Performing for Praise: Three well-known businesses who consistently participate in performative activism in the media

As I open Instagram and see brands like Home Depot and Buzzfeed’s new rainbow profile picture along with their tweets supporting the BLM movement, I’m proud to support companies that stand for movements that I believe in.

Then I see my favorite LGBTQ+ and POC creators’ posts exposing the chains for performative activism, with captions like, “Home Depot is the biggest donor to 2020 presidential election objectors.”

Wait…what?

But the company just tweeted “Happy #Pride! We’re reflecting and celebrating the LGBTQ community…” How could they be supporting the LGBTQ+ community and donating to racist and homophobic politicians at the same time?

Many businesses donate to homophobic politicians, then put out things supporting the LGBTQ+ community and the BLM movement as if they didn’t just donate to organizations that harm these groups. Playing both sides pleases customers with liberal views while still supporting discriminatory groups — performative activism at its best that needs to be stopped.

I’m not saying that all businesses should donate to only politicians that I agree with. They have the right to support whatever cause they’d like. The problem starts when large companies hide their true intentions in an attempt to profit off marginalized groups.

Businesses hiding their values and creating a falsely inclusive persona online to gain money makes me lose all my trust in them. When I see that a company posted about how they support everyone but then the same company donates to politicians with different views, I struggle to believe that anything they say is true.

For example, Chick-Fil-A claims to support everyone despite their beliefs, yet they donated millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ+ charities, according to the New York Times. Due to backlash and lost customers, the company stopped giving money to those controversial organizations.

But the damage was already done. Many still boycotted the company, including Notre Dame students who voted to keep the restaurant off campus and New York lawmakers who vowed to ban it from rest stops, according to Yahoo. 

Organizations such as GLAAD, a large non-profit focusing on how LGBTQ+ people are portrayed in the media, still warn allies and members of the community to stay away from Chick-Fil-A due to their tainted history. Plus, Chick-Fil-A still refuses to let LGBTQ+ community members stay on their campground sites.

This back-and-forth from the company makes it hard to keep up with what they stand for. As an ally, I took the different statements about the company’s beliefs as a stance that they didn’t support the LGBTQ+ community.

Playing both sides is not only an issue for the LGBTQ+ community, but also potentially for customers of color.

For instance, Anthropologie posted a Maya Angelou quote that read, “We should all know that diversity makes a rich tapestry and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color.” At the same time, managers had a code word for when black customers entered the store they would say over the headsets, according to employees in a report by the Evening Standard. This led to associates closely watching black customers to ensure they weren’t stealing. Black customers also posted stories of being followed or watched while shopping at Anthropologie on social media.

After hearing these accounts from all sides, I stopped shopping at Anthropologie and stopped following anything they did. Mainly because I no longer felt like I could trust what they posted and I no longer wanted to support a company that hid their beliefs from the public. If they were able to hide that from the average customer, I wonder what else they are hiding.

A false sense of inclusiveness and support causes customers to be blindsided by some of their favorite businesses. To avoid shopping at places like this, do proper research about what they stand for and what goes on behind the scenes before becoming a loyal customer.