Target swiftly yanked a children’s book from its Black History Month display after a customer noticed that it mislabeled Black icons like Booker T. Washington, Carter Woodson and W.E.B. Du Bois.
TikToker Issa Tete — who says she teaches US history to high school students and majored in social studies in college — said she purchased a magnet-style learning activity book from Target titled “Civil Rights” to share with her students in honor of February being Black History Month.
In the TikTok, Tete shows a cartoon illustration of a mustachioed man labeled in the book as Carter G. Wilson, lauded as one of the first scholars to study African-American history.
“This is not Carter G. Wilson. This is W.E.B. Du Bois,” Tete says, panning to a black-and-white image of Du Bois — the historic civil rights activist who was the first person of color to obtain a PhD from Harvard — on Wikipedia, which shows a man sporting a similar mustache.
“Peep the ‘stache, they got the name wrong,” Tete says, noting that the book was created by Ohio-based children’s book publisher Bendon.
Elsewhere in the book, Du Bois’ name is incorrectly alongside a photo of prominent African-American leader and educator Booker T. Washington, who’s name is inaccurately under a photo of Black scholar Carter Woodson.
“You can see clearly, clearly the similarities,” Tete says of the real and illustrated images of Woodson.
“I don’t know who’s in charge of Target, but these need to be pulled off the shelves, like, immediately,” Tete said in the TikTok shared Wednesday.
Later that evening, a Target spokesperson confirmed to TMZ that the retailer “will no longer be selling this product in stores or online. We’ve also ensured the product’s publisher is aware of the errors.”
Bendon has yet to publicly comment on the grave snafu.
The Post has sought comment from Target and “Civil Rights” publisher, Bendon.
The outrage over the mislabeled legends continued in Tete’s comments, where people were flabbergasted as to how these errors weren’t noticed at any point during the proofreading and publication process.
“They shook the names like dice & just tossed them onto the pics because how are so many incorrect,” one commenter wrote.
“This is infuriating!!!! That’s how you know this target BHM [Black History Month] display is just to throw something up there,” another furious user wrote.
Others called the errors “reprehensible,” “outrageous” and “disrespectful,” while another chimed in: “The mistakes are more insulting than not having them in the first place.”
More users questioned whether the book was created in the US considering Booker T. Washington, Carter Woodson and W.E.B. Du Bois’s respective roles in US history.
According to Bendon’s website, “all Bendon books are created in-house.”
The company’s Instagram page — where it shows off other learning-based activities like coloring books and sticker activity pads — angered customers, who have already filled its comments section with calls for an apology about the “Civil Rights” book.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
