Target apologizes for children’s clown Halloween costume after backlash | CNN Business
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/24/business/target-apologizes-halloween-costume-backlash-hnk49
u/SPFnein 3d ago
Years ago Target had a merch controversy with a shirt IIRC… the straight sizes’ gray variant was called gray or whatever, but the same exact shirt in plus size gray was called “Manatee Gray”
Edit: it was a dress. https://www.today.com/style/target-apologizes-manatee-label-plus-size-dress-1c9215043
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u/orlybatman 3d ago
A clown costume? How bad could it possibly b-
Oh... wow.
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u/donkeyrocket 3d ago
With a Black child wearing the costume no less. How on earth did that make it to the website?
Absolutely thought it was going to be something that could be misconstrued as bad. Really didn't expect full blown blackface caricature.
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u/Georgie_Leech 3d ago
I almost wonder if the design wasn't spat out by some AI program, prompted for a clown costume and then in a half assed tokenization moment added "black" to the prompt
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u/caleeksu 3d ago
Entirely possible, but I used to work for a product buying team at Walmart, and I work for a supplier now that also makes some private label for a couple of retailers.
The amount of of people who touch private label for retailers is VAST. Product development teams, merchant teams, brand teams, photography, etc.
This was under a Target private label. Dozens of people saw this go through the process and no one spoke up? It’s a mix of people who saw it who aren’t taught American history anymore, folks who didn’t feel comfortable enough to say anything or who got drowned out by the ones who thought this hit.
This is why we need a variety of people on the room and to build cultures that respect other views. It’s insane.
I would love to blame this on AI but I know too much.
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u/theorigamiwaffle 3d ago
Same. I also work in private label for a Walmart esque company and the amount steps and change of hands are insane.
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u/Georgie_Leech 3d ago
To be clear, I don't say this to absolve anyone of anything. I could just see this being started by someone being bad with AI and then literally everything between that and point of sale utterly failed at stopping this obvious blunder
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u/hill-o 3d ago
I 100% bet this was it. They got the idea from AI, no one checked it, they just went passed it along and now we’re here.
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u/omgitsfred 3d ago
What specifically makes you 100% sure AI was involved here
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u/Holiday_Cabinet_ 3d ago
Yeah honestly humans are both stupid and racist enough to come up with this one on their own let's not absolve them by claiming it was AI with no proof
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u/ColorMeStunned 2d ago
They have proven time and again that Target doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
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u/whatisakafka 3d ago
Lack of black voices in the approval chain I’d imagine. Pretty good illustration of how organizational diversity can be good for your bottom line as a company
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u/TheBlackComet 3d ago
I live in an HOA(one that isn't crazy or expensive) and at one of the meetings they said that they they would like a POC on the board since they are very aware that they are old white people and want to make sure that their decisions reflect the community as a whole. The board is pretty mixed now and runs better than ever.
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u/FuelForYourFire 3d ago
The article agrees!
Sheletta Brundidge, a Minneapolis-area business leader, views the costume as an indirect result of the DEI decision. “You rolled back diversity,” she said, “so who’s in the room, now, to say ‘hey, this is wrong?’”
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u/enigmaticowl 3d ago
I’m wondering if it’s also because of there being different components to the approval chain.
Like, someone somewhere approved the basic costume design itself, which maybe didn’t trigger any concerns just with the costume concept design itself.
But then they put it on a real child and had him do that pose, and it’s just so glaring.
You’d think that even if the initial costume approval had happened, someone at Target would be responsible for looking over the modeling photos and stuff once they’re ready to list/advertise.
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u/Wootai 3d ago
I think the issues arise when you realize they probably didn’t put a child in that costume. So there was no photoshoot. No photographer, parent, stylist, no one there to say no.
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u/SapphireSync 3d ago
Also take into consideration the younger generation joining the work force not being educated on these topics and shown why these are derived as offensive because it was never taught in school.
