Minneapolis, MN — After boycotting Target for Black History Month, activists and residents in Minnesota are continuing that boycott indefinitely until the corporation brings back their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. During a protest at Target’s downtown Minneapolis corporate office on Feb. 27, speakers called for a “buycott” of Black businesses, advocated for picketing outside of Target stores and vowed to not shop at Target.
“We want to make sure that we’re holding Target, in our community, accountable for the promises that they made following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police,” said Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities.
Target had pledged $2 billion to support Black businesses in 2021. Many local Black business owners have been saying Target stopped honoring their initial contracts over the last years. Target officially announced they were rolling back the pro-racial justice policies after President Trump signed an executive order to end “DEI programs and preferencing.”
The Feb. 27 protest was a day before a nationally planned ‘blackout’ of purchasing from corporations and a week before a planned 40-day Lenten fast from Target planned by Atlanta-based Pastor Jamal Bryant, which starts on March 5.
This was the second protest at that Target location this year. The first came on January 31 and sparked the nationwide boycott — watch Unicorn Riot’s live stream below:
“We know that the actions that we did here prior to the beginning of Black History Month just took off across the country. So we want to thank everyone for the solidarity and their work that’s being done nationwide,” said Cullars-Doty to press on Feb. 27.
Civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said that “as we’re voting with our wallets and refusing to spend our money, it’s inspiring people around the nation.”
Statistics from Target’s foot traffic for the first three weeks of February shows a decline in its stores across the country of up to 7.9%. That followed a decline in the last week of January, directly after Target announced their DEI rollback. Target is releasing its 2024 earnings tomorrow (Tuesday, March 4) and around June will announce the earnings for the first quarter of 2025 which will give a view at the impacts of the boycott.
According to Forbes, Target saw a decline in visitors by 9% on the blackout day of Feb. 28 compared to the Friday two weeks before that. Furthermore, the user traffic on Target’s app featuring loyal Target customers was down 14%.
Masses of people online have been expressing discontent towards Target, from comments to video postings, to blocking the corporation’s ads. Armstrong furthered at the press conference, “if you look online, Target has to close comments on their Instagram posts because people are flooding their comments saying ‘I will never step foot in Target again’.”
Catch up on Unicorn Riot’s previously published 12-part investigative series by contributor Marjaan Sirdar which reveals Target’s partnership with city and county authorities to fund vast surveillance, policing, and prosecuting networks in downtown Minneapolis.
Target is not the only corporation facing heat for their DEI rollbacks, and Trump didn’t start the push against racial inclusion measures in corporations and institutions. In 2023, the conservative-led Supreme Court banned affirmative action in colleges. Last year, Walmart, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and McDonald’s, among others, stopped their DEI efforts.
Jaylani Hussein, the Executive Director of Minnesota’s Council on American-Islamic Relations, said on Feb. 27 that he’d “rather have a Walmart that tells me I don’t want you than to have a Target that said, ‘I want you,’ but then deceive you in the middle of the night.” The “New & featured” tab on Target’s website as of March 3, 2025, features Women’s History Month, Celebrate Ramadan and Eid, Black Beyond Measure, Más Que, Asian-Owned Brands at Target, and LGBTQIA+ Shop.
“People are comparing Walmart and Target. Walmart doesn’t care about people. Let’s just be honest. But Target is a company that said that they care about people who played the card that they cared about people, showed in their ads that they cared about people, and all it took was view one executive order for them to completely change who they are. I would rather have a Walmart that tells me I don’t want you than to have a Target that said, ‘I want you,’ but then deceive you in the middle of the night.”
Jaylani Hussein, Executive Director, Minnesota Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN)
Nathaniel ‘Nick’ Khaliq, a former President of Saint Paul’s NAACP, said that ex-Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, who came from the Dayton family which created Target in 1962, had started a “project reached out to all economic, socially disadvantaged communities in this state.” Khaliq asked how Target could “stomp” on Dayton’s legacy.
Speaking during the presser, radio host and educator Margaret Sullivan said she created a Facebook group centering Black businesses called BuyCott/BuyIn of Black Businesses in Minnesota. “This is not just for Black History Month, this is forever.” Sullivan said even if Target brings DEI back, “I’m still putting my money to Black owned businesses first.”
In press release about the protest, Armstrong stated, “Target is not the only store in town. We can use our dollars to support local stores and Black-owned businesses, which benefits our whole community.”
“We are voting with our dollars and sending a message that we are refusing to go backwards on the progress that has been made in creating a more equitable society,” said Cullars-Doty.
“Target, I used to love you. I don’t love you anymore.”
Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota
Cover image from Target protest on February 27, 2025 via video contributed by Aaron Johnson.
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