Left-wing activists are calling for a boycott on Target stores after the retailer slashed its diversity, equity and inclusion policies – but black-owned brands are pushing back, warning the move could damage their businesses.
The Minneapolis-based discount chain has suffered swift backlash after announcing last week that it was axing its DEI policies in a stark reversal for a retailer long known for its outspoken support of LGBTQ and minority rights.
Left-leaning customers on social media, along with labor advocacy group We Are Somebody, called for shoppers to boycott the wholesale chain.
But founders of black-owned companies urged customers to continue shopping at the retailer, arguing that a boycott would only hurt their own sales and get them kicked off Target shelves.
Tabitha Brown, an actress who also sells kitchenware at Target, said black-owned brands have the most to lose from the boycotts.
“I get it, but so many of us will be affected, and our sales will drop,” Brown said in a video posted to Instagram. “Our business will be hurt, and if any of you know business, it doesn’t just happen overnight where you can just go take all your stuff and pull it off the shelves.”
Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brown, who also sells cookbooks and seasonings at Walmart, another company that recently revoked its DEI policies, said the boycott could unintentionally yank black-owned brands from store shelves.
“If we all decide to stop supporting said businesses…you take all our sales and they dwindle down, and then those companies get to say, ‘Oh, your products are not performing,’ and they can remove them from the shelves and then put their preferred businesses on the shelves,” Brown said.
Some critics called for shoppers to avoid Target stores and instead purchase products directly from black-owned brands’ websites.
But business owners said this could still do damage, since Target’s website and its nearly 2,000 stores give their brands more visibility and millions of additional customers.
“If you don’t buy our products in Target, they will cancel us from their shelves and make us buy back the products they already purchased from us,” black-owned doll brand Beautiful Curly Me said in a post on Instagram.
“We have dolls on our websites, but having your dolls in mass retail stores gives you a different kind of visibility to millions and really helps us expand,” the brand added.
Melissa Butler, founder of Lip Bar, Target’s largest black-owned makeup company, said she was not shocked by the DEI rollback.
“Even though I’m disappointed, I’m not that surprised. I always thought that the 2020 commitments were a farce,” she said in an Instagram video, referencing the widespread diversity policies implemented by companies after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests.
“Anything that is forced is going to be a farce, and I think part of it is because Trump is emboldening companies to reverse commitments that they never wanted to do in the first place,” she added.
On Friday, the retailer said it is “concluding its three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals” and will stop its reports to the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, according to an internal memo obtained by The Post.
Target also said it was trashing a program focused on carrying more products from black- and minority-owned businesses.
In 2022, the retailer set a goal of making a $2 billion commitment to black-owned businesses by 2025 and to have more than 500 black-owned brands in its stores.
The company previously said it was on track to meet these goals.
Many brand owners said they were hoping to get more clarity from Target and were operating business as usual in the meantime.
On Tuesday, Target’s website still included featured sections boosting women-owned brands, Asian-owned brands and an LGBTQ shop, as well as a layout highlighting black-owned brands ahead of Black History Month, which starts Saturday.
Since President Trump won the White House in November, and conservative activists have taken aim at DEI policies, more companies have been revoking their diversity policies.
On his first day in office last week, Trump argued in favor of “merit-based” programs and signed an executive order that aims to end all DEI policies across the federal level.
He also encouraged private firms to begin rolling back their diversity initiatives.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
