Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer
St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina is spearheading a Target boycott that will go beyond Easter Sunday. Many black churches are encouraging members of their congregation to stop buying from Target after the retail giant rolled back their diversity, equity, and inclusion(DEI) initiatives. Over 150,000 people across the country have signed up to participate in this boycott. Dr. Robert Scott is the pastor at St. Paul Baptist Church. He said he gathered with several pastors to figure out how they should respond to Target’s actions. He encouraged churches and black people in his area to step up and fight back against companies that are taking steps to exclude DEI and people of color. Scott said, “We needed to reclaim the spirit of activism that our civil rights forebearers had,” Scott said.
According to information from Scott’s congregation, around 85% of them are planning to boycott Target. Prior to the boycott, Scott said that his congregations were spending around $12 million per day at Target. Retail reports have shown that Target has experienced 10 consecutive weeks of declining foot traffic as well as a dip in stock prices. Scott believes that the community coming together is making a difference.
