I suspect that there are quite a few companies that I would have to cease dealing with if I investigated their charitable contributions and the activities of their foundations. Maybe I should. Maybe it’s irresponsible not to. However, I don’t use Target enough for the objects of its generosity to get priority over the sock drawer. Now that I know, however—well, as Kramer says in “The Contest,” “I’m out.”
Fox News’ investigation—it wasn’t hard— found that Target’s nonprofit foundation has funded the NDN Collective, a South Dakota-based nonprofit that approaches its mission with a “racial equity lens,” being “dedicated to building Indigenous power [t]hrough organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking… and narrative change.” NDN embraces “intersectionality,” a critical race theory staple, holding that America is poisoned with structurally racist and misogynistic systems, that combine to create persistent cultural persecution. The organization’s “LANDBACK” campaign, a parallel movement to reparations for slavery, wants the U.S. to give back its public lands.”The closure of Mount Rushmore, return of that land and all public lands in the Black Hills, South Dakota is our cornerstone battle,” NDN proclaims. “Not only does Mount Rushmore sit in the heart of the sacred Black Hills, but it is an international symbol of White supremacy and colonization. To truly dismantle white supremacy and systems of oppression, we have to go back to the roots. Which, for us, is putting Indigenous Lands back in Indigenous hands.”
Mt. Rushmore is, among more important things, an international symbol that the U.S. culture has produced brilliant, innovative, courageous, virtuous and important leaders, the four honored on the mountain being prime examples. Attacking those men triggers my “Bite me!” reflex.
Also sparking it is the organization’s views on the military, which seems germane as we honor those who took part in saving the world by successfully invading Normandy.
“[T]he U.S. military is in the explicit business of taking land away from communities all around the world and using their presence on their land to carry out their own agenda for the inhabitants of that area. Violence is fundamental for the U.S. to maintain its presence, and the military is how they establish dominance domestically and internationally, wherever they may be,” these jackasses bray. Target supports them while also claiming (in 2020), “If you or your loved ones are serving or have served our country, we share our heartfelt thanks—today and always.”
There are other unethical objectives in the NDN goody bag, but that’s enough for me. I don’t want one cent that has been in my metaphorical pocket to be entrusted to Target and its standard issue diversity chief Kiera Fernandez, another anti-white racist who used the accidental killing of an overdosing black perp in Minnesota to justify racial discrimination as a policy objective in her company.
She can bite me, NDN can bite me, Target can bite me.
I’m out.
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Pointer: JutGory
Ethics Alarms 
Jack,
1. If Target’s nonprofit foundation were to cut all ties with the NDN Collective would you reconsider?
2. If Target stripped the Target non-profit foundation of its dollars and association with the “Target” brand would you reconsider?
Don’t non-profit foundations have their own board of directors and they make their own choices of who they choose to support with their foundation dollars and the parent company as an entity may not have any input or clout into the decisions made by the non-profit foundation. When a non-profit foundation association hurts the parent company with their advocacy, it’s likely that some serious changes need to be made with that association.
It’s for reasons just like this that I won’t be part of or support any advocacy organization of any kind with my dollars, they can change their mind at any time and start supporting things that I might thoroughly disagree with right down to my moral foundation and most of the time there isn’t much of a way for me to know what they’re doing with my dollars. In the 21st century, association with advocacy groups of any kind could easily get you pigeon-holed into an identity group that you might never choose to be part of, but the court of public opinion simply doesn’t give a damn that you didn’t choose the identity group, you are guilty by association and guilty until proven innocent. Target has made its bed in recent weeks but is it possible that this what’s happening to the Target parent company with its’ non-profit foundation?
Nope. If Target overhauled its management and dumped that Diversity hack, then I might reconsider. Trust.
The definition of white supremacy groups like these use makes it a synonym for western civilization. When they say they want to dismantle white supremacy, they literally mean they want to dismantle western civilization.
Systems of oppression just means society, and when they say they want to dismantle those systems of oppression, they are really just arguing for anarchy.
I’m not interested in dismantling western civilization. I’m not interested in being colonized by anarchists.
I strongly suggest these groups stop using using the power of the state and fascism to force people to care about things they don’t care about. They will succeed in making people care, but not in the way they are hoping for.
It is impossible to control the breakdown of the social contract. It will not break in uniform ways. Members of different cultures will react differently based on their own cultural values and understanding of the world.
The United States is not a monoculture society. Forcing the breakdown in the cultural value of tolerance in the US will cause radically different reactions in different parts of the country, and those reactions will not be controllable. Pushing the US into localized pockets of tribalism along cultural lines will eradicate the ability of centralized systems of government to function. A useless central government cannot protect anyone from anything. Anyone counting on the current central government and the current fascist systems to make their dystopian ideals a reality is going to be in for a nasty surprise. It won’t work because it cannot work.
The people who will suffer the most during an actual civilization collapse are the minority groups currently being used as a battering ram to breakdown civilization. I wish everyone would stop and think about what they are doing before they get what they think they want.
Great analysis NP.
Would you mind briefly explaining how/why minorities would suffer the most from a civilization collapse?
The current pattern of deliberately antagonizing and demonizing the majority of society certainly won’t help during a period of societal collapse, but primarily the problem will come from human tendencies to band together with similar individuals during times of crisis. Minorities of any kind are at an automatic disadvantage during periods of crisis simply because they have less individuals who are similar to them. Add to that the human tendency to otherize and blame dissimilar groups for problems and you have a bad combination.
Thanks, plus minorities are generally at an economic/resource disadvantage.
If I am not mistaken the tribes that we classify as indigenous people wiped out the people before them and those people succeeded another prehistoric group before them. So why should we give back something that the People’s Republic of China want to take from we the current holders of those land?
When the so called indigenous people accept and acknowledge the fact that they conquered those before them and are willing to give up their claims to lands held by others then they can have standing to make claims.
Ironically, colonialism is the process of establishing a presence in a new geographical area to exploit its resource base. Can we not say that Target and other national chains do exactly the same thing. Virtually all of the profits made at each retail store flow out of the communities they are in which means that Target is acting in a colonialist.
Great points Chris.
Let’s face it, humans largely have the properties of a virus regardless of how they organize and manifest.
Question: Has Target decided to give back the land on which its Corporate Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN back to the indigenous peoples who lived there before settlers moved into Minnesota and then on to the Dakotas?
Just wondering why its just the Dakotas that have to give up stolen lands. Do the Lakota just have a larger lobbying group than the Ojibwe and Chippewa?
I thought tribal casinos were Native American reparations. Works for me, since I don’t gamble.