January 25, 2025
Target employees were informed through a company-wide memo, that said the changes would better align Target with their customer base.
Target announced on Jan. 24 that it will be scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, initiatives. The change has been made reportedly to align its workforce and product offerings more closely with its customer base, following President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In a memo to employees, the Minneapolis-based retailer revealed plans to discontinue its three-year DEI goals, which include Target ceasing reporting to external diversity organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and ending a program designed to feature more products from Black- and minority-owned businesses in their stores.
The announcement memo was released to Target staff this week and was written by the chief community impact and equity officer at Target, Kiera Fernandez, and was reportedly shared with CNBC.
The memo read, “Many years of data, insights, listening, and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy.”
Fernandez continued, “And as a retailer [Target] 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 – all in service of driving Target’s growth and winning together.”
A Target spokesperson clarified that, as of now, there are no job cuts set to be a part of Friday’s DEI announcement so far.
This is a stark deviation from the sentiment of Target CEO Brian Cornell four years ago.
Following the murder of George Floyd, which took place extremely close to Target’s headquarters in its hometown, Cornell described DEI efforts as “personal.” He said the incident of police brutality motivated him to bolster Target’s company-wide efforts in diversity.
At the time, he said, “That could have been one of my Target team members.”
The scale-back on DEI efforts will include many of the programs that began after the death of Floyd.
Target started a program to help Black entrepreneurs develop, test, and learn to scale their products to sell at mass retailers, as well as promising to spend over $2 billion on Black-owned businesses by this year. Another DEI initiative that will see changes involves the $10 million that Target and its related companies gave to the National Urban League and African American Leadership Forum in support of social justice groups.
The company’s decision to scale back on DEI comes nearly immediately after President Donald Trump’s executive orders to cease all the government’s DEI programs and put federal officials who oversaw those initiatives on leave. Trump signed the order right after being inaugurated.
Target, whose workforce is about 43% white, 31% Hispanic/Latino, 15% Black, and 5% Asian, is joining several other big-name companies like Meta, Walmart, and McDonald’s in their move to roll back on their DEI-related goals.
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