Target CEO Meets with Rev. Al Sharpton Amid Increasing Criticism of DEI Rollbacks

Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been outspoken about American corporations reducing their DEI efforts, met with Target CEO Brian Cornell on Thursday.

In a statement, Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) described the discussion as “very constructive and candid.” The discussion, which took place in NAN’s New York offices, was attended by Senior Advisor Carra Wallace and NAN Board Chair Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson.

“I’m going to let our allies know about our conversation and how I feel, including Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant, and we’ll take it from there,” Sharpton said. With support from other religious leaders, Bryant, a pastor from Georgia, started targetfast.org to plan a 40-day Christian boycott of Target during Lent.

The meeting that was first reported by CNBC on Thursday was confirmed by a NAN spokeswoman.

Amazon, Walmart, PepsiCo, and Target are just a few of the big businesses that have retracted their diversity-focused policies. Target stopped taking part in external diversity surveys in January and announced that company would no longer pursue DEI goals pertaining to Black employee advancement and customer experience. “Further assessing our corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth,” the company noted.

Sharpton threatened to boycott PepsiCo if it didn’t meet his demands earlier this month. In response to political pressure, Sharpton requested “clarity on its stance on DEI” during that meeting on Tuesday.

“To determine any next steps with Target, PepsiCo, and other companies that have scaled back their DEI programs or pledges,” Sharpton added, referring to the board of NAN over the Easter break.