I was very much looking forward to this conversation and flew into DC this morning from New York just to participate.

I am afraid, though, that I cannot, in good conscience, follow through with this commitment after learning that the costs of this conversation were underwritten by Walmart and the Walton Family Foundation. My values and work stand in strong opposition to many of the principles and practices of Walmart and the richest family in America. They are not the 1%, or even the 1% of the 1%, but the Walton Family exists in a rare space and place unknown by the hardest working people in this country – including Walmart’s consistently underpaid employees. The promos here say "powered by the Walton Family." Simply put, that can't be me.

While it is a not a particularly bad thing for the Walton Family to underwrite the costs of a conversation on race in America, their combined net worth of $148.8 billion could easily allow them to pay their employees a living wage or a $15 minimum wage. Those people don't need a damn conversation, they need a raise. Places like The Container Store, where I once worked, and Costco, do just that. They try hard to put principles over profit and have found a way to reasonably achieve both without treating people like second-class citizens. Every day that Walmart opens its doors, is another day that the Walton Family chooses profits over people. Any time employees have tried to form unions so that they can effectively fight for their rights and bargain for fair treatment and pay, their efforts have been brutally crushed by the company.

I find the excessive wealth of the Walton Family to be gross – not just in light of the fact that abject poverty exists all over this country, but because tens of thousands of Walmart’s own employees are on public assistance – including food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing because Walmart wages are simply not enough to live on. In fact, Walmart employees needed over $6.2 billion in public assistance just to get by. This is simply outrageous. As the richest family in America gets richer and richer every day, they have a business model that basically requires their employees to be in poverty. That $6.2 billion in public assistance should come from the Walton Family themselves. They can afford it. That $6.2 billion of taxpayer money could and should be used in so many better ways. Instead, it basically subsidizes the hustle of the Walton family. I have been on food stamps and public assistance so I do not bemoan anyone who needs it. My point is that Walmart employees should not have to need it with all of the money the company and the family makes.

On the matter of police brutality, Walmart has not simply been silent, they’ve been painful enablers. Two years ago tomorrow, on August 5th, 2014 John Crawford visited a local Ohio Walmart. Speaking on the phone with his girlfriend, he meandered around the store aimlessly like we all do when we try to shop and talk at the same time. As he used a random air rifle he picked off of a Walmart shelf as a pretend cane to lean on, a shopper lied, called 911 with a completely fabricated story, and told them that Crawford was pointing a gun he had just loaded at other shoppers. No such thing ever happened. Just minutes later, police stormed the store and shot and killed Crawford within seconds of seeing him. He never really knew what hit him. Why would he? He did nothing wrong at all.

On December 6, 2012 Shelly Fray, a young black single mother of two, stuffed less than $50 worth of merchandise from Wal-Mart in her purse and got into the car with her two young children. Soon, she was pursued, shot and killed in the car with her kids by a Wal-Mart security guard who claimed he feared for his life. The family has sued Wal-Mart for excessive force, but of course Walmart is fighting it.

On April 22nd, 2015 18-year-old William Chapman went to his local Virginia Walmart to purchase some new headphones. When an employee told police that they believed a shoplifter had just exited the front door, Officer Stephen Rankin, who had killed another unarmed man before, confronted Chapman, believing him to be the shoplifter. Rankin then shot the unarmed teenager in the face, killing him right there on the spot. The autopsy proved that it was not a close range shot as Rankin had described and Rankin.

I apologize to the NABJ, to my fellow panelists, and to those who hoped to hear me speak today for my sudden refusal to participate. Had I known who was putting their money behind this conversation before this morning, I would have more professionally declined this opportunity weeks ago and remained home with my family today. To be clear, I do not begrudge anyone who aims to talk about the most important issues of our day and respect my fellow panelists for continuing the conversation without me.

I trust and love the National Association of Black Journalists, but simply do not trust Walmart or the Walton Family. I do not want to appear in their photo ops. I do not want their faces or names in bright lights behind me as I speak about the realities of racism and white privilege in America. I do not want an uniformed viewer this morning, or at a later date, to get the inaccurate impression that I am in support of this company. I do not want to be on stage while a commercial for the company rolls or a representative gets up to say how much they love black folk.

Finally, I want to clarify that I was not paid to speak today and that the Daily News, and not Walmart or the Walton Family, covered my travel expenses. Moving forward, I will seek out information on who may be sponsoring such engagements before I accept them. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.

I stand with workers. I stand for a living wage. I stand safe policing.