Just hours after Donald Trump became the 47th president, conservatives were swept up in a whirlwind of victories. Americans are so used to our politicians putting the interests of foreigners over our own, that many are beside themselves with joy after the Trump administration swiftly took a pro-American approach to governing.
While we enjoy a much-needed celebration, we should remain skeptical of overnight enlightenment from politicians and Big Tech, and be on the lookout for other hollow, fleeting victories. You’ve probably heard that Target and other corporations are abandoning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. In many cases, this is a lie. Let’s use Target as an example.
Target’s weird infatuation with the most depraved tenets of leftism reached its apex in 2023 when the retailer faced a boycott for selling perverted “tuck-friendly” swimsuits and pride-themed merchandise for children. The same pride collection included graphic tees designed by a Satan supporter who called for the eradication of critics of transgenderism.
Everyone involved in putting these products in Target’s stores is a soulless ghoul, and so is everyone who puts “tuck-friendly” swimsuits on their children. People like this don’t change, by the way. Anyone with a redeemable moral framework wouldn’t have been a participant in the first place.
On Jan. 24, Target issued a press release that supposedly indicates a departure from DEI. Kiera Fernandez, formerly known as Target’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, now goes by a new title: Chief Community Impact and Equity Officer. What a clever rebrand. Considering the goal was to pretend that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are no longer a priority at Target, I would have thought that her new title should avoid the words Diversity, Equity, or Inclusion.
Fernandez issued a memo to Target staff that included this gem:
“Many years of data, insights, listening and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy, 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.”
Like most corporate jargon that comes from unimpressive and overpaid executives whose shining accomplishment has been irreparably harming the brand they were entrusted with, this is a non-statement. If you’ve worked a corporate gig, you’ve encountered these people, they talk the most but say the least.
It gets better. CNBC reported that “a Target spokesperson said there are no job cuts as part of Friday’s DEI announcement.” Impressive. Target is so serious about getting rid of DEI that it decided to retain every single one of its DEI hires at every level of the organization, including executives and middle management who imposed this ideology on the entire company.
In other words, Target is not abandoning DEI. It’s being taken underground. It might not sell another wheelchair-bound black Santa this year, but that’s because Target is doing just enough to pull the wool over your eyes.
Anyone involved in their local school board is familiar with this tactic. The first thing schools did after parents complained about Critical Race Theory (CRT) was rebrand it. That’s what Target is doing here, which is arguably worse than what it was doing before. Target hasn’t made any meaningful admission of wrongdoing, and because these corporations think you’re stupid, Target is hoping to assuage the public by pretending to suddenly reject the religion of leftism that consumed it for years all just hours after an administration hostile to DEI took over in Washington. It’s a miracle with impeccable timing, I suppose.
When Target says it is “concluding our three-year diversity, equity, and inclusion goals,” it doesn’t mean abandoning discriminatory hiring practices intended to achieve racial, sexual, gender, and other quotas, it simply means Target will stop being so obvious about it. Again, none of the people responsible for implementing DEI at Target have been fired, including HR executives. I’m not trying to be cynical here — as there are steps being taken (e.g., Target will not participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s equality index) — but those steps are being taken for the express purpose of deceiving you. There’s no authentic change of heart.
Even in an imaginary world where Target genuinely eliminated every molecule of DEI from its operations and fired everyone responsible, it doesn’t get to pretend this never happened. That’s now how this works. The struggle for redemption must bear proportion to the sin. Until Target and other corporations acknowledge that DEI is a destructive lie perpetrated on the American people by the Democrat Party with the help of corporations, they don’t deserve your business. Until guilty corporations publicly recognize that gender ideology is a ruinous, scientifically illiterate social contagion that poisons minds and permanently scars the bodies of untold numbers of children and adults, and admit being ashamed for having participated in it, then they don’t deserve your mercy.
In a previous article, I pointed out that it’s impossible to boycott every corporation that amplifies the civilization-ending ideas of the left, but Target can be avoided with minimal effort. As Federalist Staff Writer Jordan Boyd mentioned last year, Target has not learned its lesson, and we should continue the boycott. That remains true today. These companies must be brought to their knees for being a bullhorn for an ideology that causes a level of societal harm that is so profound we don’t fully understand its implications.
Target is not alone, and while I don’t want to downplay the commendable efforts of Robby Starbuck and others like him, as there have been actual victories in this domain, take a few minutes to browse the websites of other major corporations that have supposedly abandoned DEI. You’ll find plenty of evidence to the contrary. The best we can say about many of these corporations is that they are run by fair-weather moral vagabonds who have no discernable values.
Americans must be judicious with their wallets. Returning to Target would send a message to other corporations that Americans lack the willpower to inflict real, lasting damage on companies who go out of their way to spit on our values. Driving an extra few miles to another retailer, or supporting small businesses, is more important than the convenience that comes from patronizing corporations that still hate you, despite a freshly reworded corporate values statement that is written in sand.
Jesus Christ is King
