The Rev. Al Sharpton is giving PepsiCo three weeks to meet with him — or suffer a boycott — to discuss reversing the company’s recent move to do away with its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to a letter shared with The Associated Press.
On Friday, Sharpton wrote to PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta, expressing his “profound disappointment” that the company would end inclusion commitments that helped build its brand and fostered trust with millions of its customers.
“You have walked away from equity,” Sharpton wrote in the letter, adding that removing DEI hiring and retention goals and dismantling community partnerships with minority organizations “are clear signals that political pressure has outweighed principle.”
Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, announced in January that the civil rights organization would identify two companies in the next 90 days that will be boycotted for abandoning their DEI pledges.
A spokesperson for PepsiCo said the company had not received the letter and was unable to comment.
PepsiCo is one of the largest food and beverage companies in North America. Its brands include Gatorade, Lay’s potato chips, Doritos, Mountain Dew as well as Pepsi.
In the 1940s and 1950s, PepsiCo, whose origins trace back to New Bern, hired some of the first black sales and marketing executives in corporate America, Sharpton wrote, and by the 1980s, the company’s policies led to the creation of black consumer advisory boards.
In a memo sent to employees in February, Laguarta said the company will no longer set goals for minority representation in its managerial roles or supplier base.
Trump ended DEI programs within the federal government and has warned schools to do the same or risk losing federal money. Large retailers like Walmart and Target have also phased out DEI initiatives since Trump took office.
Research continued to emphasize that diversity in the workplace was a matter of business survival, with some businesses even beginning to mandate cultural competency within leadership. PepsiCo was one of those companies, Sharpton pointed out in his letter.
“You did this not because it was easy — but because it was right,” Sharpton wrote in the letter. “That legacy is now in jeopardy.”
In the early 2000s, Sharpton sat on PepsiCo’s African American advisory board.
PepsiCo’s announcement in February that it would roll back inclusion efforts came as Coca-Cola reaffirmed support for its DEI efforts. In its annual report, Atlanta-based Coke warned that the inability to attract employees that reflect its broad range of customers could negatively affect its business.
