Karen Hunter said she is refusing to spend money at Target, even after one of hip-hop’s biggest icons, Jay-Z, announced a new partnership with the embattled retailer.
Speaking on her SiriusXM Urban View show, Hunter said she has tried to live by the same rule she applied when she stopped watching the NFL. “I never want to be as a hypocrite to myself,” she said. “I never want to say a thing and do a different thing.”
For Hunter, Target has become more than a store. “I literally drive by Target every now and then giving a middle finger,” she said. “I don’t even go to the Whole Foods that’s next door to the Target anymore because I don’t even want to be in the vicinity.”
The boycott began after Target scaled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in January 2025. The backlash showed in its numbers. Placer.ai data reported traffic fell for 10 straight weeks, and CNN reported more than 200,000 people participated in a nationwide boycott. Target reported that first-quarter comparable sales fell 3.8%, with net sales down 2.8% to $23.8 billion. For fiscal 2025, net sales fell 1.7% to $104.8 billion.
According to Hunter, Target is absorbing anger aimed at a more expansive corporate retreat. “They’re symbolic,” she noted. “They bent a knee to horribleness,” before rejecting the idea that individual inconvenience should outweigh collective leverage. “When do we gain power?” Hunter asked her avid listeners. “How does power manifest? What does it look like to have power in this country for you?”
Hunter says that her dollars are not separate from her dignity. “I feel like I’m valuable,” she said. “My dollars are valuable. My mind is valuable. My body is valuable.”
“What if we didn’t compromise?”
