By Katherine Tinsley
12:30pm PST, Jan 28, 2025
Brown, who has a partnership with the convenience store, urged social media followers to continue to support Donna's Recipe, her food line and other Black-owned brands carried by the retailer.
"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," the actress explained in an Instagram video posted on Sunday, January 26.
"There's a process," Brown continued. "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."
Brown explained that divesting from Target could impact entrepreneurs of color the most.
"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," she explained.
Kiera Fernandez, who is Target's Chief Community Impact and Equity Officer, discussed the new era of the organization's structure.
"Many years of data, insights, listening, and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy," Fernandez said in a statement. "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."
Despite Brown's intentions, her social media post was criticized on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Too often the idea of being 'pro-Black' is framed as the Black community needing to support or being loyal to the handful of highly visible Black figures who've been elevated by the establishment in one way or another, and rarely ever the other way around," award-winning writer Gennette Cordova wrote.
"I don't like what Tabitha Brown said, because she is insinuating that the fate of her brand and other black brand is in the hands of boycotting black consumers, instead of placing blame on the actual companies rolling back DEI initiatives that will likely drop her," another user noted.
While people quickly shared their disapproval of Brown's social media post, others rushed to her defense.
"Honestly, I understand Tabitha Brown's position and I sympathize with her," one user said on X. "Same people who want to boycott Target are the same ones who are using X and Facebook and Amazon to voice their opinion, knowing the people who own these apps are POS too. The selective outrage is insane."
