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Actress and mogul Tabitha Brown is facing backlash after asking consumers to not boycott Target amid the company’s recent DEI rollback.
On Friday (January 24), Target joined the list of major companies, including Amazon, Walmart, and McDonalds, that are rolling back their DEI policies.
The move sparked a boycott against the major retailer led by We Are Somebody.org.
“Starting February 1st, we are somebody is calling on a mass boycott of all target stores,” the organization wrote in an Instagram post. “Friday, [Target] announced that they are rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Since 2020, Target’s DEI programs has been an example of how corporations can do something positive. The announcement that they will be ending these programs is infuriating. We will not be silent.”
Brown, who has dropped multiple collections of home goods, hair care, cookware, food, and more with Target and other major retailers, took to Instagram to urge the public to reconsider boycotting the company due to the effect the move could have on her and other minority-owned businesses.
“As disheartening as it is for me, I’m not the only one affected by this,” Brown said in a video on Saturday (January 25).
“It’s for everyone who is a woman-owned business, minority-owned business, and Black-owned business,” she continued. “It’s for so many of us who have worked so very hard to be placed into retail—to finally be seen and [have] a proof of retail because, contrary to whatever the world might tell you, it has been very hard for Black-owned businesses to hit shelves. Which is why it’s such a big deal when we do and finally land inside of retail. So, it is definitely heartbreaking to feel unsupported.”
“So many of us would be affected,” Brown added. “Our sales would drop and our businesses would 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. There’s a process. And then, where are you gonna put it? You gotta have a place to store it, and that’s money. Then, you gotta have another place to sell it. Which is almost impossible sometimes. And even if you sell online, it’s a process when it comes to business. And everyone does not have the funds or the means or the availability or the space to house their own products.”
On Friday, Target said they were discontinuing their DEI goals, ending reports to outside groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, and ending efforts to diversify their shelves.
Amid concerns about the boycott, We Are Somebody updated their post to suggest consumers uphold the movement by only shopping from Black and brown brands carried on the retailer’s shelves.
Still social media users were critical of Brown’s take against the boycott. See their reactions below.
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