Top Corporations Fund Former Obama Official Calling To ‘Wage War on Whiteness’

David Johns’s National Black Justice Coalition is also an HHS grantee

Procter & Gamble and other prominent corporations fund a “racial justice” group whose leader, a former Obama White House official, lashed out this week at what he called “white mediocrity” and urged a “woke” army of black youth “to wage war with whiteness.”

David Johns, who led President Barack Obama’s White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, made the remarks at an event Tuesday to promote a boycott against Target for rolling back its DEI programs.

Johns is the executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a black LGBT group that aims to fight “anti-Blackness.” The nonprofit lists companies like Airbnb, Sephora, Sony, and Procter & Gamble as sponsors. Procter & Gamble, which sells household brands like Gillette and Charmin, contributed $515,000 to the National Black Justice Coalition in 2023, around one-fourth of the nonprofit’s budget, according to tax records. The Department of Health and Human Services under President Biden awarded the National Black Justice Coalition a $1.2 million contract through 2026 as part of the government’s “Let’s Stop HIV Together” campaign. It is unclear if HHS is still funding the coalition, but Johns said last month his organization was “proud to be a grantee” of the HIV program.

Speaking at the anti-Target event, Johns endorsed the boycott and railed against President Donald Trump as a “fascist trying to rob us of our wealth.” He also urged black consumers to shop at black-owned businesses as part of a movement to “reclaim … African ways of being.”

“We don’t need nothing from white people. We don’t need nothing from white people,” said Johns. “They can’t even make potato salad.”

“We have everything we need to ensure that our babies are woke, that they are critical thinkers, that they are equipped to do the kind of work to wage war with whiteness,” said Johns, adding that “we don’t need to be lulled by the trappings of white mediocrity.”

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The event was organized by Atlanta-based pastor Jamal Bryant, former CNN contributor Nina Turner, and Black Lives Matter activist Tamika Mallory, all of whom launched a boycott against Target over the weekend to force the company to invest $2 billion in black-owned businesses and deposit $250 million in black-owned banks.

Other companies and nonprofit groups have donated millions of dollars to the National Black Justice Coalition in recent years. The group’s website touts its “anchor investors,” including Procter & Gamble, Sony Music, Sephora, Airbnb and the American Association of Retired Persons. The Tides Foundation and Tides Advocacy, funded by billionaire donor George Soros, gave $205,000 to the National Black Justice Coalition in 2023, according to tax records. And the coalition listed General Motors and Google as donors in its 2023 annual report.

Trump has also ended DEI initiatives at federal agencies while calling on some private companies to do the same. Many conservatives say the programs violate anti-discrimination laws by giving preferential treatment to certain minority groups.

According to federal spending records, the Biden administration awarded $1.2 million to the National Black Justice Coalition in 2021 to raise awareness about HIV prevention among gay black men and transgender women. NBJC said it would “utilize its established national reach through earned media, social media platforms, grassroots networks and collaborative partnerships” as part of the contract, which is scheduled to run through September 2026.

HHS paid $279,000 to the National Black Justice Coalition as part of the contract on June 24. The department did not respond to a request for comment about the status of the contract, but Johns indicated last month his group is still a grant recipient. He said the coalition is “proud to be a grantee” of the HHS program and denounced reports that the Trump administration plans to cut funding for HIV prevention programs.

“We will not stand by while this administration turns back the clock on progress. We urge Congress and public health leaders to stop this disastrous plan before it’s too late,” Johns said.

Procter & Gamble and National Black Justice Coalition did not respond to requests for comment.