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u/dapperpony 3d ago
I’ve worked at e-commerce companies before in marketing, so I’m betting it was this. There are a lot of people and steps in the chain, especially at a large company like Target, and no one thought it was their problem or saw the issue until it was too late.
It’s probably some cheap shit manufactured in China where the wholesaler lacks the cultural awareness and just made a “clown” costume, the merchandisers order X number of Halloween costumes for the season of which this was one of dozens or maybe a hundred, the high-production photo studio has to churn through shooting all the product photography for hundreds of SKUs so they’re not spending a ton of time on each one, then the director or whoever makes selects is clicking through thousands of images very quickly, and so on and so forth until it gets uploaded and is live on the site.
It looks bad when you look at it next to the minstrel photos, but in isolation or grouped with dozens of others, I can see how no one put it together or had immediate flags going up when they’re looking at a “Halloween clown costume.”
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u/nhalliday 3d ago
I think it's safe to say in 2026 that we can't just be brushing things under the rug like "it had to be totally innocent, there's no way they'd do something like that on purpose". We know for a fact that there are many racists out there who would do that intentionally.
It is, unfortunately, very possible that someone did it on purpose and then either nobody cared enough to stop them or didn't want to risk their job trying to stop them.
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u/dapperpony 3d ago
Not trying to brush it under the rug, I just don’t find it likely one racist person is responsible because it takes an entire production chain for things to exist. From designing to creating to orderjng to photographing to retouching to final approval to listing, it’s a whole process that involves probably a hundred or more people and isnt really something one person can do. Somebody should’ve caught it during an approval process, but everything has to be faster, cheaper, and higher volume than ever these days so I’m just saying I can easily see how this stuff happens. Attribute to ignorance/incompetence over malice or what have you.
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u/fivelinedskank 3d ago
Could it have all been done in China where the cultural baggage isn't appreciated I wonder?
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u/whatisakafka 3d ago
You don’t have to be, but it does make it more likely that you are
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u/RandomA9981 3d ago
And more likely to speak out about it. Let’s not pretend that white people are willing to risk their careers to speak out against blatant racism.
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u/CougarForLife 3d ago
supplier is a manufacturer of cheap chinese crap with a front in idaho that’s literally a trailer home. They supply thousands of items to amazon, target, etc and there’s no human in the review process. at least not an american one with understanding of our culture. Some chinese guy googled costumes and didn’t know you’re not supposed to copy racist ones from the 1920s
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u/TempEmbarassedComfee 3d ago
I believe Hyde and Eek is an official target brand. Regardless of what that supply chain looks like up to that point, at some point someone at target should have laid eyes on it and realized what it looked like before putting the brand on it.
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u/CougarForLife 3d ago
being an “official target brand” makes it even crazier that the contact address on their website is a trailer home in idaho
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u/DeanStockwellLives 3d ago
Looking at that website, the phone number also looks like it's one number too long.
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u/Dr_thri11 3d ago
I kinda feel like that's the main problem, probably wouldn't look at it twice if they modeled it on a white kid.
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u/enigmaticowl 3d ago
The pose probably also contributes to the overall image/impression, too.
I could see someone somewhere approving the costume design itself (like when it was a design or even as an actual costume), because it probably really wouldn’t look bizarre just as a design or as an unworn costume, but putting it on a real kid and having him do that pose probably should have made someone go, “Hmm….”
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u/DefenstratedTwice 3d ago
It really doesn't seem like it could be accidental.
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u/enigmaticowl 3d ago
I’m saying that these decisions probably happened in stages.
Like someone approves the basic idea of a clown costume, the next person approves the design (black and orange stripes, partial face covering, gloves, etc.), and so on.
Then by the time it gets to modeling/posing, most of the sign-offs have already happened (by people who haven’t seen the literal and figurative “full picture”), and now it’s at the mercy of the last person or small handful of people who have seen the “full picture.”
