'Baby Daddy' Card Featuring Black Couple Taken Off Target Shelves

ROCKWALL, TX — "Just wow."

That was Takeisha Saunders' immediate reaction when she picked up a racially insensitive Father's Day card at a Target store in Texas. In what almost could have come out of a "Saturday Night Live" skit, the ill-advised greeting card features the words "Baby Daddy" in bright pink emblazoned over a picture of a kissing black couple.

Saunders saw the card at a store in Rockwall, Texas, last month. She was aghast — it was the only Father's Day card that featured a black couple — and posted a photo of the card on Facebook on May 31.

"You CANNOT be serious Target!!!! Really!!!?!!!!? This was the only Father’s Day card that featured a black couple!!!!!" she wrote.

The inside of the card reads: "You're a wonderful husband and father — and I'm so grateful to have you as my partner, my friend and my baby daddy!"

Saunders told Patch in a Facebook message she was in disbelief: "This can't be the only one," she said. "I was really disappointed."

The card struck a chord with her. The phrase "baby daddy" was not a term of endearment when she was growing up. It was certainly not a term she would use to describe her husband.

"The way I grew up a baby daddy or baby momma was not something you wanted or wanted to be," she said.

The term is traditionally understood to refer to the father of one or more of a woman's children, particularly someone she isn't married to or in a partnership with.

Target was selling the card at about 900 of its more than 1,800 stores, company spokesman Joshua Thomas told Patch on Thursday afternoon. Thomas wouldn't discuss the process that goes into how the card reached Target's shelves in the first place, but said the store decided last week to pull the card off its shelves upon receiving blowback on social media. Target said the vendor, American Greetings, is physically removing the cards off the retailer's shelves one-by-one.

User @taliahpasha tweeted out a photo of the card June 12. She wrote: "So this is what @Target thinks about black families, that we have baby daddy’s and not father, SMH, this is why we have to start pulling our resources because we have to separate, come in to UNITY , and help ourselves and own our own stores."

That same day, user @Rideitnow tweeted: "I think they're trying to say that black men aren't committed enough to be husband's."

Target has apologized and said it never intends to "offend" any of its guests with its products.

"We want all guests to feel welcomed and respected when they shop at Target," wrote Thomas.

American Greetings has also apologized for the card, but emphasized that particular card was "created for and addressed to, a loving husband," — something the company believes is clear on the inside. But the front of the card, taken out of context, could convey an "unintentional meaning" that the company is strongly against, it said in a statement to media outlets.

"We should do better in the future, and we will. We have notified our store merchandisers to remove the card from the shelves and apologize for any offense we’ve caused."

A message left with American Greetings wasn't immediately returned.

Photo credit: Takeisha Saunders, used with permission.