Beauty industry called on to go beyond ‘BLM’
Brands asked to do more than activism that’s ‘performative’
Is the beauty industry’s commitment to fight racism only skin deep?
This question is at the heart of many conversations unfolding on social media as protests continue nationwide in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May in Minneapolis.
Dozens of cosmetics brands have released statements expressing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but many consumers, stylists, makeup artists and creators are calling on manufacturers and retailers to do more.
“Performative activism is what we’re seeing right now,” says Imani Jahaan, a Pittsburgh makeup artist, stylist and owner of Imani Jahaan Vintage. “It feels as if George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery hadn’t died, this conversation wouldn’t be happening in 2020.”
She’s concerned that “once the hashtags stop trending, things will go back to normal.” The change the beauty industry needs “has to be structural,” she says.
Jahaan applauds national movements like the Pull Up for Change campaign, which is challenging big beauty brands to disclose how many Black employees work for them at the corporate and executive level.
“You can’t tell us Black Lives Matter publicly when you don’t show us that Black lives matter within your own homes and organizations,” Sharon Chuter, the initiative’s creator, told The Cut.
Chuter, founder, CEO and creative director of the inclusive cosmetics line Uoma Beauty, says her company demographic is 58% Black. Other companies have released their figures too. They range from 100% Black-owned at Mented Cosmetics and The Crayon Case to staffs of less than 10% at Versed and Milk Makeup.
“I’m really excited to see that people can now see where we are in beauty brands and where we aren’t represented,” Jahaan says.
“That will allow consumers to make informed decisions now that we have that information.”
Another movement that’s gaining traction is the 15% Pledge, which calls on major retailers to devote 15% of shelf space to products from Black-owned businesses. Those who take the pledge are asked to commit to take stock of the contracts and shelf space they currently give to Black-owned businesses or suppliers, take ownership of their findings, and create, publish and put into action a plan to do better.
Aurora James, the creative director behind New York Citybased accessories label Brother Vellies, is the pledge’s creator. She came up with the percentage because Black people make up nearly 15% of the U.S. population, according to 2010 U.S. Census data.
The first major retailer to take the pledge was Sephora, which reported it offers seven Black
owned beauty brands, including Fenty Beauty, Pat McGrath Labs, Adwoa Beauty and KNC Beauty.
“This is only the start. We know with over 290 brands we can and will be doing more,” according to a press release from the retailer. A full FAQ from Sephora about diversity in its product offerings and its plans to implement the 15% Pledge can be found at sephoranewsroom.com.
“It’s about time,” says LaToya Johnson-Rainey, who owns A Hair Boutique Shadyside in Pittsburgh.
She says she experienced the inequities in the beauty industry when her family opened Sisters Beauty, the largest Black-owned beauty supply store in Pittsburgh, in the early 2000s.
“Distributors wouldn’t ship to us,” she says. “We were blackballed in a lot of ways.”
To get supplies for the store, her family often drove to New York, New Jersey and Chicago to
buy what they needed. Once the store was established, more distributors started shipping to them, she says.
Her family sold Sisters Beauty to another family last year. She noticed during those years that wigs available for Black women were often poorly made. Lowquality wigs can irritate the scalp, particularly for those who wear them for medical reasons, she says.
Johnson-Rainey also notes the lack of diversity in marketing materials she receives from many suppliers.
“It makes it look like these wigs are made for white women, and they’re not,” she says. “Anyone can wear them. It’s all about how you style it.
“What I would like to see is people of color, and especially Black people and trans women, be represented equally because that’s what the world is made up of.”
That goes for representation on social media too, says Kyshira Moffett, digital brand strategist and business coach for the Power Collective. She also runs Life of a Bombshell Cosmetics.
“When it comes to influencer marketing, I would love to see more beauty brands uplifting creators of all backgrounds and sizes,” she says.
She started her cosmetics label in 2017 “as a passion project,” she says. She knew many women who “didn’t feel represented” by other products on the market. Life of a Bombshell sells colors designed to flatter a range of skin tones.
Moffett credits cosmetic companies such as Fenty Beauty and retailers such as Ulta for striving for diverse representation in their products and displays and hopes more will follow suit.
“Women are so vast and so diverse,” Moffett says, “There’s so much opportunity to showcase that.”