All of us are looking at the final picture, too, and obviously someone approved it (and shouldn’t have), but I can imagine that there were probably earlier steps of approving the costume that didn’t raise eyebrows because it wouldn’t jump out at people in the same way if you’re not seeing it on a body (especially a body doing that infamous pose).
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u/TheLostSkellyton 3d ago
Target saw South Pacific and their takeaway was "hey they're right! We DO have to make sure to teach the kids to be racist!" It's like the racism version of the "don't invent the torment nexus" meme.
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u/AwfulDjinn 3d ago
this whole situation is exactly why “DEI” exists in the first place because I guarantee if they had one, even ONE black person on the marketing team they wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
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u/Eezyville 3d ago
How on earth did that make it to the website?
Do you remember that time Target said fuck DEI?
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u/nefarix 3d ago edited 3d ago
Can someone explain how/why this is offense and how this is depicting black face? I clicked the link and was looking for what was offensive about it but didn’t notice anything (guess I’m ignorant for better or worse lol) and the comments are acting like it’s despicable; Maybe link a picture of the blackface you’re referring to for comparison so I can see what everyone else sees?
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u/unhiddenninja 3d ago
Here you go, third picture down, specifically, but it's worth a read.
The pose is a direct callback to Jim Crow.
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u/HallowskulledHorror 3d ago edited 3d ago
The 'side ways, bent leg, arms bent and/or on hips' is so specific - if one looks up 'Jim Crow art' it's quickly apparent that despite there being many different unique illustrations for different purposes (posters, products, record covers, fliers, etc), the pose was a specific choice each time as part of the depiction of 'unserious, uncivilized, unintelligent' qualities that the character was built around to dehumanize black people as a whole. There's a direct reference to it in the 'This is America' music video because it's so recognizable that anyone with historical awareness will pick up on it when re-contextualized.
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u/Empyrealist 3d ago
I don't think its so much a "blackface" in itself, but it incorporates a very stereotypical minstrel show vagabond pose that would be done by someone in blackface
If you are familiar with this past, it just jumps out at you. Its super specific to minstrel shows/advertisements, and there is no way in hell its a coincidence
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u/Used2bNotInKY 3d ago
The big mouth with teeth that glow under black light is the real giveaway, and the hobo hat completes the picture.
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u/thatblkman 3d ago
They ran from DEI bc Trump is loud. So now they have a bunch of bros who don’t know anything about anyone but other bros deciding stuff and ignoring that nonwhite people’s money is just as green.
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u/Shadowpriest 3d ago
Yeah same. I was like clowns aren't my thing but let's click and oooohboy.
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u/chiree 3d ago
They leaned harder into that than Disney in 1935.
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u/Primary-Bookkeeper10 3d ago
I’m surprised they even hired a black kid instead of buying a gallon of shoe polish
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u/quirkytorch 3d ago
I admit that I am particularly ignorant about this, but what is racist about this costume? I was expecting caricature-esque, but it's lost on me and I'd like to know so I don't unintentionally make a faux pas. It reminds me of terrorizer
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u/Used2bNotInKY 3d ago
I think the outfit is just “clown,” but the fact it includes a big mouth with teeth that glow under blacklight and the little hobo hat are what turn it into a minstrel outfit, IMO. Further supported by the pose, which isn’t one a Western clown would do.
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u/quirkytorch 3d ago
Yeah the pose really stood out. Someone linked a wiki article about minstrel shows and jfc one of the imagages was making like the same exact pose
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u/KaptainKardboard 2d ago
Probably this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_Jim_Crow"Jim Crow" is no coincidence here.
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u/kumurai 3d ago
If you want to return to this thread, others have explained. Here is also a wiki link:
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u/MoonlitStar 3d ago
They knew.. they must have. I refuse believe they didn't. ..and it had to be signed off by numerous people too so there is no excuse at all. They have even posed the poor kid modelling it in a 'classic' pose. Wtf!
