Apparently, Blackout Friday was just a drill, and the real boycott has arrived.
Source: Derek White / Getty
On Feb. 28, the last day of Black History Month, millions of Americans stayed home, divested their dollars, and boycotted retailers and food chains including Target, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and McDonald’s for 24 hours, because those establishments hopped aboard the MAGA Supremacy train by rolling back their diversity initiatives. Now, consumers are engaging in a new boycott — one that requires far more commitment — specifically of Target, and Pastor Jamal Bryant spearheads it.
“We’re asking people to divest from Target because they have turned their back on our community,” Rev. Jamal Bryant, the senior pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta and leader of the JHB (Jamal Harrison Bryant) Movement, told CNN.
Bryant and other activists have put out a call to action for a 40-day boycott of Target, which started Monday, March 3.
According to a press release sent to BOSSIP, Bryant detailed the “Target FAST” and said he was working alongside Rev. Dr. Robert M. Waterman, Senior Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, who welcomed him and supported the idea alongside 108 civic leaders, elected officials, pastors, and community organizers.
“We are witnessing a pivotal moment in economic activism,” said Dr. Jamal Bryant. “This isn’t just about Target—it’s about ensuring that corporations understand that Black consumers demand respect, representation, and real investment in our communities.”
Bryant also spoke about the fast on The Breakfast Club.
Target was one of the first retail chains to publicly announce it was ditching its DEI programs, including one aimed at promoting and shelving products by Black-owned businesses. It was one of many companies that rolled back such programs just after President Donald Trump was sworn into office and immediately started signing executive orders to ban DEI from every corner of the federal government.
Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty
(Trump has also, numerous times, threatened to withhold federal funding from any entity he can’t legally force to drop DEI, which would still have nothing to do with these privately-owned corporations that had no obligation to join Trump’s racist anti-DEI devolution, but did so anyway.)
So, even though Target wasn’t the only company to get rid of its DEI programs, it — and I swear this is an unintended pun — placed a target on its own back by being the first and most public, which is why it’s catching the bulk of the public backlash.
And it couldn’t come at a worse time for the company.
From CNN:
Customer visits to Target, Walmart and Costco have slowed over the last four weeks, but they have dropped the most at Target, according to Placer.ai., which uses phone location data to track visits. The slowdown could also be attributed to weather, economic conditions and other variables, Placer.ai cautioned.
The data “shows a clear drop in traffic in late January into mid-February following the company’s step back from DEI,” Joseph Feldman, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, said in a note to clients last week.
The boycott also comes as Target faces pressure from tariffs and a consumer pullback. Target said Tuesday its sales declined in February and it expects sales to only grow around 1% this year.
Target CEO Brian Cornell said in an interview with CNBC Tuesday that Trump’s tariffs on Mexico may force the company to raise prices on fruits and vegetables as soon as this week. Target also said that “tariff uncertainty” will impact its profit this quarter.
Cornell said Target relies heavily on Mexican produce imports during the winter. “Those are categories where we’ll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” he said.
On Tuesday, we reported that Trump foolishly imposed hefty tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which he promised to do during his campaign.
This resulted in our two closest allies and international trade partners—plus China, which is also impacted by the tariffs—imposing or threatening to impose tariffs of their own on the U.S. in retaliation.
So, basically, Target followed Trump into his heada*** anti-DEI war, and now the company is set to lose more revenue on top of what it has already lost due to Trump’s policies.
Welp, it’s FAFO season!
Have the day you voted for, good people!
