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Did Target Refuse to Sell Frank Ocean’s CD Because of His Sexuality?

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No doubt, the last 2 weeks have been rather eventful for Odd Future member Frank Ocean.  Last week, Frank made a public and very heartfelt announcement regarding his sexuality after a blog reviewing his latest album Channel Orange eluded to the fact that Frank was in fact singing about a “man”.

Frank confirmed allegations that he was, in fact, bisexual and that his first love had been a man.  In his poetic letter describing the incident, Frank admitted falling in love with a man who at the time had a girlfriend and was not ready to admit his feeling for Frank.  Frank wrote that it wouldn’t be until years later that he was made aware of the feelings the man had for him, but by then he had moved on.

Thanking several people for their continued support and receiving love from all over including Beyonce, her sister Solange and music mogul Russell Simmons, Frank made the decision to move up the release date for his album by one week giving exclusive first release rights to iTunes. While the reasoning behind the rush in releasing the album is unknown, I have yet to see anyone complain about the early release…that is except for Target.

Reports are suggesting that the store chain has refused to sell Frank Oceans album and while Target has confirmed that they have refused the sell of Channel Orange, it has nothing to do with his recent announcement.

“The claims made about Target’s decision to not carry the Frank Ocean album are absolutely false. Target supports exclusivity and diversity in every aspect of our business. Our assortment decisions are based on a number of factors, including guest demand”

Sometime on Tuesday, Franks manager Christian Clancy expressed his feeling about the chain refusing to sell Franks album, suggesting that it has nothing to do with their reasons but everything to do with Franks sexuality, only to retract his statement several hours later, claiming to have been in an emotional state when he made his previous.

“Target has refused to carry Frank’s album because of iTunes exclusive. Interesting since they also donate to non-equal rights organizations.”

Although it may seem like Clancy is reaching for the stars, according to BET.com Target came under fire not to long ago when they dropped a $10 million dollar campaign for Lady Gaga after difference in appearances relating to “ideology” in addition to publicly backing political figures who oppose gay rights.  Reports also show that in the past Target had made contributions to anti-gay organizations.

Target went further in their attempt to prove that their decision had nothing to do with Franks sexuality by making mention that they carry music from several other “openly gay” artist including Adam Lambert, RIcky Martin and Elton John.  As one LMB reader suggested, this is the equivalent of saying that you are not racist because you have at least one Black/White friend.

“Come on, that’s like saying you can’t be racist because have one token Black/White friend…really? You need more people..especially since y’all STILL carried Kanye and Jay-z’s album and it was sold digitally FIRST!”

We don’t know what is going on or who is telling the truth, however we do know that Mr. Ocean isn’t worried about it at all.  In a recent tweet, Ocean simply directed his fans to Best Buy instead blaming the instance on a “generational gap”.

“Album won’t be available at target. Blame it on generational gap. Best Buy on deck though.”

Or, you can do like we did and buy via iTunes.

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Love My Black is an online magazine that covers news surrounding Black Entertainment, Music, Fashion and Culture.