to be perfect. But do your best to put a pinch on these tyrants. Stand up for your neighbors. Boycott.