Readers Write: DEI at Target, government spending

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Dear Target board and executives,

I have been an enthusiastic customer of Target for almost 40 years precisely because of your well-earned reputation as a generous and engaged employer and corporate citizen. The groundbreaking work you’ve done as a culture change agent in welcoming LGBTQIA+ community members as employees and customers and in supporting and affirming the lives and work of Black, brown and Indigenous employees, vendors and customers is best in class.

So I was shocked and angered by your decision to step back from your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within 36 hours of similar actions being taken by the new federal administration (”Target retreats from its DEI goals,” front page, Jan. 25). What were you thinking? Apart from this being an act of corporate cowardice, how can you possibly believe this will be “good for business”?

I strongly encourage you to reconsider this decision and reinstate all DEI initiatives, practices and commitments immediately. It’s not the mistake, it’s the recovery. Until then, my family and dozens of our friends will not be shopping at Target.

Your former customer,

Cheryl Persigehl, Minneapolis

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It’s a typical Sunday morning. As my husband and I read the news, bombarded by one terrible thing after another, I think of ways I can try to combat the current administration’s reign of terror. I work hard for my money and try to spend it locally when I can, try to never order from Amazon, have closed my Facebook and Instagram accounts, etc., etc. But my next move is really going to hurt.

I am south Minneapolis born and raised; I literally have it tattooed on my arm. That has always extended to a love of Target. All my grocery shopping is done there; I get my prescriptions there; I was a proud RedCard holder. I believed in my “local” company and always thought of them as progressive and fair employers. No longer. As I read more to try to figure out if the cancelling of their DEI programs was as bad as I feared, I came across a quote from Target corporate in the Wall Street Journal that stated Target was making changes “with the goal of driving growth and staying in step with the evolving external landscape.” Truly frightening.

So, a promise to increase the representation of Black employees across the company and spend more than $2 billion with Black businesses by the end 2025 was just “staying in step” with what was then the evolving landscape after the murder of George Floyd? Their commitment ran barely five years deep? Is our currently evolving external landscape really one they want to stay in step with?

I know I do not. So I will step to my nearest co-op and shop there. I will make the drive to Costco and shop there — something I never thought I would do. I realize I am privileged to have and be able to afford these options. I encourage all people who are as lucky to do the same. We can have influence with our dollars — if enough people are willing to be uncomfortable, we can make change. It is the very least we can do to support all those who are going to suffer, more than they have already suffered, under our current administration. So as painful as it will be — please, boycott Target.

Becky Dankowski, Minneapolis

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Twin Cities Pride wants to “send the message that companies need to do the right thing” (“Twin Cities Pride shows Target the door,” front page, Jan. 27). Well, Target is doing the right thing. They are looking out for the well-being of their corporation and its constituents: customers, employees, the community at large and shareholders. Target has provided immense benefit to Twin Cities Pride with its generosity. And for this, they “temporarily cut ties”? Target may be tempted to say, “Make it permanent; we will find other ways to continue to be of service to your members.”

What’s more important: a message or real progress? Target must contend with a volatile and impulsive president and stay out of his crosshairs for the next four years. Target, or anyone else, should not be expected to go beyond its normal prudent business practices to placate an unappreciative organization it has long supported so well.

For me, it seems gay and trans rights organizations started to go off the rails after the landmark Supreme Court gay marriage ruling, a huge leap forward. But you could see in their symbology and nomenclature signs of destabilization. What used to be a wonderful banner, the rainbow flag — colorful and perfectly clear in its inclusivity message — has been muddied with a mishmash of added cruft that nobody really understands. These are outward signs that the strategy and narrative are blurring and disassembling in chaotic spirals. Take a break, clarify what you want to accomplish and how to best do that. Respectfully and patiently educate the minority of the population that is not yet on board. But most of all, stop alienating your allies.

Dennis Fazio, Minneapolis

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Et tu, Target?

Karen Hillerman, Brooklyn Park

I was disappointed to see that Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a freeze on new foreign aid funding. This runs contrary to research from the government’s own experts, including one of President Donald Trump’s nominees. Furthermore, if Rubio and Trump are looking for waste, they should look elsewhere, as foreign aid is only 1% of the federal budget.

Funding has been cut from the President’s Emergency Relief Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has saved 25 million lives, including those of 5.5 million children. Some of the evidence for PEPFAR’s effectiveness comes from Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health. In 2012, Dr. Bhattacharya co-authored a paper that found that PEPFAR lowered mortality rates.

I was relieved to see that Rubio exempted emergency food aid from his order. This will be critical for millions of people in Sudan and elsewhere.

However, I was concerned by the exemption for military aid to Israel and Egypt. Both of these countries have been accused of human rights abuses, according to Freedom House, a widely respected, federally funded think tank. Egypt is governed by a brutal military junta, and Israel has violated the rights of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. (FH has also documented human rights violations in those areas by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.)

There’s a lot of waste in government. But it is foolhardy to cut a relatively cheap, lifesaving aid program while continuing to provide weapons to governments that violate human rights.

Sean Ericson, Wayzata

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For my entire professional career in science as a clinical chemist I have been fortunate to be able to have secured research funding for my cardiovascular applied research laboratory based at Hennepin County Medical Center within the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute. My early studies were funded in part from grants from the National Institutes of Health, which were instrumental in my ability to learn from more senior scientists and have direct conversations with the world’s leading scientists, as well as with Nobel award investigators at the NIH who were open to converse with someone like me, just starting my career in 1982. Publishing scientific observations in peer-reviewed journals and traveling to present at scientific meetings is the research world’s communication line.

Last week, I woke up to NPR news that Trump hit the NIH with “devastating” freezes on meetings, travel, communication and hiring. What’s next, cutting funding to our young investigators trying to start their careers as well as to established investigators whose research findings are responsible for leading the fields in cancer, trauma, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, neuroscience, psychology and mental health, among others? The primary focus of NIH research in both basic and applied (translational) science is aimed at improving patient health and reducing illness and hospitalization and disabilities.

I am worried. Where will the money come from if not the NIH, whose standards of ethical research are second to none? I often told my kids during bedtime stories when they were young that I could see the future, which brought great smiles to their faces. I’d close with “Sleep tight and have no worries.” However, I am very worried now, and the entire scientific community should be too. As Jerry Maguire stated, “Show me the money!” It could take a decade to recover if the current administration continues this unacceptable activity. It is very sad.

Fred Apple, Minnetonka