Comments
TARGET HATE - We don’t buy bigotry. That was the prevailing theme Sunday, March 9, outside a Target store in Eagle Rock as more than 40 protesters drew hundreds of honks from passing motorists and presided over a near-empty parking lot on a beautiful Sunday afternoon when it might otherwise have been full of shoppers. That snapshot showed many residents may already be tuning into the message to #BoycottTarget.
East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD) launched the protest to hold accountable the Minneapolis-based mega-retailer after it moved in February to scuttle its programs for a more inclusive and welcoming workforce and supplier diversity. The about-face discourages recruitment of youth and equality-minded applicants, puts a hex on promoting diverse leaders from within, and may hurt well qualified small businesses owned and operated by women and people of color that are eager to contract and provide with the company with their wares. In its retreat, Target cited a recent executive order by President Trump that attacks diversity policies. Adding to the sting was the fact it came during Black History Month.
In addition, the company’s headquarters is just a few miles from the Minneapolis block where George Floyd was murdered by local police officers on May 25, 2020, sparking a nationwide movement for racial justice and police reform. Moreover, a federal judge on Feb. 21 held Trump’s executive order cited by Target to be “arbitrary and discriminatory” and its impacts to be sweeping and “pernicious.” The court ruled the order to be unconstitutional, imposing a nationwide injunction against its enforcement.
Many of the protesters came out to the high-visibility corner on Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock to take a stand against what they saw as a cowardly retailer caving in to lawless hate and Trump’s pattern of bullying while demonizing Americans’ diversity. A few signs also took aim at billionaire Elon Musk, but most put Target in the bullseye with slogans such as “Boycott Target” and “Target Capitulates to Hate.”
“People shop where we are wanted and respected,” said Malcolm Johnson, who serves as EAPD’s second vice president. “A lot of shoppers feel betrayed by Target’s retreat. I personally feel diversity is a strength. Fortunately as a consumer, I have other choices like Vons, like Trader Joe’s and Costco, which still want me as a customer based on the choices they’re making.”
A student of the civil rights movement, Johnson also noted that EAPD’s Boycott Target protest occurred the same day as the 60th anniversary of the March for Voting Rights in Selma, Alabama. It commemorated Bloody Sunday, in 1965, when police savagely beat dozens in the integrated ranks of marchers, led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and nearly killed John Lewis, a champion for human rights who went on to represent Atlanta as a Member of Congress for more than three decades before his death in 2020.
Outside Target, in Eagle Rock, the constant chorus of supportive honks for the protest and cars turning around to exit from the sparsely occupied parking lot indicate that thousands of informed local shoppers are listening to the warning from well-organized, outspoken neighbors like the EAPD members. Many consumers are taking our purchasing power elsewhere.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime leader for LGBTQ+ human rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns appear in national news outlets including USA Today and in top daily news outlets of more than 20 states. A resident of Eagle Rock, he is also president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), the largest grassroots Democratic club in California, with more than 1,100 members. )
