On Tuesday, Walmart released one of their holiday commercials to celebrate the festive season featuring two beloved actors: Larenz Tate and Nia Long. But the reactions to it have not been positive — for reasons you might not expect.
In it, the two actors—who starred together in the beloved rom-com “Love Jones” back in 1997—pose as a loving couple, with Long opening up an early Christmas gift from Walmart: a record player, which is a callback to their “Love Jones” characters having a meet-cute at a record store.
As the Isley Brothers record spins (Long’s character Nina Mosely was looking for an Isley Brothers CD in the film), the two dance together lovingly before their daughter pops up and snaps a picture of them together.
The commercial is successful in its nostalgia and feel good-ness and Black folks are eating it up online. But it still wasn’t enough to ward off the criticism from others who called out the major retailer for putting out this culturally specific ad just one week after it announced its plans to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and endeavors within the organization.
On Nov. 26, Walmart announced it would be “ending racial equity training programs for staff and evaluating programs designed to increase supplier diversity,” per CNN. The retailer is also set to review “all funding of Pride and other events and monitoring its online marketplace to remove sexual or transgender products marketed to children.”
The retail giant also announced it would not extend its Center for Racial Equity, the five-year, $100 million philanthropic commitment created in 2020 dedicated to addressing the “root causes of gaps in outcomes of African Americans in education, health, criminal justice and other areas.”
The hypocrisy of dropping a commercial to court Black folks while nuking programs designed to benefit them did not get past us.
“Walmart said, ‘DEI at work, no!’ But for Black consumer outreach?! Let’s ‘Love Jones’ it up?! A beautiful, nostalgic campaign,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“Walmart is pro segregation & rolled back diversity, equity & inclusion policies targeting women & marginalized groups. But Walmart also released a Love Jones commercial,” said another.
“Wal-Mart dropping DEI from corporate initiatives and hiring at the same time dropping a Love Jones themed holiday commercial is the nastiest of works that I hope none of my Black folx are moved by. Stop accepting crumbs from a table they don’t want you at,” said another user.
“Walmart trying to appeal to black people with that Love Jones commercial after ending their DEI initiatives. That company is the devil,” another said.
The comments section underneath the video of the commercial on Walmart’s YouTube channel echoed similar sentiments.
“This after ending DEI programs, the marketing department sure know how to change the narrative,” said one user.
“Gets rid of DEI hiring but uses black celebrities hoping to get black dollars to shop at yall store lol. Im still boycotting,” another wrote.