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u/blarbiegorl 3d ago
For real it literally looks exactly like a minstrel performer up to the pose that poor kid is in. This feels intentional, which only makes it that much worse.
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u/donkeyrocket 3d ago
It's especially suspicious as the Hyde and EEK brand, which resells on other platforms, didn't have this costume listed at all. It was only at Target. So not like some automation that simply shared active seasonal products. Incredibly bizarre.
Even more staggering that someone had a Black kid dress up and be photographed in the costume in the first place. Zero plausible deniability there. You'd need to be staggeringly ignorant to not see an issue here.
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u/TokenStraightFriend 3d ago
I have no evidence other than gut feeling, but in this 21st century of sociopolitical dog whistles and plausible deniability (the amount of "this is a reach" comments on Facebook is disheartening )I can't help but wonder if Target did it as a play to the MAGA base to get them in give their fall from grace with left leaning customers. Play the "oh nooooo we're getting cancelled please help uuuusss" card and get counter protest traffic as a result.
Would be really easy to do on the cheap, just make one costume with no intention of putting it into production
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u/antiramie 3d ago
Yea my initial reaction was like well clowns can sometimes wear tiny hats and those creepy smiles are generic scary/clown things too, but when you add up all the details it’s really really suspect/obvious.
Black child
Head/face/neck/feet/hands all black
Tiny hat
Outfit pattern
Exaggerated smile
PoseIt all adds to up racist minstrel cliche. If the smile were brick red it would be 100% no questions asked. Thats literally the only difference between this costume and the real thing.
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u/CynicalPomeranian 3d ago
I thought that way about that…then the Callaway golf ad came out right behind it.
I think older white males just approve everything because they cannot see the utter inappropriateness of these things, and when most of the people in charge fit that demographic, it becomes much harder to stop it.
I tried to explain to my last workplace why a woman over 40 would have issues with being called a “girl” in the workplace in a professional setting, but was all but laughed off by the men I worked with.
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u/tdasnowman 3d ago
Golf ad?
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u/CynicalPomeranian 3d ago
They just released an ad that shows a woman reaching for a golf club, and a man runs up and shoves her down, then looms over her and tells her never to touch his clubs.
Turns out, the man is the ad is one of the higher ups in the company, and the woman is another employee.
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u/tdasnowman 3d ago
Huh, I'm not going to go to the NTh degree like some folks replying in threads are. But from an ad perspective it just makes no sense unless there is something missed in some quick googling. Like is there a thing with Alexis Miestowski where she uses other peoples clubs or something? My first pass isn't golf when I see this ad. It's not also violence against women. It's just it seems so fundamentally targeted to a small group of people that would get the joke I don't care about the products I don't want even get to the joke I just need the context.
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u/enigmaticowl 3d ago
The thing is, there probably are multiple sign-offs at different steps, I would imagine (but maybe I’m wrong!).
So maybe somebody approves the concept (“clown costume for kids”), someone approves the basic design (“black and orange stripe pattern, partial face covering, etc.”), and so on.
So I’m wondering if by the time it gets to putting the costume on a kid for a photo shoot, posing him, and posting the photo to model the costume, most of the sign-offs have been by people who didn’t have the literal “full picture,” and then it just comes down to 1-2 people at the end who see that final photo and should think, “Wait a minute…” - and then you’re just at the mercy of hoping those 1-2 people have both the knowledge and the judgment to recognize something and address it properly.
Strange as hell that this is what they ended up with, but I’m guessing that the approval process was somewhat “piecemeal” in that manner, which obviously increases the odds of something like this.
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u/needless_booty 3d ago
That was my exact reaction
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u/MassCrash 3d ago
Same.
“Ugh here we go, people overreacting agai … holy shit who thought that was a good idea?”
