Viola Davis says Target restoring DEI and backing black-owned businesses would help rebuild consumer trust 

Viola Davis has weighed in on Target's ongoing controversy, and she says the retailer does have a path back to winning people over. The sixty-one-year-old actress was spotted leaving LAX on Friday, where she told TMZ that forgiveness was on the table, though Target would have to play their cards right to get there.

Davis said the retailer restoring DEI is a start. Supporting Black-owned businesses more would help and making sure nothing like their recent Halloween costume situation happens again. This comes off the back of Davis having already rejected the company's apology over a children's costume pulled from stores after sparking heavy criticism online.

As per a report shared by The Independent, the costume was being sold for twenty-five dollars under the name "Kids' Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown" before the company took the listing down. It featured a young Black boy in a black-and-orange bodysuit, black gloves, and a hood with an exaggerated smile printed on it. The backlash came from people online who felt the costume's exaggerated mouth and the boy's pose called to mind blackface minstrelsy, a nineteenth-century form of American entertainment where white performers darkened their faces and caricatured Black people through exaggerated features.

Target breaks silence on controversial Halloween costume with a public apology:

Target broke their silence on Monday, issuing a public apology over the children's Halloween costume that had sparked widespread criticism.

"As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry," the retailer said.

"The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale," they added.

The company also acknowledged who had been hurt most by the incident and shared that the situation was "especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners" and described pulling the costume from shelves as

"an important first step."

The retail corporation added that it was looking into

"how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won't happen again."

As per a report shared by The Independent, however, the retailer did not publicly explain how the costume made it through their approval process, nor did they name the people responsible for its design and review.

Target's Halloween costume draws condemnation from professors and cultural advocates:

As per a report shared by The New York Times, Dong-hwan Lee, a professor at Gyeongin National University of Education in South Korea who specialises in American culture and has written on minstrel shows, said the costume

"reduces Black individuals to contemptible, clownish figures."

Shomane Touré, the founder of Afrocentric Films Collaborative, a group based in Oakland, California that promotes Black culture, also spoke out. Touré said the retail corporation appeared to have overlooked the historical weight of how the product was being presented.

"Target appears to have overlooked these historical implications by choosing to market a costume worn by a Black child in a manner that can be interpreted as reinforcing a longstanding racial stereotype," Touré said.

Target is not the first major retailer to find itself in this position. During Black History Month in 2019, Gucci apologised and pulled a sweater that featured an opening for the mouth with bright red lips, a design that was widely criticised for evoking blackface imagery.

Activist group says Target's DEI rollback created the conditions for the costume controversy:

Target was among a number of major American companies, including Google, Meta and Walmart, that rolled back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs last year, after the Trump administration announced it would be investigating companies with such initiatives in place.

Nadine Smith, the president of Color of Change, an activist group focused on racial justice, said that decision had consequences. Smith argued the DEI rollback had created "corporate blindness" at the retail corporation, and that this was what allowed a product carrying racist stereotypes to move through the supply chain unchecked.

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"Somewhere along that chain, people either did not recognize the racism, did not feel empowered to name it or were not heard," Smith said in a statement.

"Target cannot treat Black voices as expendable in its decision-making and still expect Black dollars at the checkout," Smith added.

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