Target Pulls Halloween Costume After Backlash Over Racial Imagery
The costume was sold nationally by Target. With a Target store in Westland, the controversy is hitting close to home for local shoppers.
A Halloween costume sold by Target has been pulled from the company's website and stores after customers and social media users said its design evoked Blackface and racist minstrel-show imagery.
The controversy involves a children's costume called the "Kids' Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume Bodysuit," which was sold under Target's Hyde and EEK! Boutique Halloween brand for $25.
Images of the costume showed a Black child wearing an orange-and-black clown outfit, black gloves and a face covering featuring an exaggerated, wide smile. Critics said both the design and the way the costume was presented in promotional photographs resembled racist caricatures historically associated with Blackface and minstrel shows.
The backlash spread across social media over the weekend. By Monday, Target had removed the costume and issued an apology.
"As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry."
Target went further, saying the costume was offensive and "should never have been part of our assortment." The company said it was no longer for sale and that the incident was particularly hurtful to its Black customers, employees and partners.
A Target store sits right here in Westland
For Westland residents, this is not just a story about a national retailer somewhere else.
Target operates a full-size store at 35401 Warren Road in Westland.
Target's current Halloween section continues to carry hundreds of products under the Hyde and EEK! Boutique name, including children's Halloween costumes. The controversial clown costume, however, has been removed from the company's current listings.
There is currently no evidence that the controversial clown costume was stocked on the shelves at the Westland store, and we are not going to claim that it was.
That distinction matters.
The costume was a Target product sold nationally, but whether Westland shoppers ever saw it in person is a separate question.
How did it get this far?
That may be the biggest unanswered question.
Target says it is "looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won't happen again."
The company has not publicly explained who designed the costume, who approved it, how the promotional photographs were approved, or whether concerns were raised internally before the product went on sale.
Those questions are particularly relevant because this was not simply an item appearing on a third-party website.
The costume was part of Hyde and EEK! Boutique, a Target-owned Halloween brand.
In other words, somewhere between the product's design, photography, merchandising and approval process, multiple opportunities existed to look at what was being sold and how it was being presented.
Target now says it got that process wrong.
A national controversy with a local connection
Target has faced criticism over its diversity and inclusion policies in recent years, including its decision to scale back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The latest controversy is already prompting some critics to connect those decisions with the company's approach to product review and representation. Target has not said that the costume was related to its changes in those policies.
That distinction is important.
The costume controversy is real. The company's apology is real. The questions about how the product made it through the approval process are legitimate.
But there is not enough evidence to say that Target's DEI policy changes caused this particular product to be approved.
What happens next?
For now, the costume is gone.
Target says removing it is only the first step and that the company is reviewing how the product made it into its Halloween assortment.
The larger question is whether the review results in actual changes to the way Target designs, photographs and approves products before they reach shoppers.
Voice of Westland has reached the point where the facts are clear.
Target sold the costume.
Customers objected to it.
Target pulled it.
Target apologized.
And Target says it is investigating how it happened.
What we don't know yet is who approved it and why nobody stopped it before it went on sale.
That is the part worth watching.
