Off Target: DEI Rollbacks Cost Retailer

A key pillar of any business is understanding your consumer base. However, US retail giant, Target, missed that target when it announced the termination of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in a memo to employees on 24 January. The decision came just three days following the Trump Administration’s controversial Executive Order to discontinue DEI measures in an effort at, supposedly, ‘restoring merit-based opportunity’.

Without wasting time, Target, a mass-market retail company operating large-scale food and general-merchandise discount stores, cut the policy. The megastore chain also terminated its diversity goal, which included a pledge made in 2022 to invest $2 billion and stock over 500 Black-owned brands on its shelves by 2025. The commitment was made after civil unrest erupted over the k*lling of George Floyd in 2020. Target and many other corporations launched DEI programmes in an effort to save face amid international condemnation of US racial violence. They embraced inclusion, not out of conviction but to safeguard their bottom line.

Since discontinuing its DEI programmes, Target has seen a significant reduction in its Black and Hispanic consumer base, with foot traffic and online visits dropping by nearly 10% following weeks of organised boycotts spearheaded by various Black-led organisations and faith leaders. According to Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, “Black consumers helped build Target into a retail giant, and now they are making their voices heard”.

Meanwhile critics, such as Trump and Musk, have mischaracterised DEI Policies as attacks on meritocracy. However, DEI was not implemented for that reason. It was aimed at redressing historical and ongoing injustices to ensure that systemic racism and other biases do not impede historically marginalised groups from gaining access to opportunities they are qualified for.