Pull Up or Shut Up; Popular brands being forced to review their practices

BY JONELL PANTLITZ

The Black Lives Matters movement has sparked many of the difficult conversations that various companies and people in power try to avoid. Whereas, with the rise of the movement across the world, hundreds of companies large and small have united to show that they stand with the black community, mainly in forms of donations and social media posts. However, as the discussion of antiracism continues, many more companies have stepped up to say they are allies with the black community, but one beauty brand is aiming to hold them accountable.

According to PopSugar, Sharon Chuter, founder and CEO of Uoma Beauty, launched the Pull Up or Shut Up Challenge on June 3^rd, 2020,  in the hopes of putting a spotlight on the presence of black people (or lack thereof) in leadership positions in corporate America. Per her notes, black people make up 8% of corporate roles in America and 3% of management roles, but the numbers are even bleaker when it comes to black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, as only four black people in the US hold those positions.

Chuter’s campaign is calling on consumers to refrain from spending money on brands that have made public statements about their support for the black community for 72 hours or until said brands publicly disclose the number of black employees working in their offices and headquarters. “This is not an exercise in naming and shaming, but simply a call for all brands to review their own practices,” she said in a statement. “It’s easy to say racism is other people’s problem but it’s important at this critical point in time that we all look at how we may have contributed to this issue and have the humility to accept it and make an effort to change it.”

After the campaign was launched publicly, Chuter took to Instagram to further explain the importance behind it. “To be at this point still absolving yourself of the role you have played, and continue to play in the marginalization and oppression of black people, shows that a lot of these efforts may just be PR stunts,” she said. “You cannot say black lives matter publicly if you don’t show us black lives matter within your own homes, and within your organizations.”

To find out which of your favourite brands have voiced that they are in ally with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, check out @pullupforchange on Instagram.

As the days swiftly go by, actors and actresses have also come forward to say they will no longer be the voices of black characters. After 20 years Mike Henry has decided to step away from voicing the black character Cleveland Brown on Family Guy. He says that the role should be given to a person of colour. The producers of the Simpsons also voiced that they will no longer allow white actors to voice characters of colour. This came to light five months after Hank Azaria announced he would no longer voice Apu. Jenny Slate has stepped down from the role of Missy on the Netflix show Bigmouth “At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissible for me to play Missy because her mom is Jewish and white–as am I,” the actor wrote. “But Missy is also black, and black characters on an animated show should be played by black people.”

L’Oreal also announced that they would be removing words such as “white”, “fair” and “light” from its skin-evening products. This announcement came on Friday, a day after Unilever made a similar announcement in the face of growing social media backlash. Unilever, in particular, was on blast for its “Fair & Lovely” brand. Johnson & Johnson the company behind Neutrogena and Clean & Clear likewise went a step further, saying they will stop selling skin whitening creams sold in Asia and the Middle East.

Although most of these companies may genuinely be on the side of the black community, countless people are not having it. They are claiming that this all is a marketing plot, and that the focus should be on the justice system.