Beauty Brands and Racism: Where Do We Go from Here?
A month has now passed since #blackoutTuesday, when all of our Instagram feeds suddenly turned into an endless scroll of black squares, and all of us (well, most of us) went quiet in order to reflect on our actions, attitudes and words towards people of colour. And although there has been much debate as to whether posting a black square and logging off for the day is really the most effective anti-racism strategy, #blackoutTuesday at least helped to bring an important and long-overdue conversation to the fore. In the days and weeks that followed, the anti-racism protests which originated in the States soon started to spring up all over the world, and as they gained momentum their message became more and more clear: enough is enough.
But what does any of this have to do with beauty, I hear you ask? Quite a lot, as it happens. The racism that exists within the beauty industry might not be as jarring or as violent as a lot of what we’ve witnessed this year, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. After all, it is often these less overt prejudices that are allowed to go unchecked for longer, resulting in an industry that slams it’s door in the face of a huge number of people who both want and deserve to be included. It is 2020. We simply cannot go on acting as though white and white-passing faces are the only ones that exist, or that have value. Even the most “exclusive” ranges have an obligation to be inclusive when it comes to skin tone.
So, where do we go from here? How do we go about ensuring that the beauty industry caters for all? The simple answer, I suppose, would be to vote with our wallets (or purses, depending on where you’re reading this). In the wake of #blackoutTuesday and the subsequent #pulluporshutup movement, wherein companies were challenged to share the exact makeup of their workforce including the percentage of black and other POC individuals employed there, a number of brands were exposed as being less than virtuous in their treatment of people of colour. Milk Makeup co-founder Mazdack Rassi had to issue a public apology via Instagram following complaints from former black and POC employees. Drunk Elephant declined to participate in publishing their stats, and went on a comment-deleting spree instead. Anastasia Beverly Hills, or specifically Anastasia’s daughter Norvina, came under fire for exploiting black content creators. The revelations were shocking, and very few brands came out looking completely clean. Even those that said or did very little were judged for their complacency.
However, as well as voting with our custom, I strongly believe that we should hold the brands we love accountable and keep lobbying for long-term, demonstrable change. Two of my favourite brands, Chanel and Hourglass, are admittedly not so hot on the anti-racism front, but because they get a number of other things right — Hourglass, for example, are 100% cruelty-free and increasingly vegan — I am personally willing to wait, observe, and assess what they come out with over time. Lasting change doesn’t happen overnight, and we need to make sure that the beauty industry’s commitment to becoming more actively anti-racist is more than just a passing phase. There can be no “going back to normal”, because that supposed normal excluded a lot of people.
I’ve seen many people calling for boycotts or cancellations of certain brands or individuals and, although there are undoubtedly many cases in which this is appropriate, I’m not convinced that it is the best approach for systemic, long-term change. (Good riddance to Jeffree Star and that other nondescript-looking guy whose name I can’t remember, though. I’m not sure what either really contributed in the first place.) No, to really bring about change, we need to keep banging the drum, and we need to keep certain things in mind when deciding where to spend our hard-earned cash. So, to conclude, here are a few things I’ll be keeping in mind going forward:
Is this brand’s shade range sufficiently inclusive? (Similarly, are the undertones appropriate?)
Do this brand’s marketing campaigns, both online and offline, include enough black and POC faces? And, if so, does this feel genuine or tokenistic?
Did this brand participate in #pulluporshutup?
Has this brand donated to any relevant causes/charities?
How diverse a cohort of content creators does this brand work with? How do they treat black and POC content creators?