In the aftermath of the racial unrest that erupted across Los Angeles 33 years ago, many Black residents and leaders hoped to rebuild the economy by bringing back the amenities South Central had been lacking for too long. Topping the list was retail.
The elegant clothing stores that had once populated areas like the Crenshaw District through the 1960s were long gone: By 1992, it was the big chain retailers that conferred middle-class stability and that seemed to be opening everywhere except Black communities — retailers like Trader Joe’s, IKEA, Nordstrom Rack. And Target.
Target eventually did come, to the Crenshaw District and to Inglewood, among other places. But in the Trump era, being here is not enough.
Since January, after Trump’s second-term crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Target has faced a nationwide boycott launched in Minneapolis, its home city, and propelled by Black faith groups, pastors, activists and consumers.
The boycott has doubtlessly contributed to declining sales this year and the replacement of Target’s CEO.
As Trump began officially discrediting “wokeness,” Target quickly abandoned the $2 billion commitment it made in 2022 to increase Black businesses’ products and their representation in its stores.
It was hardly the only company to renege on efforts at racial equity that materialized after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. But the scope of Target’s pledge and the fact that it carried many unique Black-owned brands, from hair care to stationery, made the company’s efforts stand out as something more than mere PR.
Don’t spend where you aren’t respected
Target is under fire from the Black community for being absent. But this time it’s not for its lack of stores, but for its failure to stand by Black customers, businesses and the principles of economic justice the company claimed to care about.
The boycott takes its cues from the segregation-era “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaigns, when Black people urged each other not to spend money in stores that refused to hire them. The message this time around is more subtle but still urgent: Don’t Spend Where You Aren’t Respected.
Target’s $2 billion pledge was not charity but an acknowledgement of the debt corporate America has always owed Black people.
Follow the blueprint of our history
Rev. Jonathan Moseley, of the National Action Network, said the lesson Black people are learning — or relearning — is that while a marquee retailer in the community is ostensibly a good thing, it is primarily there for profit, and to look after its own interests.
“It’s important that Black people don’t become confused,” said Moseley. “These stores don’t want you there. They give you a few crumbs.”
The real long-term solution, he said, is for Black people to build their own businesses that serve their own interests, as they did in earlier times of segregation, when they frequently had no choice.
“We have more to offer than any Target,” he said. “We have to follow the blueprint of our own history.”
Black communities are also confronting the MAGA-fueled war on DEI that led Target and other corporations to retreat from those values. On Aug. 28 — the 62nd anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech — Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network led the March on Wall Street, drawing thousands of people from across the country to protest Trump’s anti-Black agenda. Sharpton linked the march to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement against the wealth gap, noting that this time the focus was race.
“If we leave (Trump) unchecked on DEI … he will completely erase the freedoms our parents and our grandparents fought, bled and died for,” Sharpton told the crowd, adding that the event was also meant to highlight “the power of Black Americans and their dollars.”
The enduring question raised by the Target boycott is: Can Black people expect corporate America to ever do the right thing? Moseley said the boycott is less about reforming corporate priorities than it is about waking Black people up to their own power, economic and otherwise. The perilousness of the moment demands that they do just that.
“The campaign going forward is not to bring back DEI — it’s to bring back the commitment Target made to Black people, pre-Trump,” he said. “If we can do that for us, what else can we do for us? Just imagine. We are stronger together than we are apart.”
This story was produced by the nonprofit publication Capital & Main and distributed by Word in Black.
This article originally appeared here.