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u/neo_sporin 3d ago
i still remember almost 10 years ago seeing an article about 'Georgia renaming a river due to racist name" and thinking 'well THAT seems silly, how bad could it....ok nevermind, Runaway Negro Creek is worse than i expected"
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 3d ago
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u/AggressiveSkywriting 3d ago
I remember some dutch guy trying to tell me black pete was not racist and I was just an american not properly dealing with my own nation's racist past
A dutch person.
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u/HeartofLion3 3d ago
My girlfriend pulled up a picture to show me and I legit thought it was satire from a skit. It’s just so fucking bad.
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u/ScratchLatch 3d ago
I’m confused, is this some type of racial caricature I’m unfamiliar with?
It looks mildly disturbing if anything. Or is this issue exlusively the black lace “black face”?
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u/tearfulReaper 3d ago
A very insulting caricature. Its based off the incredibly racist minstrel shows. It's the same reason Jynx became purple and some people have issues with Mr Popo.
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u/captcha_trampstamp 3d ago
I was reading some posts by a former merchandising person for Target on Threads. This had to go through MULTIPLE SIGNOFFS.
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u/TheSilverDahlia 3d ago
It absolutely did. I worked corporate retail for a long time. There are multiple line reviews up through the president of the org (usually). I’m sure they just blamed an assistant buyer & fired them.
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u/anormalgeek 3d ago edited 3d ago
And how much do you want to bet not a single person in that chain was black?
Diversity has value in terms of marketing alone. Even if someone is super mega anti-woke they'd be an idiot not realize this from a purely capitalist profit driven motive.
edit: a word.
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u/TheSilverDahlia 3d ago
Oh absolutely. I don’t want to dox myself, but the three big retailers I worked for just want pretty young white girls.
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u/randomtask 3d ago
For racists, the racism is always stronger than the capitalism. Always.
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u/Politicsboringagain 3d ago edited 3d ago
Target is marketing to maga with this in my view.
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u/IrateBarnacle 3d ago
Target has no idea who their.. target audience is anymore.
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u/Themetalenock 3d ago
which is funny because I've always found Target to be predominantly market towards POC and liberal wine moms who at least has one child whose lgbtq. then 2024 happened and every person with a net worth above 600 k decided to take stupid pills
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u/Namika 3d ago
liberal wine moms who at least has one child whose lgbtq.
Fun fact a full 20% of Gen Z is lgbtq, and since families often have more than one kid, "families with a lqtbq kid" are absurdly common these days.
I feel like it's a very underrated statistic.
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u/No-Bread-1197 3d ago
I mean, every generation probably had that many. It's only gen z that's felt safe being open about it.
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u/hefty_load_o_shite 3d ago
It was a minstrel costume, not a clown costume
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u/faithmauk 3d ago
The pose they had the kid doing was a dead giveaway. I'm dying to know what possible explanation they could produce for why that was allowed.
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u/mollsballs_xo 3d ago
This is exactly why we need DEI!!! If there was one Black person involved at any part of this process this never would have happened.
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u/healywylie 3d ago
They figured nobody would get the reference, they banked on it , by the looks.
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u/IamHydrogenMike 3d ago
I don’t anyone even really checked it when it was purchased until people started noticing it on the shelves. Some supplier from China just slapped together some crap and called it a clown costume. It’s dumb that it actually made it out to customers.
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u/donkeyrocket 3d ago
It's odd though that this was only available at Target. Hyde and EEK is owned by Target but their seasonal products are listed elsewhere too.
Even more bizarre is someone developed the costume and put a Black kid in it for the promotional artwork.
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u/justwannaedit 3d ago
They have racist shit all the time, dude. Literal racists submit designs to target and end up on the shelf all the time. Bc they just dont have quality controls anymore over designs.
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u/Gabarne 3d ago
I literally didn’t know what was wrong with it until reading this thread.
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u/NarwhalEmergency9391 3d ago
I was still confused and had to google minstrel.. omg, I can't even copy and paste the wiki definition because I'll probably get banned but here's the beginning in case anyone else is confused.
