BOYCOTT TARGET

Keep your promises or lose our dollars.

Target retreated from its commitments to Black communities. The economic withdrawal continues until it makes good.

★ WHAT'S HAPPENING

THE SITUATION

In January 2025, Target scaled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. The boycott was started by Minneapolis organizers: civil-rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong (Racial Justice Network, former Minneapolis NAACP president), Monique Cullars-Doty (Black Lives Matter Minnesota), and Jaylani Hussein (CAIR-Minnesota), who announced it at Target headquarters on January 30, 2025 and launched it February 1. National figures amplified it afterward: the 40-day Target Fast led by Reverend Jamal Bryant (March 2025), plus Nina Turner and Tamika Mallory. The demands: honor the $2 billion Black-business pledge, deposit $250 million in Black-owned banks, fund retail-training centers at 10 HBCUs, and restore the DEI commitments. The withdrawal has been felt: Target foot traffic fell year over year for months, earnings dropped, and CEO Brian Cornell was pushed out. Community-led organizers say the boycott continues. The Advocacy League is finalizing how members plug in.

Start here · spend your values

Capital B: the Black women who started it →Forbes: who gets credit, who gets erased →CNN: Target DEI backlash →

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★ IN PLAIN TERMS

DEI — Diversity, equity, and inclusion — the commitments many corporations made after 2020 and quietly walked back.

Economic withdrawal / boycott — Organized, sustained removal of our dollars from a company until it makes good — pressure felt on the balance sheet.

★ WHY IT MATTERS

$2B

in Black-business investment Target pledged — the promise this campaign holds it to

Corporations made promises to Black communities after 2020 and quietly walked them back when the political winds shifted. Where we spend is power. Sustained, organized economic withdrawal is how that power gets felt on a balance sheet, and how promises get kept.

★ WHO'S CARRYING THIS FIGHT

From the Capitol to the streets, this is the line of power behind the bill.

Nekima Levy ArmstrongOriginal organizer · civil-rights attorney, Racial Justice Network · called the boycott first (Minneapolis)

Monique Cullars-DotyOriginal organizer · Black Lives Matter Minnesota

Jaylani HusseinOriginal organizer · Executive Director, CAIR-Minnesota

Rev. Jamal BryantAmplified it · launched the 40-day Target Fast (Mar 2025)

Nina TurnerAmplified it · national boycott call

Tamika MalloryAmplified it · national organizing, Until Freedom

Hannah Naomi JonesThe advocate · Founder, The Advocacy League · organizing the withdrawal

★The Advocacy LeagueThe movement · building power with the people

★ RUBRIC SCORES

How we score every fight in our Campaign Lab — so we put power where it changes lives.

Viability

Medium

Recommendation

Coalition First

Justice & Freedom Agenda

Economic Justice & Wealth Equity

Democracy

Adjacent

Repair

Anti-Black Repair

Public health

Minimal

Why this viability: Corporations respond to sustained consumer and investor pressure — the lever works when it’s organized and patient.

★ WIN PATH · Economic leverage

Chokepoint: Target’s balance sheet · The play: Sustained, organized withdrawal until the commitments are restored — spend with Black-owned + values-aligned businesses meanwhile · Leverage: Black + allied consumer power · brand and investor pressure

Eight-systems impact