Civil rights leaders will challenge Target’s leadership at its Minneapolis headquarters Friday over how the offensive product passed internal review and demand accountability, representation and a fundamental shift in corporate culture
PRESS CONFERENCE
WHEN: Friday, August 28, 2026, 12 p.m.
WHERE: Outside Target Corporate Headquarters, 1000 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403
WHO:
Nekima Levy Armstrong
Attorney; Founder, Racial Justice Network; Co-Founder, National Target Boycott
Monique Cullars-Doty
Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter Minnesota; Co-Founder, National Target Boycott
Jaylani Hussein
Executive Director, CAIR-Minnesota; Co-Founder, National Target Boycott
Additional community and civil rights leaders may be announced.
MEDIA CONTACT
Jaylani Hussein
Phone: 612-406-0070
Email: [email protected]
Website: nationaltargetboycott.com
(MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 8/27/26) — The co-founders of the National Target Boycott will gather outside Target’s corporate headquarters Friday to demand answers about how a racially offensive children’s Halloween costume made it through the retailer’s internal review and approval processes and became available for sale.
Target removed the costume after Black consumers and others across the country called out imagery they said evoked the racist history of blackface and minstrelsy. Target subsequently acknowledged that the costume was offensive, apologized and said it should never have been offered for sale.
National Target Boycott co-founders Nekima Levy Armstrong, Monique Cullars-Doty and Jaylani Hussein say removing the costume after public outrage does not answer the most important questions:
Who reviewed it? Who approved it? Who marketed it? How many layers of review did it pass through? Who was in the room when these decisions were made — and who wasn’t? And how did something so immediately offensive to many Black Americans make it through Target’s internal processes?
The co-founders say those questions take on even greater significance following Target’s January 2025 retreat from its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion commitments.
On January 21, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to take action against DEI practices in the private sector. Three days later, on January 24, Target announced major changes to its DEI initiatives, saying the company was taking steps to remain “in step with the evolving external landscape.”
For boycott organizers, the timing and message were unmistakable.
“Target spent years cultivating the loyalty of Black consumers and presenting itself as a corporation that valued diversity, racial equity and inclusion. Then, at a critical political moment, Target chose retreat,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, attorney, founder of the Racial Justice Network and co-founder of the National Target Boycott.
“Now Target wants us to believe that a racially offensive costume somehow slipped through the cracks. No. A product does not magically appear on the website of a multibillion-dollar corporation. People review it. People approve it. People make decisions about how it will be marketed and sold.
“If Target genuinely wants to understand how this happened, then it needs to be willing to ask much harder questions about corporate culture, representation and accountability. Who is in the room? Who has authority? Whose lived experience informs decisions? And who has the power to recognize and stop harm before Black consumers have to point it out publicly?
“Target has a new CEO, but changing the person at the top will mean very little if the same culturally tone-deaf decision-making continues underneath. Target doesn’t just need new leadership. Target needs a cultural shift. That means racial and cultural competency, meaningful representation, accountability and people with the authority to speak up before harm occurs — not after Black consumers are forced to call it out.
“At some point, we have to stop calling everything a ‘mistake.’ When disrespect becomes a pattern, believe the pattern.”
Target has said it is examining how the costume became part of its assortment. Boycott organizers say any internal review will be meaningless unless the company is willing to confront broader questions about corporate culture, representation, accountability and whose voices are present when decisions are being made.
“Imagine being a Black parent or child and seeing this image being sold as entertainment by one of the largest retailers in America,” said Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and the National Target Boycott.
“Black people should not have to repeatedly experience harm and then wait for corporations to get caught before they decide something has crossed the line. We are tired of apologies after the damage is done. We need accountability, restoration and meaningful change.”
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-Minnesota and co-founder of the National Target Boycott, said the controversy underscores why consumers must be willing to exercise their economic power.
“Target wants consumers to look at each controversy separately — another mistake, another apology, another promise to do better,” Hussein said. “But communities have every right to look at the entire record.
“Corporations understand money. When they refuse to listen to communities, consumers have the right to take our dollars somewhere else. That is what this boycott is about.”
BOYCOTT LEADERS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY AND CULTURAL CHANGE
The National Target Boycott is calling on Target to:
● Conduct a transparent examination of how the offensive Halloween costume passed through Target’s internal review, approval and marketing processes and became available for sale;
● Disclose what safeguards failed, who had decision-making authority and what corrective measures will be implemented to prevent similar incidents;
● Require Target’s executive leadership and Board of Directors to publicly address the company’s repeated racial and cultural failures and identify concrete measures for changing the corporate culture that allowed them to occur;
● Undertake a fundamental cultural shift within Target’s leadership and decision-making structures that prioritizes racial and cultural competency, meaningful representation, diverse perspectives and community accountability;
● Restore and strengthen Target’s commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, including meaningful representation at decision-making levels;
● Provide a full public accounting of the $2.1 billion pledge and institutional commitments Target made to the Black community following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd; and
● Demonstrate measurable and sustained investment in Black communities and other communities affected by the company’s decisions.
The National Target Boycott officially began February 1, 2025, after Target retreated from key DEI commitments. Organizers called the boycott indefinite from its inception and urged consumers to redirect their spending toward Black-owned businesses and companies demonstrating meaningful commitments to their workers, customers and communities.
“Target has spent years benefiting from the loyalty and purchasing power of Black consumers,” Levy Armstrong said. “The question now is whether our voices matter to Target as much as our dollars do.
“Target does not get to disrespect our communities and continue to profit from us. Until Target demonstrates real accountability and meaningful change, we will continue using our economic power to demand it.”
WHEN: Friday, August 28, 2026 at 12 p.m.
WHERE: Outside Target Corporate Headquarters
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
WHO:
Nekima Levy Armstrong
Attorney; Founder, Racial Justice Network; Co-Founder, National Target Boycott
Monique Cullars-Doty
Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter Minnesota; Co-Founder, National Target Boycott
Jaylani Hussein
Executive Director, CAIR-Minnesota; Co-Founder, National Target Boycott
Additional community and civil rights leaders may be announced.
Jaylani Hussein
Phone: 612-406-0070
Email: [email protected]
Website: nationaltargetboycott.com
ABOUT THE NATIONAL TARGET BOYCOTT
The National Target Boycott is a Minnesota-founded, community-driven economic justice movement co-founded by Nekima Levy Armstrong, Monique Cullars-Doty and Jaylani Hussein. The campaign uses strategic, nonviolent economic action to demand corporate accountability, transparency and measurable commitments to communities impacted by corporate decisions.
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