Target removes children’s Black History Month book over inaccurate labels

Target has removed a children’s book celebrating Black History Month from its shelves after a woman discovered famous historical figures were inaccurately labelled.

One of the first people to notice the errors was Issa Tete on TikTok. In her video, she is seen flipping through the book, titled “Civil Rights” and created by the publishing company Bendon. The book was filled with various magnets of important dates, organisations, and people that were known for their role in the civil rights movement.

“I don’t know who’s in charge of Target, but these need to be pulled off of the shelves like immediately,” Tete said.

As someone who teaches US history and majored in social studies, she went on to mention that she picked up on the mistakes “as soon as I opened it”. She started to point at a magnet labelled as Cater G Woodson, which she pointed out was actually an image of WEB Du Bois. To prove her point, she showed a photo of Du Bois, pointing out that the moustaches were identical.

Tete then panned over to show the book’s image of Du Bois, making the claim that the man’s tie matches Booker T Washington instead.

The book image of Washington was actually Woodson. “I get it,” Tete said in her video’s conclusion. “Mistakes happen, but this needs to be corrected ASAP.”

“Idk who needs to correct it but it needs to be pulled off the shelves nonetheless. Any person could have missed the mistake but it just takes one person to point it out and ask for corrections,” she captioned her video, which went on to receive over 600,000 views.

Soon after posting, viewers took to the comments section to question why no one had checked the book before allowing it to be placed on book shelves at all.

“You’re telling me not one person double checked these???” one comment read.

Another commenter agreed, writing: “This went through graphic approval, production approval and bulk approval and NOBODY caught this smh.”

“I just, this level of incompetency is so outrageous it feels like a joke,” a third comment read.

Other commenters suggested reaching out to the publishing company itself and not Target.

“Blaming Target when BENDON BOOKS is on there big as day. Target is not the problem, you need to reach out to Bendon,” one comment read.

Another commenter agreed, writing: “I’d recommend reaching out to Bendon as well. They might distribute to places other than Target.”

Due to inaccuracies, Target said it would no longer sell the book. A Target spokesperson said in an email to The Independent: “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.”

Tete recently made a follow-up video, where she gave viewers an update on the situation. “Target and the Bendon company have not reached out,” she said.

“I saw that they have not issued an apology as of now. I guess they’re trying to figure out who’s gonna take the blame for this.”

She continued: “I never blamed Target. I just told them to take it off of the shelves. This ain’t right, and someone needs to take accountability.”

The Independent has contacted Bendon for comment.