People are not McLovin’ McDonalds or Starbucks.

Most people have heard of the conflicts in Gaza by now; it’s been a raging genocide the has gone into full effect since early October, even though tracks of this conflict have plagued Palestinians for the past 75 years. The situation has an overwhelming amount of issues it’s brought to light not just in Gaza: Hundreds of companies’ negative work practices, generous donations to not so generous causes, and discrimination. 

At the beginning of the genocide, a lot of people took to protest the easiest way they could—boycott. Boycotting is where groups of people don’t purchase or participate in items or events. This can range from not buying Coke products to not going to work for a week. It’s an effective strategy to, at the very least, give less money going to the places people don’t support.

 A lot of people are trying to push that boycotts don’t even affect the corporations and instead the workers. Regardless they make the companies attempt to make a public shift when people quit or their profits decline. Places like Starbucks and McDonalds became a huge boycotting target at the beginning of the Free Palestine movement. Starbucks got into a lot of heat for firing a palestinian barista who spoke out about their pro-palestinian views. Many people rushed to social media to share their stories of similar treatment, and shame Starbucks for their actions. After the Israeli military soldiers posted photos in a destroyed Gazan house eating Happy Meals with guns still in hand, McDonalds has received a lot of backlash since. Since they have doubled down and sent more donations to the Israeli military.

For both and other companies this has caused a lot of decline in operating income, the amount of profit after taxes, wages, and improvements are taken out. Starbucks’ operating income has dropped 23% from July 2 2023 to June 30 2024. McDonalds operating income has decreased by 6% which doesn’t seem a lot but in reality it is almost 3 billions dollars. This means the workers’ regular wages have stayed the same, they might just not have as many tips.

This has sparked a huge movement against a sea of popular companies. Due to their silence on the genocide in Gaza or their open Israeli support, these companies have lost anywhere form hundred to billions of dollars. Popular brands like Coke-a-Cola, YUM, and Bath and Body Works have made their way on the boycott list. There’s even been apps, like Boycott for Peace, that with the simple scan of a barcode can show you what and why you need to avoid that company. 

A separate but similar event has also sparked a massive “blacklist” of celebrities. Haley Bailey posted a TikTok of her Marie Antoinette themed gown at the Met Gala where she lip synced a recording of  Antoinette’s famous lines “let them eat cake.” Many were outraged because while the Met Gala was going on there were several more massacres in Gaza, and to many the video pointed to a massive amount of celebrities and social ignorance of the situation. This has caused people like the recently rising influencer Tara Yummy to decline in followers, and stars such as Lana Del Ray to have a massive decrease in monthly listeners. 

Why is this even happening? Why would our American tax dollars go to a completely other country who’s clearly murdering civilians? These hard working tax dollars that are promised to better our libraries and public schooling have gone to funding over 300 billion dollars to the Israeli, mostly their military, since 1941. America donates the most funds to Israel with the second most being 170 billion to Egypt. This money sent to military causes could have provided funding for things like free and reduced lunches, child medical care, elementary school teacher funds, and new medical equipment.

This social outrage has caused many companies and celebrities to stop their partnerships or open support of each other and the Israeli government. It has also sparked many to boost Gazan’s GoFundMe’s to help them escape the destruction and genocide on Palestine. This is also a way smaller scale influencers and the average person have started to give back. You can access these on various social media platforms through people like Erin Hatter’s Pass the Hat program on TikTok and Instagram.