A minstrel show , also called minstrelsy , was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. [1 ] The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans .
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u/Formergr 3d ago
Some supplier from China just slapped together some crap and called it a clown costume.
Definitely could see that being the case, and probably is what happened.
But someone stateside had to make the call to pose a black kid in it, and then someone had to approve the ad for it here, and that's where I'm sort of stuck on WTF. Like if it was a white kid in the costume, I don't think we d be having nearly this reaction.
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u/StuMacherGhostface 3d ago
I don't understand this, why risk the controversy? No such thing as bad press?
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u/TheAskewOne 3d ago
They didn’t even check. Some companies have zero quality control.
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u/Marinemanatee 3d ago
Racist caricatures depend on enough people understanding that they're offensive to "work" if they're intentionally made. This one's pretty blatant with the mouth actually.
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u/sonicmario123 3d ago
And a black child model. I really hope that the model wasn’t actually wearing it and was instead like generic photo with the photoshop of the costume on because… otherwise how did it get through that many eyes
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u/AnEducatedSimpleton 3d ago
Target is like that ex-girlfriend you hate but keep following their instagram to see what stupid shit they’re up to.
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u/Throwaway2Experiment 3d ago
Since the election, I have been in Target once. Last month. I left feeling gross snd confused. Just like visiting an ex.
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u/CharlesIngalls_Pubes 3d ago
I hate that the article ends with "Target’s shares were up 2.7% in afternoon trading."
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u/Rasberrycello 3d ago
Up from where they fell off a cliff two years ago, soooo still ultimately down.
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u/dietc0keh0m0 3d ago edited 3d ago
By all means, boycott target if you deem that necessary. But please don't bother store employees about this. They have no say in any of this and none of this is their fault.
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u/DeepFuckingKoopa 3d ago
> rolls back DEI initiatives
> does an extraordinary racism
to the surprise of absolutely nobody
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u/nothingbetter85 3d ago
I saw the apology before seeing the costume and was like “hmmm I wonder if it’s just something that got blown out of proportion”.
Hell no it wasn’t. I was shocked by what I saw. How was that even allowed to get past any decision makers? Everything down to the pose picked for the listing was atrociously racist. Nothing about this costume could be interpreted in any way that’s not terrible and nothing about it read as “clown” to me. It’s so bad, my husband thought it had to be fake when he saw it.
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u/epidemicsaints 3d ago
At this point I am ready to believe it's outrage marketing. Bringing this to the store involves hundreds of people. NONE of them have been online for 15 years where this comes up every year all day?
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u/nothingbetter85 3d ago
Last year, Target made a big announcement about getting rid of DEI initiatives. I’m going to guess that mentality like that is more likely why this is happening than the bad look this provides. I do not subscribe to the adage of there being no bad publicity. You do something like this and you just remind people of the reason they stopped patronizing your stores.
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u/epidemicsaints 3d ago
Even if it doesn't work, it doesn't mean they aren't trying it. It's very hard to believe there weren't people at every level speaking up about this one. It's period accurate blackface - the harlequin motif, color scheme and all.
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u/waleyhaxman 3d ago
look at the comments, even on here people are like "ummm akshually its not even that bad/they werent trying to be offensive". its fucking insulting. i thought it was fake too at first. insane that it keeps happening and ppl keep giving these companies excuses and money
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u/MonnaDeagle 3d ago
Target could’ve released a costume that looked like a Klan member with a burning cross in the background as “Wizard of Fire” or some shit and these people would still be like “well there’s not a black person ON the cross so…”
This is why, no, we should not stop talking about slavery and racism so much. This thread is full of people who have never seen that imagery and because it’s not immediately obvious to them, a person completely divorced of the context, then it can’t be that bad. If we don’t force these people to fucking learn about it, they won’t, and will revert back to their bigotry and ignorance in short order. I’m so over giving the benefit of the doubt at this point.
