Target pulls out a magnet set that misidentifies three black leaders

Target has pulled from its stores a magnetic educational kit that misidentified three Black leaders, after a high school history teacher called attention to the errors in a TikTok video.

In the videoTeacher Tierra Espy said she purchased the Civil Rights Magnetic Learning Activity, a tin box containing 26 magnets and information cards containing illustrations of black leaders and slogans from the civil rights movement, for Black History Month, which is celebrated in the United States. United States in February.

“I noticed some inconsistencies, as soon as I opened this,” she said in the video, noting that the magnet bearing the name of Carter G. Woodson, a scholar of African American history, actually depicted Webb DuBois, an American intellectual and civic figure. Rights leader who wrote the essay collection The Souls of Black Folk.

“Take a quick look at the mustache,” she said, referring to an online photo of DuBois with the same mustache seen in the magnet that was mislabeled as Woodson. “They got the name wrong.”

She also pointed to a magnet that was misnamed after DuBois. It was actually the conception of Booker T. Washington, the reform educator who led the founding of the college that later became Tuskegee University. Likewise, the Washington-branded magnet actually depicts Woodson, she said.

Ms. Espy said the accompanying cards also misidentified Woodson, DuBois and Washington.

“I understand, mistakes happen, but this needs to be corrected as quickly as possible,” Ms Espy said in the video.

In an interview Saturday, Ms. Espy, 26, who teaches 11th-grade U.S. history at Cheyenne High School in North Las Vegas, said she bought the magnet box for her children, ages 4 and 6, as an educational tool for Black History Month.

Ms Espy said she was upset the errors were discovered.

“I was upset because I was thinking, 'How can this reach so many people, so many levels, be released in stores, and I got it in 10 seconds?' She said. “Wow, that's not good.”

Bandoun PublishingAmazon, which produces sticker books, dress-up dolls and other magnetic tools, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but on Saturday, the magnet set was not listed among its titles on the company's website and Amazon page.

Target said in a statement that it would no longer sell this kit online or in its stores, and that it had “made sure that the product publisher is aware of the errors.”

Black scholars began a project to share and celebrate black history in the early twentieth 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. It was officially recognized by President Gerald Ford in 1976.