Social Status CEO gives back with an art gallery, community centers
James Whitner saw the space for the first time.
Beaming and shouting joyfully, the West Mifflin native and founder/CEO of the growing retail company The Whitaker Group, toured the latest location of his nonprofit space beSocial on July 16. Filled with the clean lines, neon lights and welcoming tables, beSocial moved inside the Social Status streetwear retail location on Penn Avenue in East Liberty.
The renovated first floor isn’t the only addition to the space. On the third floor is a new art gallery aimed at early-career Black artists. Dubbed 38a, the gallery will serve as an incubator with residencies and mentorship for local artists looking to expand. Sean Beauford, who has worked with museums throughout the region, will serve as curator, and the space will be available for rent.
The grand opening event for 38a is expected for August, but a date has yet to be announced. The first exhibition at 38a is a collection of photographs from East Liberty artist Dominick McDuffie. David Butler, The Whitaker Group’s director of community initiatives, said McDuffie has documented Black life as the neighborhood has grown and changed.
“It’s a place to ideate, express themselves, chase those crazy things for us to chase,” said Butler. “This first expression just happens to be an art gallery.”
The art gallery and beSocial community space represent major turning points for Whitner. When he was a young teen in the 1990s, he
The art gallery and beSocial community space represent major turning points for Whitner. When he was a young teen in the 1990s, he carried a gun for protection when visiting East Liberty. He said most of his childhood memories of the city and growing up in a housing project in West Mifflin were not positive.
“Everything that we want Pittsburgh to represent, we’re pouring into this space,” he said. “When you move from Pittsburgh as a Black person, you finally realize you were living a nightmare. For me it was like I needed to figure out how I could change that for other people, so they could see some semblance of hope.
“The poverty here is less about the people,” he said. “It’s generational and it’s ingrained in the minds of the people because of the lack of opportunity in education systems. My aunt, when I went to college, told me it was OK to quit on the first day.
“I laughed it off. What if someone wasn’t as headstrong as I was? You’re already giving them an out to come back.”
In an article for Complex.com, Whitner said he survived a gunshot
wound in 2004 in Pittsburgh during a fight between his friends and another group. He had already graduated from Edinboro University and had been incarcerated. It wasn’t until he moved to Charlotte, N.C., in 2005 that he opened his first retail space. The first Social Status store opened in 2007 and luxury retailer A Ma Maniére in 2014.
Social Status began living up to its name as more and more brands bought into Whitner’s vision for high-end streetwear and sneaker retail in markets outside of New York City and Los Angeles. Nike and Adidas became partners, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Social Status location.
Whitner said his business has grown 20-30% each year over the last decade and is poised to double this year. He believes small business success focused on the human side of retail will force larger corporations to consider their community impact.
In 2017, Whitner formally moved into the nonprofit arena with The Whitaker Project. Emphasizing the “natural synergy” of focusing on people, be Social has emerged as a community and event space in tandem with Social Status’ retail partnerships. One of be Social’s main programs is the educational series “Free Games” aimed at difficult topics.
In addition to developments in East Liberty, Whitner recently went back to his roots and opened another community space in MonView Heights, the West Mifflin housing project where he grew up.
The Mon-View be Social opened July 15 in a former resource center in the housing project. There are rows of new Apple computers and shelves lined with books on Arthur Ashe, Duke Ellington, Ida B. Wells and other Black pioneers. Neon lights like those in East Liberty say, “Talk is free, be social.”
Chantel Mack, head of community relations and development, drew on her years of grassroots organizing to find and hire local people to provide free lunches, after-school, summer and computer literacy programs and more for the families who live in the 320 units at Mon-View Heights.
She was transparent about using kids as a draw for the broader community. During a recent visit, a few children played Jenga while another played a computer game. One of the main goals of this be Social is to bridge the gap between housing relief, finding one’s feet in the job market and purchasing a house.
“You are literally going to see generational change,” Mack said. “That one child, in an afterschool program, represents a family, the mother, the father, the cousin, the grandmother. We’re going to wrap around all of them by providing, not just hope, but tangible resources to change the course of their future. So if it’s job security, it’s financial literacy, it’s mental health and wellness. It’ll take some time, but we’re not going anywhere.”
As for 38a, Whitner emphasizes the need for buy-in from the Carnegie Museum of Art in their mission of breaking down barriers within Pittsburgh, specifically getting white residents involved while remaining authentic and inclusive to the Black community.
“Five years ago, the idea of this was daunting,” he said. “Now I sit here, and I’m like, ‘No, we really need to sit down with the Carnegie and, as citizens, start to understand what is our responsibility to our city to start to change the infrastructure of our city.’
“Once we have that conversation, then we can hold our city council accountable, we can hold our mayoral candidates accountable, our state representatives, all the wayup to the federal level, so we can have a more unified voice. Of course, we’re going to have our differences. It’s not Kumbaya. We’re supposed to have differences. Without friction, there’s no growth.” Whitner remembers times when he would sulk or become frustrated. But the former U.S. senator who is now vice president gave him a new perspective.
“We were talking, and I started to say to her, ‘Well, you know how people are.’ And she said, ‘No, that’s not how people are.’
“It sat with me, and it still sits with me when you get a hard course correct. She said, ‘James, we are humans, and we need the love. Some of these natural feelings are walls that we have that we need to take down. If we don’t focuson the walls, we’ll never take them down.’”
When asked about the pressure of tackling longterm issues such as social justice, inclusivity and segregation, Whitner said he doesn’t think about the pressure. He now works on “the solve.”
His latest collaboration with Nike is two sneaker designs called the Social Status x Nike “Free Lunch” Dunks. The shoes’ looks are meant to evoke cartons of chocolate and strawberry milk and call attentionto the importance of freelunch programs.
“Change sometimes is a point of a percent a year for 10 years to get 30% in the 11th year. No one can show up to this space for two years. We’ll be fine. This nonprofit is built on the back of a for-profit whose sole goal is to do this work. I’m not looking for overnight success. If it happens, that’s fine. If I got another 100 years to do the work, I’ll do the work. It’s my responsibility.”
Whitner said he is energized when he walks the streets of Pittsburgh and inspired to see what else he and his team can do to unify the city. Ultimately, he sees the Whitaker Group’s influence as growing globally to connect culture, do retail and serve others.
“Yes, it’s our responsibility to serve the Black community, but it’s a bigger responsibility to bring Pittsburgh together. These spaces, when you cross culture and you blend art and philanthropy and style and sneaker culture together, you’re able to do so much more than just sell things.... When you blend it with 38a, we start to tear down walls that people don’t even realize exist.”