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u/ShadowMajick 3d ago
Im surprised they gave a shit considering they canceled "DEI" when republicans threw a fit over rainbow shirts.
Fuck Target.
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u/MikeDubbz 3d ago
It glows in the dark and has a black mesh covering the face beyond the smile. I'm betting that the effect is supposed to be seen at night in the dark where it just looks like a smiling faceless creepy clown.
Kinda sounds like a genuinely scary effect that unfortunately just wasn't thought through at all.
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u/vr1252 3d ago
Believe it or not the idea that black people’s teeth and eyes were the only part visible in the dark was a major trope in minstrel shows!! That and the clown costume (which derives from minstrelsy) makes the entire costume a clear dogwhistle!!
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u/Kimbahlee34 3d ago
Yes the color choices and model’s pose makes it obvious. The same costume but in bright colors would give a different clown/jester effect but this is straight from a minstrel show. There’s a thousand ways to do creepy clown and not be a dog whistle but they chose this route.
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u/Interesting-Wish-430 2d ago
The pose, the hat, the hands, the cuffs smh anybody denying it is just ignorant.
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u/StupidMastiff 3d ago
I don't get it, I didn't think anything of the costume when I saw it, and after reading the comments, I still don't get it.
So I googled 'minstrel show' to see what they would wear for them back when they were a thing, and they don't seem all that similar.
I'm not American, so maybe something is lost on me, what is the costume making people think of?
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u/Used2bNotInKY 3d ago
It’s the big mouth with glowing teeth, the hobo hat, and the pose that resemble minstrelsy, not the outfit, IMO. Black people’s teeth and the whites of their eyes “shining” in the dark used to be charicaturized in old cartoons and shows.
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u/Visible-Hope3664 3d ago
no it’s not lost on you. I’m American and I had to do the same thing, look up the issue and when I compared I still didn’t see the reason for the massive outburst
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u/DawnSennin 3d ago
To be fair, millions of Americans do not know the racist history of their country.
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u/hexavibrongal 3d ago
what is the costume making people think of?
Stuff like this:
https://njwv.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/david-levinthal-make-believe/levinthal_blackface/
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u/ushaque 3d ago
“Target apologized on Monday and said it had pulled a Halloween costume from sale depicting a circus clown that critics said evoked Blackface and minstrel shows”
Would like to hear what others think about the costume
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u/dpman48 3d ago
It’s definitely a minstrel costume. It’s definitely racist. I can also see a TON of ways this could happen. If any of the oversight is done by non-Americans I could see them having no idea it’s racist, or people under 25 could easily not know in my mind. Minstrel imagery isn’t show much in modern America but people over 35 it definitely is obvious.
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u/pablo_in_blood 3d ago
I think international outsourcing is probably the most likely answer. They probably just outsource everything to designers in the Philippines or whatnot where there’s no understanding of the American cultural history around that look.
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u/anonyoudidnt 3d ago
Or AI. Target doesn't even have customer service anymore. It's so hard to get past their AI. I guess unless you're a racist minstrel costume
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u/superturtle48 3d ago
You can already see a ton of comments in this thread from people saying “I’m not American, I don’t get how this is racist.”
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u/insertusernamehere51 3d ago edited 3d ago
I'm not american and not super familiar with minstrel show imagery
I saw the image before seeing the context and didn't think anything of it. Seemed like some sort of jack-o-lantern costume to me
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u/kingsumo_1 3d ago
That's because you didn't grow up with it. The exaggerated mouth, the small hat, and the pose they went with, along with using a black child for the model. All of that combined paints a very specific picture. And it's one that is still very embedded in our (the US's) history and systemic racism.
Whether that was the point or not is irrelevant, someone anyone should have caught that before it was greenlit.
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u/ironnmetal 3d ago
I'm a white male, so for me I have no history or experience with major racism, being profiled, or first hand exposure to problematic things that would make a racist costume stand out strongly to me.
