Latest news with #BullseyeBlackMarket
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Atlantans Protest Target on 5-Year Anniversary of George Floyd's Death
To mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder, hundreds gathered outside Target's Conyers location at the behest of prominent local pastor Jamal Bryant. Bryant led protesters in a 9 minute and 29 second prayer, the same amount of time former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck, killing him in 2020. The pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has been a vocal leader in the nationwide Target boycott that began in response to the company's announcement earlier this year that they would be rolling back DEI initiatives at the behest of the current White House administration. 'Target should be in shame. Five years ago, they made a pledge to the Black community and walked away from it and thought that there would be no consequence and repercussion,' Bryant told his congregation on Sunday. Just days earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Target CEO Brian Cornell admitted to employees that the boycotts had 'played a role in our first quarter performance' on the company's quarterly earnings call. Quarterly sales have dropped to $23.85 billion, a 2.8% decline from the first quarter last year. Cornell told employees that the 3.8% sales decline in stores open more than one year was due to 'five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs, and the reaction to the updates we shared on [DEI initiatives] in January.' Although Bryant is not the only Black pastor advocating for the boycott, New Birth, which has an estimated 10,000 members, has been the driving force of the movement in metro Atlanta. Easter weekend, Bryant hosted the first Bullseye Black Market in his megachurch's gymnasium for boycott participants to shop with local Black business owners in a central location. He later announced plans to expand the market to 20 cities to mark Juneteenth. While Target was not the first, nor the only, company to announce DEI rollbacks this year, the company has had a long-standing reputation for being a progressive workplace. Target implemented its diversity policies long before the summer of 2020. The company also began celebrating Black History Month and recognizing LGBT employees as a minority group in the early 1990s. In the summer of 2020, Cornell told CNBC that he was shaken by Floyd's murder, which happened just miles from the Minneapolis-based company's headquarters. 'That could have been one of my Target team members,' he said at the time. What began as a 40-day Target fast has expanded to an indefinite boycott until the company's leaders agree to four demands put forth by Bryant: honor the $2 billion pledge to the Black business community, deposit $250 million across 23 Black-owned banks, establish community retail centers at 10 HBCUs, and fully recommit to diversity, equity and inclusion at every level of the company. The post Atlantans Protest Target on 5-Year Anniversary of George Floyd's Death appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As Target Boycott Continues, Local Black Businesses Reap the Benefits
What began in Atlanta as a 40-day 'Target fast' in March has evolved into a full-blown economic movement aimed at making corporate America pay for broken promises — and uplifting Black-owned businesses in the process. 'It is time for us to stand 10 toes down about something,' said Pamela Booker, a 46-year-old Stone Mountain resident, business consultant, and creator of the hair care brand Koils By Nature. 'This is the perfect catalyst.' The Target boycott began last month in response to the retailer's rollback of its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in January, less than a week after Trump began a push to end public and private sector DEI programs. Target boycott leader Jamal Bryant raised the stakes during a community town hall meeting inside Salem Bible Church in Lithonia on Tuesday night, reiterating plans to continue the economic protest indefinitely while also launching initiatives intended to support Black entrepreneurs. His 12-city 'State of the People Power Tour' begins in Atlanta on Saturday, with a 'Day of Service' farming event at 8 a.m. followed at 11 a.m. by a series of workshops covering land ownership, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. Bryant also announced that the Bullseye Black Market showcase of Black-owned businesses that began last weekend at locations in five cities, including New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, will expand to 20 cities on Juneteenth. McDonough resident Monica Whyte was one of many patrons at the Bullseye Black Market on Sunday. The 44-year-old small-business owner, who said she was a frequent Target shopper before the boycott, hasn't bought anything at the retailer since November. She said the anti-DEI actions of President Donald Trump's administration — and the way corporations like Target have aligned with them — have motivated her to spend more money with Black-owned businesses. 'A lot of us in my era, we've never seen things like this or had to experience it, so it's all new for us,' Whyte told Capital B Atlanta. 'So jumping in and being a part [of the Target boycott], I think it's a great thing for us to go through.' The economic ripple effect of consumers like Whyte changing their shopping habits to take a stand is already being felt by local Black entrepreneurs. Capital B Atlanta spotted Abdur-Rahim Shaheed, the 75-year-old creator of the True Laundry detergent and fabric softener brand, counting a thick wad of cash Sunday afternoon after participating in New Birth's three-day Black business showcase. 'We sold out and had to bring back [more] products today,' Shaheed said. 'That is excellent.' Up until recently, Target was an outspoken supporter of DEI programs following the 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, where the bull's-eye brand is headquartered. But the company announced an end to its three-year DEI goals on Jan. 24, days after Trump began his second presidential term. On Sunday, Bryant told Capital B Atlanta that when he and the Rev. Al Sharpton met with Target executives for about two hours in New York last week, the business leaders agreed to fulfill just one of the boycott organizers' four demands. Bryant said the Target executives agreed to honor their commitment to spending $2 billion in the Black business community in 2025, but they declined to completely restore their DEI programs, deposit $250 million in Black-owned banks, and establish pipeline programs at 10 HBCUs to 'teach retail business at every level.' Speaking to the crowd in Lithonia on Tuesday, Bryant rejected the compromise outright. 'You don't get to walk away from your public commitments to Black people and think there will not be consequences and repercussions,' Bryant told the reverent crowd on Tuesday. 