Civil rights activists call for Target boycott after “cowardly” DEI reversal

(30 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Minneapolis – 30 January 2025
1. Various signs calling for Target boycott
2. Crowd chanting UPSOUND (English): ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“Hey hey. Ho ho. Target Company’s got to go.”
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Nekima Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“We thought that they would hold the line. We thought that they would continue to stand for the values that we all hold dear. But instead, they acted cowardly, and they made the decision to bow down to the Trump administration. Well, we are here today saying we will not bow down. We will not step back and we will not turn around.”
4. Various signs calling for Target boycott
5. Target store signage
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jaylani Hussein, Council on Islamic-American Relations Minnesota: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“This decision by Target, especially Target, the company that has its headquarters in Minneapolis, the city that became known and will be known for the murder of George Floyd for history and time to come –Target cannot. And we here in Minneapolis today, the good people of this state are saying to our friends all over the country, if you were moved to do something good after the murder of George Floyd, it is time for you to stand up and boycott Target now."
7. People carrying shopping bags in front of Target store
8. Person with sign calling for Target boycott
9. Crowd chanting UPSOUND (English): “Black lives matter. Black people matter. Black children matter. And for girls most importantly, Black shoppers matter.”
10. Person carrying shopping bags in front of Target store
STORYLINE:
Civil rights activists gathered outside the headquarters of Target Corp. on Thursday to call for a boycott of the retailing giant over its decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Target announced last Friday that it would join competitor Walmart and a number of other prominent American brands in scaling back DEI initiatives, which have come under attack from conservatives and the new White House of President Donald Trump.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a veteran local civil rights lawyer and founder of the Racial Justice Network, said many of the participants in Thursday's news conference, and around 50 supporters who joined them, were regular Target shoppers beforehand. And she said they were “stunned” that Target, which stepped forward in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, backed away from its support of racial equity.

“We thought that they would hold the line. We thought that they would continue to stand for the values that we all hold dear,” Levy Armstrong said. "But instead they acted cowardly and they made the decision to bow down to the Trump administration. Well, we are here today saying we will not bow down. We will not step back, and we will not turn around.”

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on Islamic-American Relations, said that as a company based in the city where Floyd's murder sparked a national reckoning with racial injustice, Target must be called out.

“We here in Minneapolis today, the good people of the state, are saying to our friends all over the country, if you were moved to do something good after the murder of George Floyd, it is time for you to stand up and boycott Target,” Hussein said.


Target, which had long been a strong corporate advocate for the rights of Black and LGBTQ+ people, did not immediately respond to a request Thursday for comment on the call for a boycott.






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