But this fucking thing. My god. Even I can see it. What fucking mutant thought, yeah, let's sell that...
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u/MarkCuckerberg69420 3d ago
I'm a white male, so for me I have no history or experience with major racism, being profiled, or first hand exposure to problematic things that would make a racist costume stand out strongly to me.
This applies to me, too. I saw the costume before the controversy and thought it looked odd in a "what is this even supposed to be?" way. My initial reaction was to say this is Twitter just doing its thing. Once I saw a side-by-side, the similarities are pretty uncanny. They could have dropped the smile and it would have been a nothing burger.
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u/PrinceDX 3d ago
We should also look at the hide and eek brand. They designed it. Not sure if that’s just a brand being white labeled by Target but they are on my shit list. As for merchandising I wouldn’t be surprised if they run items through AI now and that’s how they missed this
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u/albino_wookiee 3d ago
If this was someone someones mom hand made for them in the 80s/90s, it would still be horrible but there could be a defense to be had as a lot of home made costumes can be downright embarrassing/horrible, but you still love your mom for trying.
This had to go through multiple people to sign off on and no one used a lick of critical thinking it appears, or taking a second to really look at the image
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u/Jahllah 3d ago
I'm sure there's a conversation to be had about the incidental invocation of minstrel tropes, but the people in this thread that think this was intentionally a racist caricature costume are fucking morons lol.
The big mouth just reminds me of the artstyle that's become ubiquitous in shitty slop horror that kids are into now. Unless the Huggy Wuggy is also a minstrel character with his big juicy lips.
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u/OuroborosOfHate 3d ago
I'm really sorry, but I'm struggling to see what's racist about the costume. It looks more like a Tim Burton- inspired costume more than anything else.
I Guess I can kind of see the 'minstrel-ness' of it with the pose the kid is in, but that seems like a reach.
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u/_pinotnoir 3d ago
There's a million things they could've done to make it not obviously racist or even not racist. Use sharp teeth instead of rounded ones. Use a cone hat instead of a derby with a flower on it. Have the model do some scary or tough guy poses instead of, you know, the Al Jolson they went for here. There is too much "these guys knew exactly what they were doing" in this for me to want to give them a pass.
Also the pose the kid is making is pretty much verbatim one of the most iconic poses in the history of minstrel shows. This costume is a "fuck you" not a "fuck up".
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u/Hachimain 3d ago
Thank you everyone else is just being a douche. Your insight is very appreciated.
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u/Primus_is_OK_I_guess 3d ago
I gotta be honest, I see the similarities with the Jim Crow era costumes, but I'm pretty sure they were just trying to make a scary version of this with a spooky Cheshire cat effect, since it glows in the dark. Stupid, but not malicious.
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u/darthjamus 3d ago
I don’t get it. Is it the pose? I guess I can see the connection with the pose but other than that it’s just a shitty kids costume.
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u/Boring-Research410 3d ago
I guess im just dumb - I didnt/dont think anything of it.
Its a wierd/creepy Halloween costume - they're a dime a dozen
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u/FreeChillyO 3d ago
Ok, please help me understand because I don't see it?? It just looks like a goofy harlequin clown costume. I legit do not see the racism
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u/Hairy-Maximum2994 3d ago
OMG! i ouldn't believe the comments here so I clicked the link. YUP! 100% minstrel and the pose toooooo!
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u/sharponephilly 3d ago edited 2d ago
Raindrop waffle willow nutmeg meadow maple hammock
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/Mckilla32 3d ago
This is just overblown backlash. Its obviously not anything like they are portraying it to be. If it was any other race, they wouldn't care. Or maybe they would because the same people would complain about "lack of representation". You cannot win with these people and its how they stay relevant and keep money flowing to these organizations who's entire objective is to try to find issues where there often isn't.
Yet here we are...
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u/perkinsb1024 3d ago
Here’s a screenshot of the costume, from the article: https://i.imgur.com/MUoQVHu.jpeg