The Store You Used to Love Is Having an Identity Crisis
Remember when Target was just a place you went to buy paper towels and accidentally spend $200? Those days are long gone. Over the past several years, Target has transformed itself from America's favorite big-box retailer into one of the most polarizing brands in corporate history — and in 2026, it's paying dearly for that choice.
Target currently holds a Woke Score of 71 out of 100 on BuyWokeFree.com, earning it the label Extremely Woke. But the real story isn't just the score. It's how Target's dogged pursuit of progressive politics has left it trapped in a no-win situation — simultaneously boycotted by conservatives and progressives, bleeding sales, and desperately searching for an exit that doesn't exist.
How Target Got Here: A Decade of Going Woke
Target didn't stumble into the culture wars by accident. This was a deliberate, years-long strategy.
- $10 million pledged to social justice and rebuilding efforts following the George Floyd unrest in 2020
- $2 billion committed to Black-owned businesses by 2025
- Multiple years of perfect scores on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, signaling total alignment with LGBTQ+ activist priorities
- Mandatory unconscious bias training for all employees
- Gender-neutral store sections and signage rollouts
- Pride Month merchandise campaigns — including the infamous 2023 "tuck-friendly" swimwear collection aimed at children
CEO Brian Cornell was unapologetic. Target was a progressive company, full stop. It featured same-sex couples in advertising, partnered with LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, and signed onto legal briefs supporting policy positions that put it squarely in the progressive camp.
For a while, Wall Street tolerated it. Then the 2023 Pride Month backlash hit — and everything changed.
The Backlash Was Real, and Target Blinked
When consumers pushed back against Target's 2023 Pride merchandise, the response was swift and significant. Customers removed displays, store traffic dropped, and Target's stock took a serious hit. For the first time in years, the company that had built its brand around progressive virtue signaling was feeling the financial cost.
So Target did something that surprised the left and infuriated the right: it started pulling back.
In late 2024 and into 2025, Target quietly began dismantling portions of its DEI program. It wound down certain diversity hiring targets, scaled back some supplier diversity commitments, and reduced the visibility of its LGBTQ+ merchandise. Corporate executives tried to thread the needle — not fully abandoning the DEI infrastructure, but making enough noise about it to signal a new direction.
It pleased no one.
Two Boycotts, Zero Winners
Here's where Target's story becomes almost Shakespearean in its irony.
Conservative consumers — many of whom had already shifted to Walmart, Amazon, or local alternatives after 2023 — didn't rush back. The trust was broken. A brand that spent years calling its customer base's values outdated doesn't win them back with a quiet press release about adjusting DEI metrics.
Meanwhile, the progressive left felt betrayed. The Black community, which had received direct financial commitments from Target, organized a formal boycott — one that got national attention in early 2026 when prominent voices including Rev. Jamal Bryant, Tamika Mallory, and former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner publicly called for sustained economic pressure on the company.
In March 2026, Bryant attempted to call off the boycott after meeting with Target's CEO — without securing any concrete concessions on DEI policy. The announcement backfired spectacularly. Rather than ending the boycott, it generated fresh outrage and renewed momentum. USA Today reported that many Black women who helped launch the boycott said "the movement wasn't his to call off."
As one analysis put it bluntly: Target "lost its nerve — and then lost its business."
The Numbers Don't Lie
Target's financial trajectory tells the story more honestly than any corporate PR statement can. After years of strong same-store sales growth during the DEI-forward era, the retailer has seen persistent traffic declines. Store visits are down. Market share has eroded. Competitors — including Walmart, which benefits from being seen as "less political" — have picked up displaced Target shoppers.
The lesson is simple, even if Target refuses to learn it: when you politicize your store, you invite political consequences. Shoppers who want to buy paper towels don't want a lecture on intersectionality. When you force them to choose between their values and their shopping cart, many of them will choose their values — and walk out.
What BuyWokeFree Shoppers Need to Know
Target's BWF Woke Score of 71/100 reflects a company that, despite its recent hedging, remains deeply committed to the progressive corporate agenda. Consider the receipts:
- Years of top-tier HRC Corporate Equality Index participation
- Hundreds of millions in pledges to explicitly race-based initiatives
- CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion signatory
- Documented history of LGBTQ+ activist partnerships and sponsorships
- Mandatory ideological training for employees
A few months of quiet DEI scaling back doesn't erase a decade of ideological commitment. Target hasn't changed its values — it's just trying to hide them better. That's not a company that's earned back your trust. That's a company that got caught and is hoping you forget.
Where to Shop Instead
If you're done with Target's culture war shenanigans, you have options. Use the BuyWokeFree brand directory to find retailers in your area that haven't weaponized their platform against your values. Whether you're looking for home goods, clothing, groceries, or everyday essentials, there are companies out there that have stayed out of the culture wars — and they deserve your business more than Target does.
Target made its choice. You get to make yours, too.
Bottom Line
Target's Woke Score of 71/100 isn't just a number — it's the accumulated weight of years of corporate activism that prioritized progressive politics over its customers. The company's current predicament, caught between two furious boycotts and a declining customer base, is a direct consequence of those choices.
Going woke cost Target. Walking it back cost them again. The only winning move was the one they never made: staying out of the culture wars entirely and just running a good store.
It's a lesson every corporation in America should be studying right now.