'They are doing it because they believe they can get away with it.' Target hasn't responded to Capital B Atlanta's repeated requests for comment. Bryant said he invited CEO Brian Cornell to the town hall, but he declined to show up. Some people have compared the Target boycott to the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. The former has given Black folks troubled by Trump's policies — from federal employee layoffs and DEI bans to price-hiking tariffs — a way to channel their anger and economic suffering into action. 'I think history will record that this is larger than that,' Bryant told Capital B Atlanta on Sunday. 'The Montgomery Bus Boycott was one city. This is an entire nation.' Bryant estimates that 150,000 people across America have boycotted Target. Macrotrends data shows Target's stock price has slid from $116.56 on March 5, when the boycott began, to a four-year low of about $95 — a drop likely made steeper by Trump's recent tariffs on imports, which have contributed to widespread market volatility. Booker, of Koils By Nature, said Black-owned brands that sell products at Target may be impacted by the boycott, but to her, it's more important to send an economic message to the retailer and its peers. 'We have to hit them in their pockets,' she said in reference to Target. 'Marching doesn't do it. Protesting doesn't do it. When we hit them in their pockets and they're losing $12 million a day, they're going to have to answer up to something.' Dava Diallo, an Atlanta-based children's book author and founder of Orisa Hoodoo Publishing who participated in last weekend's marketplace at New Birth, said her Target disavowal is permanent. 'Going forward, I will not be shopping at Target,' Diallo told Capital B Atlanta on Sunday. 'I don't plan on ever going back, to be honest.' The post As Target Boycott Continues, Local Black Businesses Reap the Benefits appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Target Boycott Phase Two: Organizers to Expand Movement This Weekend
Greear Webb hasn't set foot in a Target or spent any money there in two months — a conscious departure from what was once his go-to retailer for affordable apparel and toiletries. The 24-year-old Emory Law School student and Midtown resident is one of an estimated 10,000 members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest who answered Pastor Jamal Bryant's call in February to undertake a 40-day 'Target fast' in response to the company's walkback of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which has sparked nationwide backlash from Black consumers. Up until recently, Target was an outspoken supporter of DEI programs following the 2020 police murder of Georgia Floyd in Minneapolis, where the bullseye brand is headquartered. But the company announced an end to its three-year DEI goals on Jan. 24, less than a week after President Donald Trump began a push to end public and private sector DEI programs, signaling a larger political shift following Trump's election win in November. Webb spent Monday evening shopping at a nearby Kroger. He's one of many Black Atlanta residents who have grown weary of Target and other major retailers allegedly taking Black customers for granted. 'We're tired of the economic injustice,' Webb told Capital B Atlanta on Monday. 'We're tired of the political injustice, where people are treating us as a political minority with no power at all.' Target hasn't responded to Capital B Atlanta's calls and emails requesting comment. Metro Atlanta was the nexus for the 40-day Target fast, which formally began on March 5 and is scheduled to end on Thursday, coinciding with the conclusion of Lent. However, local boycott organizers and participants say their economic justice movement will continue indefinitely. On Friday, New Birth will host a three-day event dubbed the Bullseye Black Market that is designed to showcase local Black businesses and give Target boycott supporters a chance to connect with pro-Black brands and entrepreneurs. On Easter Sunday, the megachurch's pastor is unveiling the next phase in the Target boycott. 'We will give the state-of-the-Target address, as it were — where we are and how do we proceed,' Bryant told Capital B Atlanta on Friday. Bryant estimates that 150,000 people across America have boycotted Target. Duke University public policy professor Vicki Bogan told CNN recently that Black people represent about 9% of Target's customer base. Foot traffic at Target stores has declined for 10 consecutive weeks since the company's policy change, according to Retail Brew. In addition, Macrotrends data shows Target's stock price has plummeted from an all-time high of $266.38 in November 2021 to a four-year low of about $95 — a drop likely made steeper by Trump's recent tariffs on foreign imports, which have contributed to widespread market volatility. Bryant said he's scheduled to meet with leaders at Target this week. 'We'll see whether that comes to bear,' he said. The Black faith leader acknowledged other companies, including Amazon and Walmart, have eliminated or changed their DEI programs since Trump won reelection, but he said Target stands out because of the $2 billion commitment it allegedly broke to the Black community in the wake of Floyd's tragic killing. 'They disavowed their commitment to George Floyd's family,' Bryant said. 'It was incomprehensible that they will betray a community that has been so loyal to them.' The Target fast website lists four demands for the retailer: To restore the corporation's commitment to DEI, to honor its $2 billion pledge to Black businesses, to deposit $250 million amongst Black-owned banks, and to invest in retail business education at 10 HBCUs. Bryant said the goal was to demonstrate the collective economic power of Black consumers, which is expected to surpass $2 trillion in 2026, according to Nielsen. The boycott, Bryant suggested, has given voice to the Black Americans opposed to Trump policies whose collective will may have been thwarted at the ballot box. 'Our pocketbooks are our picket signs,' Bryant added. 'Our dollar is the demonstration.' The Target boycott was generated out of the larger Our Money United campaign started more than a year ago by Charles Walker, CEO of Friends of the Movement Global, an Atlanta-based social data analytics company. Organizers recently unveiled additional tools designed to help Black consumers and their allies avoid spending money with companies that are not aligned with their values, including a National Boycott Registry that helps consumers find businesses that are aligned with their values, a 'Voter Wallet' digital tool that connects users with Black-owned businesses, and a Black Wall Street ticker that tracks and reports community spending. 'Companies don't want to admit that a boycott hurt them, so we have to quantify that on our end,' Walker said. 'This is just starting. We're going to continue to organize and build, block by block.' The post Target Boycott Phase Two: Organizers to Expand Movement This Weekend appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
