BLACK INFLUENCE
‘Canadian racism is polite ... very micro-aggressive,’ one Instagrammer notes. ‘But, it’s there.’
On May 27, Natoya Ellis shared an image of herself, eyes raised to the sky, with her hand pressed against her cheek.
The caption on the Instagram image offered her insight on what she called an “emotionally draining week” that saw the death of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck during his arrest on May 25, and the increasing protests and unrest that followed it.
“I know this is not the content you came here for, but I’ve always spoken my truth,” Ellis wrote in the heartfelt post. “And the truth is BIPOC (Black/ Indigenous/people of Colour) lives needs to be respected and valued just as much as any other lives.”
Ellis, a Mission-based multidisciplinary artist, small business owner and online influencer, wasn’t sure how her followers would receive the post.
“As an influencer, you have a sort of responsibility to have this nicely curated Instagram feed, beautiful blog and talk about things that make people feel good and want to go out and purchase things,” Ellis says. “But, at that moment in time, when George Floyd passed away, I was so disheartened by watching what I thought would be just another, everyday lynching of a Black man in the street. Once again, here we are. Once again.”
While she admits she worried that people would start to unfollow her for sharing about “Blackness,” she “couldn’t shake the feeling of pure disheartenment and sadness” that she felt. So, she followed her heart, and decided to post the picture and accompanying caption.
“I felt like it just had to be said,” Ellis says.
To her surprise, the outpouring of support she received following that post was overwhelmingly positive.
“A lot of people reached out and said, ‘Yes, I’ve seen the video, and how can we be of support to you in this moment of time? How can I support the Black community in this moment in time?’” she recalls.
Not even four days later, the world “erupted” with support for the Black Lives Matter movement with anti-racism protests taking place around the world, calls for defunding of police forces throughout North America, statues of historical figures whose success was built on a foundation of racism torn from their monuments, and millions of people sharing their support for the movement on their social media platforms.
The online discussion has provided more Black influencers with the space to sound off on their experiences in the industry, including calling out companies for unfair practices.
Lydia Okello, a Vancouver-based influencer and model with Stranger Agency, shared their experience with the company Anthropologie in a recent post on Instagram. In it, Okello highlighted an incident surrounding being approached about creating content to be featured in the company’s Pride content — and not being compensated for the work.
“This happens to Black creatives constantly. Especially in the fashion industry. We are made to feel that we ask for too much when we bring up fair compensation for labour. It is implied that we should be happy with what we get. Shouldn’t we just be happy that a big brand wants to work with someone like us?” Okello shared in the post.
“We need to hold brands accountable to their lip service. In fact, with BLM being a ‘hot topic’ to a lot of corporations, this is going to happen frequently. Folks will want to capitalize on Black bodies & Black labour for the lowest price possible, as they have for several hundred years.”
Maria José, a Calgary-based fashion blogger and public relations student, is another content creator who’s adding insight and perspective to the online discussion surrounding race relations and anti-racism.
“I’m seeing how it’s helping people. And, if I can contribute, even in a small way, I am 100 per cent for it,” she says of her content.
Born in Belarus, José moved around with her family for her father’s career as a mathematician and engineer working in the oil industry, living in Angola, California, Texas and South Africa before finally settling in Alberta. Her enthusiasm for sharing her personal experiences and thoughts about the BLM movement are centred around her desire to push the conversation and to promote healing, all in the hopes of eventually seeing some change.
“Just because people aren’t speaking about it, doesn’t mean they’re necessarily racist. They just need a little bit of a push,” José says. “I know that’s not the popular approach with this topic, and I understand that completely. But, coming from the background that I come from, I can sympathize and I can understand.”
That background — being a biracial woman who has lived in various cities around the world — has helped her to add a “different side to the conversation,” she says. “I almost have that middle ground in terms of being able to hear both sides, because, I have been for my whole life,” José explains.
Seeing “the devastating effects that racism has on a family,” firsthand, she set out to help heal her own family’s scars with her content, while also helping to further the online discussion with her followers.
