Target has donated $300,000 to the National Baptist Convention and two separate leaders of boycotts against the retailer are calling for the church organization to return the gift.
In separate comments, Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota activist who launched a Target boycott on Feb. 1 and Pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant, who encouraged members of the Black faith community to boycott for 40 days and now permanently stay away from the retailer, have said the acceptance by the Black church organization works against their efforts.
Both boycotts are in response to what Levy Armstrong and Bryant say were efforts by Target to turn its back on the Black community when it rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
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During a Sunday sermon at his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on June 22, Bryant decried Target’s donation to the National Baptist Convention.
He accused Target, whose CEO had met with Bryant and the Rev. Al Sharpton in April, of “going around” him to the National Baptist Convention.
“Are you crazy to think we’re going to sell out for chump change?” Bryant said.
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As part of his Target boycott, Bryant has made four demands, including honoring a $2 billion pledge to the Black business community that Target previously had in place, which entailed purchasing Black-owned products, services and investing in Black media. Bryant has also called for the retailer to invest in Black-owned banks, establish retail centers at historically Black college and universities and fully restore DEI initiatives.
“The black eye for us is that they (National Baptist Convention) walked away with nothing that we asked for,” Bryant said.
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In a separate open letter sent to the National Baptist Convention and shared with USA TODAY, Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, urged the church group “to reconsider its alignment with a corporation that has caused such profound harm.
“This $300,000 payment does not heal – it deepens the wound. It appears to be a payout for silence and an attempt to regain Black consumer trust without accountability,” the letter stated.
The letter was also signed by fellow organizers Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-Minnesota (Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota).
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The post Target Donated $300,000 to a Black Church Group. Why Boycott Activists Want It Returned. appeared first on American Renaissance.
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