Tabitha Brown will always advocate for Black authors, Black-owned businesses, content creators, and creatives, regardless of what the haters may say.
Following backlash after she spoke out about how the Target boycott impacts Black authors, on Tuesday, May 20, the 46-year-old internet personality and author doubled down on her support of her peers in a video uploaded to Instagram.
“This is my prayer for you,” the “Donna’s Receipe” founder began in the video, addressed to all the users flooding her comments and DMs with “uneducated” hate messages.
“I pray that love finds you, true love. I pray it finds you and it holds you tight,” she continued. “I pray that someone will love you enough to see you, to see you when you are not well, to see you when you need true support, to see you when you need compassion, to see you when you need kindness. I pray that somebody loves you enough to sacrifice their life for you. I pray that type of love finds you so that you can understand.”
In the video’s caption, the vegan food influencer made it clear that she wouldn’t be backing down from vocalizing her support anytime soon.
“There is no amount of hate and ignorance that is going to stop me from using my platform and my voice to support and uplift small businesses, Black-owned businesses, Black content creators, Black authors,” she wrote. “Take it up with God because he gave me my voice, he blessed me with a platform, and I’m going to use it.”
Earlier that day, Brown took a moment to share insight on how the Target boycott, launched in late January after the retailer announced it was rolling back its DEI initiatives, has impacted some of her peers. In the video, she noted she had just received her New York Times Bestsellers plaque celebrating her children’s book “Hello There, Sunshine,” and it got her thinking about other Black authors struggling to move their titles off the shelves at the big box retailer.
“Target is a huge book retailer, right, that sells our books, and so because of the boycott, many of our black authors’ books did not sell well because people were not purchasing the books because they’re sold at Target,” Brown explained. “This affected their sales. It affected their ability to be on the New York Times bestseller list. But the bigger issue is that it also affects the next deal.”
While she noted that she wanted boycotters to be “mindful” of the impact of not shopping at Target, she also encouraged folks to support Black authors through other channels “because if not, they may not make their numbers.”
She also addressed publishers, urging them not to consider the sales of the last five months as these authors’ “truth.”
“These numbers are not reflecting … their truth,” the actress expressed. “They’re talented writers with beautiful stories, and they’re being affected by something that they did not do.”
When the boycott first began, Brown was one of the first to speak up in defense of Black-owned businesses. In January, she received flak when she urged consumers to consider Black-owned businesses and Black authors in their effort to send a message to the retailer.
In her video on Tuesday, Brown updates followers on the boycott, saying she is “praying this is over soon and we get some resolution.”
