One woman called out Target after noticing some discrepancies in its Black History Month merchandise. The outrage it stirred forced the company to take action.
In a viral video that has 1.4 million views, TikToker Issa Tete (@issatete) alleged that Black history icons were mislabeled in a “Magnetic Learning Activity” book sold by the store.
“These need to be pulled off the shelves ASAP,” text overlaid on the clip read.
The woman in the video spoke while showing off the item.
“So I teach U.S. history, I study U.S. history, and got my major in social studies,” she said. “I noticed some discrepancies as soon as I opened this.”
On the first page of the magnet book, she compared the picture of a man labeled “Carter G. Woodson” with a photo of another Black icon.
“This is W.E.B Dubois,” she claimed. “Peep the stash, peep the stash; they got the name wrong.”
She then went on to say that the drawing labeled “W.E.B Dubois” was actually one of Booker T. Washington.
The names of three prominent Black leaders, Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B Dubois, and Booker T. Washington, were all mixed up, she says.
“I get it—mistakes happen—but this needs to be corrected ASAP,” she concluded.
@issatete Idk who needs to correct it but it needs to be pulled off the shelves nontheless. Any person could have missed the mistake but it just takes one person to point it out and ask for corrections #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #blacktiktok ♬ original sound – Issa tete
In the comments section, viewers were outraged.
“Target isn’t even trying anymore,” user Panduhh commented. “Has anyone checked on her?”
“You’re telling me not one person double checked these?” user Lexi Pro wrote.
And Tete shared an update: Target stopped selling the book.
“We will no longer be selling this product in stores or online,” a spokesperson for the retailer told The Washington Post. “We’ve also ensured the product’s publisher is aware of the errors.”
Another TikTok commenter claimed to work at the store and noted the items were being removed.
“I work at target,” The girl who stole the world wrote. “They made us pull all of them from the shelves today.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Issa Tete for further update via TikTok comment.
