Target hit with huge backlash for DEI ‘betrayal’ with Black shoppers urged to ‘halt all purchases’

Shopping giant Target is facing a huge backlash, including calls for a boycott from a Black pastor and civil rights leader, after it said it was ending some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Just four days after Trump’s inauguration, Target issued an announcement stating that it planned to eliminate hiring goals for minority employees, as well as ending an executive committee focused on racial justice.

Target also stressed the need for “staying in step with the evolving external landscape,” CNN reports. The new Republican administration has repeatedly attacked diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, which help to provide equity for marginalised groups, particularly in work environments.

Trump has signed various executive orders targeting DEI, including an order eliminating DEI from US military, and on 25 January he boasted that he had gotten rid of “the woke crap” in government. He also blamed ‘DEI’ for January’s fatal Washington plane crash, when an American Airlines plane collided with a military helicopter.

Many companies have rolled back their DEI initiatives in recent months, but few have faced the level of criticism that is being aimed at Target in the aftermath of their announcement.

The wave of condemnation is, in part, due to the fact that Target has purposefully positioned itself as progressive in the past. The company became a leading advocate for DEI programmes following the murder of George Floyd by police in Target’s home city of Minneapolis in 2020.

Target also publicly supported gay marriage in 2014 before it was legalized nationwide, and it was one of the first national retailers to allow transgender employees and customers to choose bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities, and in recent years it became well-known for its wide range of Pride merchandise.

The daughters of one of Target’s co-founders, Anne and Lucy Dayton, are amongst those who have spoken out about the decision to scale back DEI efforts, calling it a “betrayal.”

In a letter published last week in the Los Angeles Times they also said they were “shocked and dismayed” by Target’s DEI rollback. “By cowering, Target and others are undermining the very principles that have made their companies a success,” said the women.

Dr Jamal Bryant, a prominent pastor, activist and author in Atlanta, has called for a 40-day boycott of Target beginning in March, and has launched an online petition.

The petition states: “We have witnessed a disturbing retreat from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives by major corporations. The greatest insult comes from Target.”

The press release accompanying the petition adds that “Dr. Bryant is urging Black consumers to halt all purchases from Target and to divest any stock holdings in the company. This aligns with the philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who championed economic restraint as a powerful form of protest.”

You can read more about how DEI has become the latest battleground in the alt-right’s “war on woke” here.