Target has pulled an educational magnet collection that incorrectly identified three black leaders from its stores after a high school history teacher pointed out the mistakes in a TikTok video.
In the video, the teacher, Tierra Espy, said she bought the “Civil Rights Magnetic Learning Activity,” a tin case of 26 magnets and information cards with illustrations of black leaders and slogans from the civil rights movement, for Black History Month. celebrated in the United States in February.
“I noticed some discrepancies, like, once I opened it up,” he said in the video, pointing out that a magnet labeled Carter G. Woodson, a scholar of African-American history, actually depicts WEB DuBois, the American civil rights intellectual and political leader who wrote the collection of essays “The Souls of Black Folk.”
“Look at the ‘stache,'” she said, referring to an Internet photo of DuBois sporting the same mustache as the figure on the magnet mislabeled Woodson. “They got the name wrong.”
He also pointed to a magnet that had been mislabeled as DuBois. It actually depicted Booker T. Washington, the reformist educator who led the founding of the college that became Tuskegee University. Likewise, a Washington-labeled magnet actually depicted Woodson, he said.
Ms. Espy said the accompanying cards also misidentified Woodson, DuBois and Washington.
“I get it, mistakes happen, but this needs to be fixed as soon as possible,” Ms Espy said in the video.
In an interview Saturday, Ms. Espy, 26, who teaches 11th-grade U.S. history at Cheyenne Middle School in North Las Vegas, said she bought the box of magnets for her children, ages 4 and 6, as an educator tool for Black History Month.
Ms Espy said she was concerned when she discovered the mistakes.
“I was upset because I thought how does this reach so many people, so many levels and get into stores and I got it in 10 seconds?” he said. “Whoa, that’s not okay.”
Bendon Publishing, which makes sticker books, dolls and other magnet kits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but as of Saturday, the magnet kit was not listed among its titles on the company’s website and Amazon page.
Target said in a statement that it will no longer sell the kit online or in its stores and that it has “made sure the publisher of the product is aware of the errors.”
Black scholars began a project to share and celebrate Black history in the early 20th century after Reconstruction.
Black History Month began as Negro History and Literature Week, led by Dr. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History,” in 1924. Formally recognized by President Gerald Ford in 1976.
