The Oscar-winning actress says Target’s apology fails to acknowledge the historical harm behind the costume’s imagery.
Viola Davis isn’t letting Target off the hook.
The Oscar-winning actress has publicly rejected the retailer’s apology over a controversial children’s Halloween costume.
Arguing that the company still doesn’t understand why the imagery caused such deep offence.
The backlash began when images of Target’s “Kids’ Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume” appeared online.
The $25 costume quickly attracted criticism, with people accusing its design of evoking racist blackface and minstrel-show imagery.
Target subsequently pulled the costume from its shelves and admitted it had “got this wrong.”
But for Davis, removing the costume wasn’t enough.
Just a day after Target issued its apology, Davis took to Threads and Instagram with a message directed straight at the retailer.
“Target, I do not accept your apology,” she wrote.
Davis went further, saying she didn’t believe Target understood the historical significance of the imagery or the pain and dehumanisation attached to it.
“These images laid the foundation and the ideology for every atrocity that has been committed against my people,” she wrote.
She ended her post with an emphatic declaration: “We MATTER!! You have shown us that you are not on OUR side.”
Her comments have reignited attention around the costume after Target appeared to close the chapter by removing it from sale and apologising.
For Davis, though, the issue goes beyond one Halloween costume.
Her response argues that removing an offensive product after backlash doesn’t address the deeper history behind the imagery, or explain how it made it onto shelves in the first place.