“I know it’s not my job to educate people around the subject. But I also believe that, if you know, and if you have the wisdom to know better, you then have that burden of education,” she says.
José began by using her platform on Instagram TV to share the conversations she was having with her family in an attempt to let people know that, while uncomfortable and even traumatic for some to discuss, they’re necessary to affect change.
“It’s not an easy topic to discuss, but you have to,” José says. “I noticed, even within my own household, that everyone became more comfortable with discussing race after we got through the initial awkwardness. And, I wanted to give my audience the tools they needed to initiate their own conversations within their household. So that they feel safe.”
José says she has received countless messages from people from around the world thanking her for providing an outline for approaching the subject properly with family and friends.
While the effect of furthering the conversation, in person and online, has been powerful, it has also been exhausting for those who, like José, Okello and Ellis, are opening themselves up on an unprecedented level to share their lived experience.
“It’s really hard to bear the emotional labour of, every time you encounter someone who is willing to learn and wants to facilitate change in their life, it’s like ripping off a band-aid each time, and healing your wound. We cannot continuously bear the emotional burden of teaching people. They have to actively seek the resources for themselves,” Ellis says, recounting a recent experience with a white woman who approached her while shopping in a store to ask how she could help “further the cause.” In a rush to get to another appointment, she apologized to the woman and said that she was unable to join the discussion at that time but that she should look online to find a variety of helpful resources and ways to help.
“As I was leaving, I could hear her say to her husband, ‘Well, that wasn’t very nice,’” Ellis says. “So, I can totally see where other Black influencers are like, ‘yeah, you need to do this on your own.’
“You have to seek your own resources, check your own privilege, and do some soul-searching of your own.”
As a Black woman living in a small town in the Fraser Valley, Ellis says she’s often expected to sound off on the Black experience in a general way, which, understandably, is an impossible task. “Black culture is so layered, it’s multi-faceted. A Black person from Ghana is not the same as a Black person from Jamaica. So, it’s always hard for me to generalize all of culture just using my own voice,” Ellis says. “I can only tell you how I can help from my general perspective. But, my perspective is as a Canadian woman living in a small town in B.C. and not as a person on the front lines in Minneapolis, actively trying to defund the police — actively trying to just stay alive in the streets.”
Ellis, who moved to B.C. more than 20 years ago from Jamaica, has shared with her followers her own experience with the “polite racism” that she and other people of colour endure from their fellow Canadians.
“Canadian racism is polite racism,” Ellis says. “It’s gently applied. It’s very micro-aggressive. But, it’s there.”
“One hundred per cent, yes, I have experienced racism in Canada,” José agrees. “Canada, by no means, is as bad as what’s happening in the United States, but it doesn’t mean that there’s not work to do here, as well.”
Appropriate next steps is an area of uncertainty for many who are looking to further the movement, including those in the Black influencer community.
“There is no right way forward,” Ellis says. “How do I go back to talking about my skincare routine when the world is burning around us? It is so difficult.”
Ellis says she’s looking toward other Black influencers, such as Shannae Ingleton Smith of Torontoshay, for guidance about where to go from here, and says it will be increasingly important for content creators to do their due diligence when researching the diversity and inclusion practices of a brand before proceeding with a partnership.
“As Black influencers, we need to do so much more research, so much more deep-diving into the companies that we are representing because it’s coming out that a lot of these companies have underlying racist ideals,” she says.
“So, now, you might get a big break, but you can’t work with this person because of their brand beliefs. It is extremely difficult in a world where, as Black influencers, not a lot of people want to work with us anyways.”
José says that, moving forward, she plans to cast a more critical glance at prospective business partners in order to see if diversity appears in their campaigns and social media feeds.
“That has kind of been the question of the hour among the creative community on Instagram and other platforms. We’re all talking about how to carry on this movement and weave it into our regular content,” José says.
Above all, she plans to continue to voice her perspective, authentically, on her platforms, “offering a glimpse of what it takes to get ahead in life,” she says. That includes the highs and the lows.
“I find there is more value in sharing the full experience to who I am,” she says. “Rather than just the highlight reel.”