Target 40-day boycott over DEI stance begins

A 40-day boycott of Target over the retailer’s recent decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has officially started this week, only days after the company got hit by a nationwide “economic blackout.”

Rev. Jamal Bryant, the Georgia pastor who called for “a corporate fast starting with Target” that will coincide with Lent, said the boycott is necessary to hold the company accountable for retreating from its DEI commitments and to ensure “a future where corporations do not bow to pressure at the expense of marginalized communities.”

Why It Matters

On his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for an end to all DEI initiatives in the federal government, claiming such policies are discriminatory, “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral.”

Over the last year, as conservative scrutiny of companies implementing DEI initiatives grew, several major corporations announced they were ending their own DEI programs, including McDonald’s, Meta, Amazon and Walmart. In January, Target, which had once been considered a champion for promoting diversity and inclusion, announced it was rolling back its own DEI program.

While the company mentioned an “evolving external landscape” as the reason behind its decision, many customers were disappointed by what they saw as Target bending to Trump’s will. Because of the younger, more diverse consumer base that the retailer had cultivated over the past years, Target stands to suffer the most from the backlash following its rollback of DEI commitments.

What to Know

On January 24, only days after Trump’s inauguration, Target announced it was ending its DEI program this year, folding to pressure from conservative groups and the Trump administration’s threat to investigate any “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

The Minneapolis-headquartered company also said it was ending its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiative in 2025, a program under which it had promised to invest more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by the end of the year. Target’s “Supplier Diversity” team was renamed “Supplier Engagement.”

Bryant, a pastor at an Atlanta-area megachurch, said the rollbacks “represent more than just corporate decisions; they reflect a deeper erosion of the moral and ethical commitments necessary to build a just society.” In his call to boycott Target for 40 days, he urged “people of faith” to not remain silent, but “resist systems that perpetuate exclusion and inequity” and redirect their resources toward “businesses that uphold justice.”

The pastor called for Black people not to shop at Target and sell their stock in the company if they have any. The goal, he told The Breakfast Club podcast, is to see the impact on the company if Black people walk away from it.

“People are asking why we picked Target,” he said. “We picked Target first for several reasons. Number one: Target is headquartered in the same city where George Floyd was killed […] Secondly, I am embarrassed to say to you, [Black people] spend $12 million a day at Target,” he added. “Number three: Target is on 20,000 college campuses and not one HBCU [historically Black colleges and universities]; Number four: outside of the federal government, Target is the largest employer of Black people. They have 400,000 Black people on payroll, and they don’t honor us.”

According to Target’s 2023 workforce diversity report, 43 percent of the company’s staff members are white, while 56 percent are people of color, including 15 percent Black people and 31 percent Hispanic/Latino.

More than 110,000 people have signed a pledge to commit to Bryant’s boycott of Target, according to the pastor. Newsweek contacted Bryant for comment by email on Thursday.

What People Are Saying

Eric Schiffer of Los Angeles-based Reputation Management Consultants told Reuters in January of the company’s decision to rollback DEI initiatives: “For Target, with an inclusive audience, this is their version of brand suicide.”

Texas Rep. Sylvester Turner wrote on X in January: “Target is making a mistake by ending its DEI goals with its customer base being highly diverse.”

Civil rights attorney Areva Martin wrote on X: “Target wants to quietly roll back DEI? Not on my watch. I’m joining the 40-day boycott to send a clear message: if you don’t stand with us, we won’t spend with you.”

Activist organization We Are Somebody wrote on X: “Target foot traffic dropped nearly 10% after DEI rollback. Don’t let anyone tell you that collectively, we don’t have power. We do.”

What’s Next

The 40-day boycott is hitting Target after the company has already suffered a loss in traffic since rolling back its DEI initiatives and it is likely to face further action from angered activists.

The company was among several stores targeted by a nationwide “economic blackout” on February 28. During that day, Forbes reported that Target experienced an 11 percent drop in foot traffic in its stores and a 9 percent decline in web traffic.

In its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings report, released earlier this week, Target warned that its top-line performance in February was “soft,” though it did not mention customers’ backlash against its decision as a reason behind it.

Target’s net sales saw “a small decline” last month, according to the report, and the company now expects to experience “meaningful year-over-year profit pressure in its first quarter relative to the remainder of the year.”

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Target CEO Brian Cornell warned that the company could be forced to raise prices on fruit and vegetables in response to Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from Mexico.