Tabitha Brown and other Black-owned brand owners with products in Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other major retailers are warning about the boycotting consequences after the companies announced that they were rolling back their DEI initiatives following President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
RELATED: Target To Discontinue DEI Initiatives Following Trump’s Executive Order On Diversity Programs
As we previously shared, on Friday (January 24), Target announced that it is shutting down its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, in addition to other equity initiatives as President Donald Trump signed a major executive order telling federal agencies to end their DEI programs and nudging private business to do the same. In addition to Target, Walmart, and Amazon, other companies like McDonald’s, Ford, Harley-Davidson, and John Deere are said to be among those reducing and phasing out their DEI commitments in recent months.
At Target, its DEI goals included hiring and promoting more women and members of racial minority groups, and recruiting more diverse suppliers, including businesses owned by people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Although Target has long been a major corporate advocate for the rights of Black and LGBTQ+ people, the company is now changing it’s tune to Donald Trump’s orders and claiming that its new decision on DEI marks the steps into the “next chapter” of the company’s decades-long process to create “inclusive work and guest environments that welcome all.”
In Target’s statement, its Chief Community Impact and Equity Officer Kiera Fernandez said, “Many years of data, insights, listening, and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy. And as a retailer that serves millions of consumers every day, we understand the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape, now and in the future.”
Since Target and other major retailers announced their DEI rollbacks, following President Donald Trump’s executive order, actress, author, social media personality, and entrepreneur Tabitha Brown has spoken out with other Black-owned brand owners with products in these stores, and they are warning the public of the consequences that come with boycotting these retailers.
In a nearly 10-minute video posted to her Instagram account on Saturday (January 25), Brown said, “As disheartening as it is for me, I’m not the only one affected by this. It’s for everyone who is a woman-owned business, minority-owned business, and Black-owned business. It’s for so many of us who have worked so very hard to be placed into retail—to finally be seen and [have] a proof of retail because, contrary to whatever the world might tell you, it has been very hard for Black-owned businesses to hit shelves. Which is why it’s such a big deal when we do, and finally land inside of retail. So, it is definitely heartbreaking to feel unsupported.”
RELATED: Walmart Becomes The Latest And Biggest Retail Company To Roll Back Its DEI Policies
Continuing to speak on the DEI rollbacks and potential boycotting, she said, “However, I am in business in multiple ways: with Target, with Walmart, and Amazon. I sell Donna’s Recipe, my haircare products on Amazon and in Target, and of course, I have a huge partnership with Target. I sell my seasonings at Walmart. I do business all over. Just like many other people. And what I can tell you is, if we all decide to boycott and be like, ‘No, we’re not spending no money at these organizations,’ listen I get it. And if that’s how you feel, honey, I one thousand percent get it.”
However, Brown warned, “But, so many of us would be affected. Our sales would drop and our businesses would be hurt. And if any of you know business, it doesn’t just happen overnight—where you can just go take all your stuff and pull it off the shelves. There’s a process. And then, where are you gonna put it? You gotta have a place to store it, and that’s money. Then, you gotta have another place to sell it. Which is almost impossible sometimes. And even if you sell online, it’s a process when it comes to business. And everyone does not have the funds or the means or the availability or the space to house their own products.”
Tabitha Brown went on to reveal what concerns her the most about Target and other major retailers rolling back their DEI initiatives and prompting a flood of boycotting customers. She said, “The thing that concerns me the most—and I want you to hear me and hear me well—if we all decide to stop supporting said businesses and say, ‘I can’t buy nothing from there,’ the business who were affected by the DEI ban, what that does is you take all of our sales and they dwindle down.”
Brown added, “And then, those companies get to say, ‘Oh, your products are not performing,’ and they can remove them from the shelves and then put their preferred businesses on the shelves. And then what happens to all the businesses who’ve worked so hard to get where they are? Then, what happens?” Brown offered a possible solution claiming, “I know that something that can solve this is ownership of these big corporations. But, it’s a long way to go.”
Tabitha Brown also highlighted two other Black-owned brand owners with products in Target, feeling equally confused and speechless about the DEI rollbacks happening there as it did with Walmart and Amazon, and they too are ready for answers to tell their customers who are ready to begin boycotting.
One entrepreneur was Melissa Butler, the founder and CEO of The Lip Bar. She is known for her 2015 appearance on ‘Shark Tank,’ where she unsuccessfully pitched her vegan lipstick brand, but later launched and grew the company to be in Target. She says since hitting the shelves in 2017, her brand has become the largest Black-owned makeup company in Target, which is now rolling back on DEI. The second entrepreneur was Chantel Powell, the founder and CEO of Play Pits, an all-natural deodorant for children. Butler and Powell issued the same sentiments as Brown in regards to warning against boycotting due to the negatives consequences against minority-owned companies.
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While it may be more difficult, with their current following, they could transfer their sales to their own online shops and sell from there.
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