Pastor Jamal Bryant pushes boycott of Target over DEI rollback he calls ‘a spit in the face of black people’

Calling Target’s decision to scale back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives “a spit in the face of black people,” megachurch Pastor Jamal Bryant is pushing a 40-day boycott of the retail giant starting at the beginning of Lent on March 5.
Bryant, who leads New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, expressed disappointment in his sermon Sunday over what he saw as Target’s abandonment of the company’s commitment to help advance racial equity. This includes a commitment by the company to spend more than $2 billion at black-owned businesses by 2025.
The Georgia pastor accused Target of capitulating, along with other large corporations such as Walmart, to the White House’s push to end DEI policies that “undermine our national unity,” among other things.
"The president vowed to remove DEI in order to make America great again. But it is really to make America prejudice again, to make America bias again, to make America sexist again, to make America homophobic again, to make America myopic again," Bryant told his congregation. "And because he has put this edict in line, corporations are starting to fall in line. [...] even corporations like Target, they are trying to kiss the ring of the president who thinks he is king.”
Bryant said Target’s decision to scale back the company’s DEI efforts is particularly insulting to the black community because black Americans spend about $29 million a day at Target stores.
“McDonald's, we can drive right through there. Facebook, we could log right off. I'm telling you that Ford, we can switch it over for a Chevy, but Target, how dare you insult and spit in the face of black people,” the Georgia pastor said before announcing his plan to boycott the company, which he framed as spiritual warfare.
“Today, I came to announce we are going to break the spirit of white entitlement. We're going to break the spirit […] of racism and sexism. The spirit is encroaching back into our community, back into our country, and back into our corporations who are intending to take us back to the 1950s. But because we wrestle not against flesh and blood but we are wrestling against principalities,” he said, referencing the book of Ephesians. “This is a spiritual issue.”
He urged his parishioners and anyone interested in the boycott to go to targetfast.org to sign-up and get access to a directory of several hundred black-owned businesses they can patronize during the Target boycott while they pray for the company to respond positively to four specific demands.
Among the demands are that the company: "1. Honor the 2 billion dollar pledge to the black business community through products, services, and black media buys; 2. Deposit 250 million amongst any of our 23 black banks; 3. Completely restoring the franchise commitment to DEI; 4. Pipeline community centers at 10 HBCU to teach retail business at every level."
The Target boycott is expected to last through April 17.
Organizers of the boycott said they plan to assess the impact of the boycott and seek a meeting with Target’s board before deciding on taking further action ahead of the company’s shareholder’s meeting on June 12 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“This is a fast for accountability. A fast for justice. A fast for a future where corporations do not bow to pressure at the expense of marginalized communities. As we journey through these 40 days, let us pray, reflect, and act — knowing that our collective sacrifice can bring about transformation,” the boycott organizers noted. “Join us as we stand in faith and resist with purpose. Let this Lenten fast be a witness to the power of conviction, reminding the world that justice is not negotiable.”
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost