I heard this news on the radio today, and I was kind of surprised. I rather like Target, they’re usually cleaner than Wally World, and in my experience their staff is generally friendlier. I wondered what they had done to warrent the wrath of the NAACP. Were their hiring practices found to be descriminitory? Were black customers singled out for unfair scrutiny against shoplifting? Had a top Target executive been overheard using the dreaded “N” word? I came home and did a search, and what I found in an AP news story chilled me. link
It seems that Target had the gall to refuse to administer a survey to it’s black employees from the NAACP.
Yup.
That’s it. No racism. No descrimination. No harrasment of minorities. There’s not even a suggestion that they are doing these things. Nope, none of that, but by God, they refused to take a survey. Boil them in oil! Because of this henious infraction, the NAACP gave them a grade of F on their annual report which rates companies on “how well they work with blacks in employment, charitable giving, advertising, contracting and community service.” NAACP president Bruce S. Gordon said of Target, “They didn’t even care to respond to our survey. Stay out of their stores.” I’m sorry, but I don’t think that refusing to take a survey had a damn thing to do with “how well they work with blacks in employment, charitable giving, advertising, contracting and community service.” As far as I can see, all it has to do with is “how Target feels about administring a survey to it’s black employees”.
I’m sorry, but this just strikes me as nuts, activism run amok. In a fit of pique, the NAACP is telling all it’s members, and I would assume all black folks, that they should stay out of Target simply because Target refused to aquiess to the NAACP’s demand that they survey their black employees. Does the nation’s oldest and largest organization promoting equality for Black people have so little to do that this is what they’ve been reduced to carpuing about? If so, I’d say that we can all rejoyce, because that must mean there is no real racism left in America.
Oh, yea. Target’s reason for refusing the survey? Because they don’t agree with singling out employees of just one race.
The funny thing is, the NAACP’s motto is “Making democracy work since 1909”. To make a democracy work, you need the participation of everyone, not just of people who share your ethnic background. Maybe the NAACP could learn something from Target.