February 3, 2024
Target Pulls Book Mislabeling W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Carter G. Woodson In Black History Month Gaffe
“I get it, mistakes happen. But this needs to be corrected ASAP.”
In an attempt to celebrate Black History Month, Target was selling a book that got it completely wrong when labeling historic Black figures.
According to The New York Daily News, the retailer committed a huge mistake while trying to sell a book that misidentified several of our Black luminaries. The store didn’t catch the error found by someone who filmed a TikTok post to chastise Target for allowing the mistakes to be in the book. The book titled Civil Rights Magnetic Learning Activity needed to learn who they were labeling in their book.
The TikTok user who caught the glaring errors, @Issatete, made a video pointing out the mistakes. She brought attention to the fact that the book’s publishers did not correctly identify W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Carter G. Woodson in their book. As she went through the illustrations, she pointed out the blunders made by the bookmakers.
“This is not Carter G. Wilson. This is W.E.B. Du Bois,” @Issatete verifies as she refers to the illustration showing the error. “Peep the ‘stache. They got the name wrong.”
She gives them a little grace after calling out the other figures they labeled incorrectly, but she also said, “I get it, mistakes happen. But this needs to be corrected ASAP.”
@issatete Idk who needs to correct it but it needs to be pulled off the shelves nontheless. Any person could have missed the mistake but it just takes one person to point it out and ask for corrections #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #blacktiktok ♬ original sound – Issa tete
The young lady, who stated she was a teacher, posted a second video informing everyone that she had not heard back from Target or Bendon Publishing, the company that released the book. However, she did thank TMZ and the people who tagged Target to try to get the book removed.
“I’m a U.S. history teacher,” she said. “I was not going to let that slide.”
Target eventually released a statement assuring people that the products were no longer available for sale and that the book’s publisher had been contacted about their mistakes.
“We will no longer be selling this product in stores or online. We’ve also ensured the product’s publisher is aware of the errors,” Target said in a statement to The Daily News.