A 40-day boycott of Target began this week, timed to coincide with Lent and referred to as a “corporate fast” to protest the company’s recent DEI rollbacks.
On Jan. 24, the retailer announced that it was scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, a strategy it previously referred to as “Belonging at the Bullseye.” The rollback includes the elimination of three-year diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, transitioning the “supplier diversity” team into the “supplier engagement” team with an increased focus on small businesses, and stopping all participation in external diversity surveys, including the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.
Target is just one of several major companies that have recently walked away from previous DEI commitments, particularly after President Donald Trump’s active opposition to diversity and inclusion policies in both the public and private sector. But the company has become a poster child for the corporate flip-flop on DEI in part because it was once such a vocal supporter of those initiatives.
One of the boycott’s lead organizers, Rev. Jamal Bryant, the senior pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church located just outside of Atlanta, spoke with Fortune about his ambitions for the action, leveraging the power of Black consumers, and follow-up boycotts.
Target declined to comment for this story.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Fortune: Why are you calling for this boycott?
Rev. Jamal Bryant: I feel as if the African-American community has been disrespected after loyal consumerism. Black people spend upwards of $12 million a day, and so for the company to turn its back on us is an insult at the highest level.
What are the goals of the boycott?
Several things. One is that they would invest some of the profits from Black dollars into Black banks. Second, Target has locations on 23 [college] campuses—none of them are HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities]. So for them to partner with 10 HBCUs. Three: they made a commitment to George Floyd’s family that after his death; they would invest $2 billion into Black businesses. And the fourth is that they would reinstate their DEI initiatives.
What kind of coalition are you working with?
[The boycott] is led completely by Black churches and Black pastors across the country. It is not me, by myself, by a long shot. There’s the Baptist National Baptist Convention, the AME Church, AME Zion Church, Church of God in Christ. Most of the mainline Black denominations are in support and are pushing it.
We’ve partnered with the U.S. Black Chambers. To date, 130,000 people have signed the commitment. Every person who has signed has received a digital directory of 300,000 Black businesses around the country that they should patronize in lieu of Target.
A lot of companies are rolling back their DEI initiatives. What made you want to call out Target specifically?
They are publicly traded, so we were able to get a demographic sense of the spending. There were so many that we should just focus on one at a time. So Target will be the first, not the only, nor will it be the last.
What will you do at the conclusion of the boycott?
At the conclusion of 40 days, we'll be able to have a clear indicator of what was the economic impact felt by Target.
Have you heard from Target about the boycott?
We've not heard from Target.
If Target were to go back and reinstate their DEI initiatives, are you hoping that it may serve as a model for other companies?
Absolutely. That’s the hope and the intention. Black people have a $2 trillion worth of spending power. Whenever it is targeted, it will always be impacted. So I think that this will send a clear shot across the bow that we are focused and we're intentional about our spending being respected.
