Target has alienated Black-owned brands, founders say, as some startups vanish from its shelves

In 2022, April Showers finally got her big retail break as her brand, Afro Unicorn, entered Target and Walmart.

Afro Unicorn is a licensed-character brand designed for women of color that sells hair-care products, books, apparel and more. For Showers, as a Black entrepreneur aiming to normalize Black beauty, getting into mainstream retail was a critical milestone.

“It wasn’t to help normalize it for us,” Showers said. “It was there to normalize it for everyone else, so that when a little white girl walks into the room and sees a Black girl, she doesn’t look at her any differently.”

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