Target Rolls Back DEI, Joining Other Major Companies Like Walmart, Meta

Target is the latest major company to reverse its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Per a new memo made public on Friday, the Minneapolis-based retail giant will be joining large companies, including Walmart, McDonald’s, and Meta, to name a few, by phasing out its DEI focus. That means ending three-year DEI goals that were previously laid out.

“Many years of data, insights, listening and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy,” chief community impact and equity officer Kiera Fernandez said in an internal memo sent to staff on Friday, per CNBC. “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 – all in service of driving Target’s growth and winning together.”

Per Reuters, the company pledged in 2022 to invest more than $2 billion in black-owned businesses by the end of 2025 as part of its REACH goals. Target also had goals of adding more than 500 black-owned brands and increasing exposure of diverse-owned brands through paid media, the outlet noted. Target will no longer focus on diversity when choosing suppliers.

Target will also stop reporting to external diversity-focused groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

In 2023, the retailer came under fire for marketing a line of Pride-themed merchandise, including products like “tuck-friendly” female swimming suits, in prominent displays at the front of their stores. Other products in its “Pride Collection” included small shirts with phrases like “Just Be You And Feel The Love,” Pride-themed onesies, as well as rainbow-colored leggings, tutu skirts, and jumpers.

Following widespread backlash and boycotts, the Pride collection for 2024 was much smaller than the previous year. Conservative activist Robby Starbuck said a Target rep confirmed that the company would not market Pride merchandise to kids going forward, as he shared on X.

These changes come just days after newly inaugurated President Donald Trump placed all federal DEI officials on paid leave. 

“President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, as The Daily Wire previously reported. “This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept.”

While major companies are abandoning DEI initiatives, others are digging in their heels. Costco announced on Friday that its shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-DEI proposal.

“We owe our success to the more than 300,000 employees who serve our members every day. It is important that they all feel included and appreciated and that they transmit these values to our customers,” the company’s chairman, Hamilton “Tony” James, said of the decision to keep DEI as part of the company’s goals.

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