From Pulpit to Protest: What the 40-Day Boycott of Target Is About

Starting Wednesday, more than 100,000 people, many of them parishioners at Black churches, are pledging to abstain from shopping at Target, part of a 40-day nationwide boycott of the retail giant more than a month after the company abandoned its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The effort, led by prominent faith and civil rights leaders such as Pastor Jamal Bryant, includes Atlanta, Houston, Jacksonville, Florida and Alexandria, Virginia.

The “Target Fast” coincides with Lent and is the latest consumer action against one of the largest retail companies in the country. Since Target announced in January that it would roll back some of its DEI efforts, including plans to hire from underrepresented groups, consumer boycotts and demonstrations have sprung up across the country. Many occurred during Black History Month, and on Feb. 28, consumers participated in a 24-hour “economic blackout” of major corporate chains.

“The advances made during the civil rights movement are being pushed backwards with the cancellation of DEI,” Bryant said. “This generation owes it to the previous generation to fight to try to make America great, which is only happening through diversity.”

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Target has faced backlash from consumers and shareholders since the retailer announced on Jan. 24 that it would end its DEI initiatives.

Target said it would terminate its three-year DEI goals, racial equity initiatives aimed at improving representation for Black businesses and suppliers, and external diversity-focused surveys. The company also said it would stop submitting information to the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates corporate policies on LGBTQ+ inclusion, The Washington Post previously reported.

“I was shocked because they made a commitment to invest in Black businesses upward of $2 billion after the death of George Floyd” in 2020, he said. “A company that we believed was an ally to our community suddenly had convenient amnesia under this administration.”

The boycott will last 40 days, and Bryant said roughly 110,000 people have signed up to participate. {snip}

As a part of the boycott, consumers will sell their stock and refrain from shopping at Target stores, opting instead to spend their money at Black-owned businesses. Bryant said they have partnered with the U.S. Black Chambers to offer boycotting consumers a digital directory of roughly 300,000 businesses that they can support instead of Target. Consumers will also be able to track their spending in an app, he said.

“I think that this is going to be not an event, but really a movement around enterprise and around small business and around Black businesses, all the more that I think will change the trajectory of the economy of Black people,” he said.

Bryant said the boycott has a “spiritual entity,” as well – hence the decision to kick off the action on Ash Wednesday.

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