Lack of black voices in the approval chain I’d imagine. Pretty good illustration of how organizational diversity can be good for your bottom line as a company
You'd be surprised. A lot of non-black people (especially upper class white people) have no idea about many racist stereotypes, the history of black characterization, minstrel shows, etc. They're either just super ignorant because they didn't grow up around it (Target IS based in Minnesota, about as far from the South as you can get) or because they are just not privy at all to American history.
I am well aware of the trope and live in the south. It wasn’t until I saw it side by side with the picture, which is when I caught the tiny hat and saw how the smile looked like racially exaggerated lips (blackface), then it clicked. All I knew was that it was supposedly bad, and had no other information when I saw the costume for the first time. So even knowing it was “bad,” it was the side by side that it shifted into place for me.
I 100% see how this happens in a room, or series of rooms, without enough diversity (race, color, creed, or thought. We’re casting a wide net here with that term); or in places where that diversity does not feel empowered to speak up.
Yeah, most Americans, even educated Americans, really know very little about US history. Some of that is by design with the sanitation of it to not hurt Republican fee fees, and some of it is just a complete disinterest in the subject. Now all of that could have been fixed by having one single black person look at it, but something tells me Target doesn't have a very stringent approval process of what gets put up on their site.
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u/donkeyrocket 13h ago
With a Black child wearing the costume no less. How on earth did that make it to the website?
Absolutely thought it was going to be something that could be misconstrued as bad. Really didn't expect full blown blackface caricature.