A Target Halloween costume for children was pulled from stores on Aug. 24 after people online pointed out that the design of the orange-and-black clown costume with a mesh black face covering evoked images of minstrel shows from the Jim Crow era. And instead of doing some soul-searching, the company’s response made the situation worse.
It’s the kind of thing that should have never made it through approval, much less made it all the way to production and promotion, where it was modeled by a Black child whose face is obscured by an exaggerated, painted-on grin.
Then came the company’s response, which only made things worse. The short statement said it's no longer selling the costume, but stopped short of offering any meaningful explanation of how
this got past designers, or how Target would seek to avoid causing further harm.
“Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again,” Target said.
But when you think about the past year of living under President Donald Trump, who made it his mission to rid the country of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the federal government and private companies alike, the events leading up to the creation and sale of something so blatantly racist begin to make more sense.
Trump's decimation of DEI helped get us here
One of Trump’s promises when he was elected president again in 2024 was to get rid of anything deemed “woke,” including DEI initiatives and policies that had been put in place to ensure that the voices of marginalized groups were heard within corporate America, a space historically dominated by White men.
Within the first year of his second term, the president signed executive orders preventing the federal government from spending money on DEI policies or practicing anything deemed DEI. It led companies to step away from the practice and eliminate departments focused on anything related to diversity in the workforce, lest they face federal investigation.
What we saw at Target with this costume is the inevitable conclusion of losing these practices. When no one in the room has the cultural knowledge to stop and say “hey, maybe we shouldn’t” from the jump, harm happens. Pain is caused to your consumers, and you lose their business – which causes the company to suffer, too.
Target shares are down after the costume controversy. People online are speaking of boycotting its store. All of this could have been avoided had the company simply done its due diligence when researching and creating costumes.
Target says it would 'learn from this.' It's 2026.
An internal email viewed by Reuters from Chief Merchandising Officer Cara Sylvester told Target employees that the company would "learn from this and do better.” But it’s 2026, and the time for listening and learning is long gone.
What people want to see – and what Target did not offer in its apology – is action.
If Target still had a DEI initiative, perhaps the company would have already shared a plan for how executives would remedy the harm they have caused. They would have a multistep plan for ensuring that nothing like this happens again, and how they would remedy the events that transpired.
Now, they’re having to answer for a decision they made to supposedly keep up with the political trends of the country instead of standing firm in any belief system.
People are right to demand that one of the most popular stores in the country do better for the general public. It’s just a shame that the pain caused by this Halloween costume could have been avoided all along.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Target caved on DEI. Then came the Halloween costume. | Opinion
