Target Defended Over 'Bridgerton' Racist Allegations

Target has been defended online after people claimed it was racist for putting a sticker over the face of a British Tamil actor on the front cover of a Bridgerton book.

Netflix's hit Regency romance series Bridgerton follows the lives of members of its eponymous family, based on the popular novels by Julia Quinn. Season 3 told the story of Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).

Season 2 followed Anthony Bridgerton's (Jonathan Bailey) love life with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), while season 1 explored his sister Daphne Bridgerton's (Phoebe Dynevor) romance.

Bridgerton is set in an alternate historical universe that isn't factually accurate, as it is one where a colorblind version of society exists. Race has been a topic of discussion since the beginning of the hit Netflix show, with some viewers pointing to the racism of some of the show's fans.

Now Target has been brought into the conversation after people saw that it had placed the sale sticker on the cover of Quinn's novel The Viscount Who Loved Me. The book is what season 2 is based on, with a new edition of it being released with Bailey and Ashley on the cover.

X user (formerly Twitter) @ZendayasDriving posted a TikTok video to X that showed a 20 percent off sticker covering Ashley's face, the only woman of color on any of the rereleased books so far. In comparison, the video showed that no one else's face had been covered by the sticker.

"From excluding Simone in interviews, to portraying her as an animal on ads, to covering her face in book covers. Bridgerton and their stans will never beat the racist allegations," they captioned the video.

The X user was referring to the fact that Redbubble, an online marketplace for independent artists to submit artwork, released an ad in collaboration with Bridgerton that portrayed Kate Shwarma as an animal. When Redbubble received backlash, they edited her out and replaced her with an unknown character, who happened to be a person of color.

At the time of writing the post had been viewed 5.1 million times.

Newsweek emailed Target and Netflix for comment on Tuesday.

People took to the comments to point out that the sticker seems to be roughly in the same place on all of the covers.

"In defense of the Target thing, it looks like the stickers are roughly the same placement across titles, and aside from the top one they're not centered on Simone's face, so I think this might just be standard placement. Nothing excuses the horrific racism from the fandom, though," @supergirl_sass wrote in response.

At the time of writing, the comment had been viewed 306,300 times.

However, @ZendayasDriving disagreed, responding: "Well, 1) Defending a corporation is not really a hill you want to be on. 2) Here's a grid side-by-side so you can see the difference in ratio; there's a significant adjusting done to make sure Pen's face wasn't covered 3) This is a repeated offense, so it's hard to pinpoint it as an accident."

Others agreed with @supergirl_sass, with many saying it most likely wasn't an intentional decision and more likely the act of a busy employee.

"It's in the same area every single time. The girl on the second cover is shorter so it didn't cover her face. It's not racism sticker placement. When you have thousands of books to sticker, you put them in the same spot every time when you get into a routine," someone else wrote.

"There was a Queen Charlotte book next to it and Charlotte's face was not covered. I think it was just a careless mistake by a Target employee. Give people the benefit of the doubt. That's what you'd want for yourself right?" said another.

A third added: "Look at the target symbol in relation to the author's name, pretty close in placement. Those grids are so bad that I can't believe you included them? I'm not denying that there are tons of racists on the internet and that these actors have faced racism from Bridgerton fans."

While the series has cast from various backgrounds in prominent roles, Vox noted that "while it's a lot more fun to have even more characters of color strolling around in the background, the show still largely configures them all as shallow and undeveloped." The article also adds that "race may be the primary factor" keeping some characters apart from others.

People of color cast for the show are also often the targets of racist trolling on social media, including Ashley. Despite what may be happening online, Ashley has said she isn't ready to say goodbye to her Bridgerton character just yet.

"I really hope so," Ashley said at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival after being asked if she will reprise her role in Season 4.

"Both Johnny and I, we adore our characters, Kate and Anthony, so much and their relationship and what they mean for the show," she continued. "I think we'll do all we can with our schedules to make it work so that we can, hopefully."