Throughout the past week, we’ve seen Black Lives Matter protests unfold all over the country in response to the death of George Floyd by the hands of police. Many companies have announced their support by issuing public statements of solidarity with the BLM movement or making a donation.
But that wasn’t good enough for UOMA Beauty Founder Sharon Chuter. After all, only 8% of corporate professionals and 3.2% of executives and senior-level managers are Black, according to the Center for Talent Innovation. This is particularly problematic, given many brands target and benefit from Black culture and consumerism.
On June 3, Chuter called on these brands to #PullUpOrShutUp by sharing how many Black staffers were employed in their leadership, corporate and executive levels. Chuter posted this challenge on her personal Instagram page, as well as the official Pull Up For Change profile.
The challenge was simple: Consumers were urged not to spend money with these companies for at least 72 hours, or whenever the company released the requested data. The challenge caught on and even beauty maven and social media influencer Jackie Aina joined the challenge, sharing her own video on Instagram shortly thereafter.
A slew of brands responded, including Revlon, Sleek, Glossier, Thrive Causemetics and Sephora – to name a few. While the response and support for the challenge has been positive, the deadline ended over the weekend. So what’s next?
On the official Pull Up For Change Instagram page, Chuter announced that the campaign would continue with directed efforts towards businesses across all industries. Every two days, the campaign would target eight specific brands that have remained quiet about the challenge.
The goal is “for us to use our collective effort to target” these brands and ensure that they hear about the challenge, she said in the video.
The first batch of silent companies includes Nike, Adidas, Fashion Nova, Supreme, MAC Cosmetics, Fenty Beauty, KKW and Kylie Cosmetics.
Supporters are urged to tweet at each company and comment on their photos to get each brand’s attention. Brands will have 72 hours to respond.
Learn more about the next phase of this campaign, by pressing play below.
