Black Beauty Brand Founders Urge Shoppers Not To Boycott Target Amid DEI Rollback

In 2021, Target, the big-box chain based in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered the year before, committed to investing more than $2 billion in Black-owned businesses, including adding 500 Black-owned brands to its shelves and increasing its spend on Black-owned companies like marketing and construction firms.

On Friday, it dropped the bombshell that it’s rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, joining other corporations such as Walmart, Amazon and Meta, not to mention the federal government of the United States under the new Trump administration, in retreating from DEI programs designed to open opportunities for people and companies from underrepresented groups. Shared via a memo to Target employees, the news was a devastating surprise to many Black beauty brand founders whose products are carried by the retailer, but they’re urging consumers not to boycott it in response and diminish their brands’ sales. 

“Target pulling out of their DEI initiatives hit hard,” wrote Jamika Martin, founder of skincare brand Rosen, in an Instagram post on Sunday. “The others, not surprised, but Target man??? I’ve always championed their support to the cause and truly seen at a ground level the impact they’ve had on small, Black owned businesses.” Tabitha Brown, who has namesake gifting, kitchen and grocery essentials at Target, said on the social media platform, “Contrary to whatever the world might tell you, it has been very hard for Black-owned businesses to hit shelves, which is why it’s such a big deal when we do and finally land inside of retail. So, it is definitely heartbreaking to feel unsupported.”

On Instagram, Maya Smith, co-founder of haircare brand The Doux, wrote, “We didn’t see this coming, and we have no control over these changes. What we do control is how we respond—and that response requires us to think strategically about what it takes to ensure that businesses like ours continue to thrive…The costs of participating in big-box stores are steep, and performance in those spaces can guarantee the survival of the brand, period.” 

Melissa Butler, founder of The Lip Bar, the largest Black-owned makeup brand in Target, told followers on TikTok that she was disappointed, but not surprised by companies retreating from DEI. “I always thought that the 2020 commitments were a farce,” she said in a TikTok video that’s garnered over 4 million views since Saturday. “Anything that is forced is going to be a farce, and I think part of it is because Trump is emboldening companies to reverse commitments that they never wanted to do in the first place. I think that’s true for a lot of companies. That is not just true for Target.” 

Others in the Black beauty community echoed Butler’s sentiment that corporate DEI programs were doomed to fail. “These efforts were never designed for longevity; they were reactive, not structural,” wrote Black Beauty Club founder Tomi Talabi in an Instagram Stories post. Martin had a comparatively positive outlook, positing that retailers like Target won’t fully dissolve DEI teams, but they will be significantly leaner. “One to two people doing the work of an entire corporation’s ‘efforts,’” she said, but questioned the future of retailer-led accelerator programs aimed at supporting diverse founders and resources dedicated to support scaling minority-owned brands.

“These efforts were never designed for longevity; they were reactive, not structural.”

In 2022, Ulta Beauty started the MUSE Accelerator Program to assist early-stage BIPOC beauty brands with launching and thriving in retail. After Floyd’s death, Sephora pivoted its early-stage brand program, Sephora Accelerate, to concentrate on BIPOC-owned brands. Among those in the latest class are 4AM, OliviaUmma, Bounce Curl, The Potion Studio, Tonal Cosmetics, Influxious, Ruhveda and The Steam Bar. Sephora and Ulta haven’t revealed their DEI-related plans going forward, but both detail pledges to diverse assortments and workforces on their websites. 

Tina Wells, CEO and founder of Buzz Marketing Group, lauds Black founders of brands at Target for taking the right step in publicly addressing Target’s exodus from DEI initiatives and advises that direct communication with their communities is critical. “They need to continue to speak directly to their customer, inform them and guide them towards the best places to purchase their products,” she says. “I really believe we need to listen to founders as they know their businesses and how we can best support them right now.”

Retailers of beauty products’ interest in DEI was motivated by their bottom lines as much as societal improvement, and shifts away from DEI programs could be shortsighted given the immense purchasing power of Americans of color. In 2023, market research firm NielsenIQ estimates Black consumer spending on beauty products reached $9.4 billion, a $1.3 billion year-over-year jump, with dollar, unit and household growth outpacing growth for the U.S. at large. Last year, its figures showed Hispanics have added over $2 billion to the beauty sector since 2022.

“You know what’s always in style? Increasing shareholders’ equity,” says Wells. “Courting female and BIPOC customers will always be good for the bottom line, so we’ll see how these retailers balance these two things.” She adds, “These are incredibly nuanced times. We all need to be thoughtful about what we consume, but knee-jerk reactions aren’t going to achieve the outcomes we want. At the end of the day, seeing products to women and diverse shoppers is good for business. The right retailers will realize this.”

On Instagram, Talabi argues that the “greatest progress” for Black-owned businesses has always come from within the Black community, not corporations outside of it. In a comment on Brown’s Instagram post, Süprmarkt, a Black-owned organic and vegan grocery store in Los Angeles, agreed with the sentiment, writing, “If we want liberation we have to create it. This includes establishing infrastructure, supply chains, distribution etc. It is super easy to get upset & shift from one retailer or another but very few people want to roll up their sleeves & create solutions which take lifetimes of work. We’re in this position because we have almost zero ownership across all the verticals we consume the most.”

Black beauty leaders like Courtney Adeleye, founder of recently-acquired The Mane Choice and new brand Watch & Sea, which is slated to enter 200 Target doors next month, have sprung into action. In the wake of Target ending DEI programs, she launched an initiative to support Black entrepreneurs called the Success Accelerated Program eligible to anyone purchasing Watch & Sea products at Target.

On Instagram, Adeleye wrote, “In the month of February, I’ll be selecting four people to fly in and spend a weekend with me, where I’ll personally share all the knowledge and strategies I can to help them build an incredible future and lasting legacy. But for everyone else who makes a purchase of my products at Target, whether it’s small or large, you’ll be able to attend the virtual session of the program.”