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 highschool students and majored in social studies in college — said she purchased a magnet-style learning activity book from Target titled “Civil Rights” to share along with her students in honor of February being Black History Month.
Within the TikTok, Tete shows a cartoon illustration of a mustachioed man labeled within the book as Carter G. Wilson, lauded as considered one of the primary scholars to check African-American history.
“This will not be Carter G. Wilson. That 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 primary person of color to acquire a PhD from Harvard — on Wikipedia, which shows a person sporting an analogous mustache.
“Peep the ‘stache, they got the name fallacious,” Tete says, noting that the book was created by Ohio-based children’s book publisher Bendon.
Elsewhere within the book, Du Bois’ name is incorrectly alongside a photograph of outstanding African-American leader and educator Booker T. Washington, who’s name is inaccurately under a photograph of Black scholar Carter Woodson.
“You possibly can see clearly, clearly the similarities,” Tete says of the actual and illustrated images of Woodson.
“I don’t know who’s accountable for Target, but these have to be pulled off the shelves, like, immediately,” Tete said within the TikTok shared Wednesday.
Later that evening, a Target spokesperson confirmed to TMZ that the retailer “will now not 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 in the course of 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.
“That is infuriating!!!! That’s how you already know this goal BHM [Black History Month] display is simply to toss stuff up there,” one other furious user wrote.
Others called the errors “reprehensible,” “outrageous” and “disrespectful,” while one other chimed in: “The mistakes are more insulting than not having them in the primary place.”
More users questioned whether the book was created within the US considering Booker T. Washington, Carter Woodson and W.E.B. Du Bois’s respective roles in US history.
In keeping with Bendon’s website, “all Bendon books are created in-house.”
The corporate’s Instagram page — where it shows off other learning-based activities like coloring books and sticker activity pads — angered customers, who’ve already filled its comments section with calls for an apology in regards to the “Civil Rights” book.