On February 6, I received an email about Apple’s new Black Unity watch. At first, I was confused by this new piece of inventory until I remembered: it’s Black History Month, and that means it’s the time when corporations remember that we exist and decide to bombard us with a plethora of Black-inspired and focused products. 

While Black people look forward to this month as a time to celebrate the positive aspects of our history in this country and the work of organizers past and present, it seems that corporations look forward to this month as it allows them to market to the Black community. From streaming services to clothing companies and everything in between, we see corporations using Black History Month as a marketing tool. 

Kinda not looking forward to black history month for the simple fact we're about to get bombarded with more performative activism for 28 days then back to the regularly scheduled program

— 🦇Shelby⁷✜⁸🦇 (@_shelbyparis) January 15, 2021

Corporations monetizing Black History month for their own capitalistic gain is sick. If I see u rocking that Black History Month Apple Watch I’m judging tf out u.

— 2K 🐉 (@YolandaMiAmor) February 6, 2021

Following the display of performative activism that was #BlackoutTuesday, many Black people denounced the posts as lip service that often led to no action. Similar assertions were made about the many corporations that published statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement yet did very little to dismantle the systemic racism that exists within their companies.

For example, UOMA owner Sharon Chuter’s #PullUpOrShutUp movement showed that many companies were quick to support #BlackLivesMatter in statements but, evidently, did not actually support the movement within their own companies, as is seen by the low percentages of Black employees in many of these corporations.

However, despite direct call-outs of the problematic practices of corporate America, it doesn’t appear that they quite received this message just yet.

This is not to say that I don’t love receiving a discount on Uber Eats for ordering from a Black-owned business, but I do pause and consider the motivations of these promotions. Given the severe lack of diversity in corporate America, these marketing schemes come across as disingenuous and patronizing.

I, for one, don’t want conciliatory clothing and media collections if it means that there is no actual systemic change occurring behind the scenes of these corporations – especially when many of these efforts all disappear the second the clock strikes midnight on March 1. 

This corporate virtue signaling is not a new marketing technique. This identity branding also occurs during Pride Month. As soon as we hit June 1, many companies begin to hang up LGBTQ+ flags and sell rainbow-themed products; however, any support of the LGBTQ+ community ends there when it comes to these corporations. 

For example, Under Armour, like many other companies, releases products in honor of Pride Month every year. Yet, Kevin Plank, then CEO of the company, called Donald Trump “a real asset for the country” in 2017. While this praise was in relation to the former president’s stances toward businesses, none of Trump’s policies – positive or negative – can be separated from his extensive laundry list of homophobic actions that began long before his time in office.

Therefore, it is clear that companies will use Pride Month as a marketing tactic to draw members of the LGBTQ+ community to their products. As we now see, companies take the same approach to the Black community, and it’s time for them to stop. 

Marginalized people do not exist solely for companies to profit off of us. While discounts, collections and products are something nice to look at and possibly buy, marginalized people would much rather see action – specifically, long-term action – from these corporations instead.

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Art credits: Halimah Smith, @artpce on Instagram

Now that President Biden and Vice President Harris have been sworn in, it’s time to discuss priorities. 

While the main focus at the moment is lessening the damage of COVID-19 in America, I’d say that there are other issues that are quite pressing as well. Most namely: institutional anti-Blackness.

As many of us know, President Biden has a less than favorable history with racial justice in the United States. For example, President Biden has faced backlash for his support of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which is more commonly known as the 1994 Crime Bill. Although perhaps not intended, this bill exacerbated the issue of mass incarceration, which disproportionately impacts the Black community. Biden has since acknowledged the damage caused by this bill.

Additionally, President Biden has faced controversy due to his stance on busing. While many people, both Black and white, opposed federally mandated busing, the policy continued to exist as a measure to desegregate schools. Despite studies showing that busing positively impacted Black students, President Biden maintained his anti-federally mandated busing stance during a Democratic Party presidential debate, but he clarified that his opposition was not against busing itself but rather against federal government involvement in busing.  

As for Vice President Harris, there are some issues there as well. Although she has made history as the first Black and Indian woman to serve as vice president, her past actions contributed to institutional anti-Blackness as well.

A common critique of Vice President Harris is that she was tough on Black people rather than tough on crime itself. In the following Twitter thread, Bay Area activist Blake Simmons describes the many harmful actions that Vice President Harris committed against Black people in her past.

Kamala Harris made her career by locking up Black people in the Bay Area. Her track record consists of terrorizing Black communities through the prison industrial complex. She then became the top cop of California. Her track record consists of rampant anti-Blackness.

— B (@BlakeDontCrack) January 21, 2019

Worse yet, when confronted by former Representative Tulsi Gabbard, then Senator Harris deflected from her wrongdoings to the good that she did as a prosecutor. 

bringing this back bc i’ve been seeing too much kamala stanning on the timeline pic.twitter.com/CF2jvROPzW

— 💞ش (@iwishiwasurgurl) November 8, 2020

To put it simply, as we’ve realized with other Black figures in high places: All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. 

However, Vice President Harris did become more progressive during her time in the Senate. For example, she introduced the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act along with Representative Jerrold Nadler in 2019. The goal of this bill is to right the wrongs done to those imprisoned for marijuana possession – who are disproportionately BIPOC and low-income people – due to federal criminalization of marijuana.

To give President Biden and Vice President Harris the benefit of the doubt, their previously problematic policies and stances were – and still are, in certain cases – widely accepted in government and society at large. Politicians should be given the same space to grow as citizens are (that is not to say that they shouldn’t be held accountable for the harm caused), or there would be little to no progress at any point in history.

And now is a great time for them to be on the right side of history.

Given the prevalence of the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to defund the police nationwide, I believe a wise first move would be to take steps to address the racial injustice within the criminal justice system. 

So far, the Biden-Administration has addressed these concerns. In fact, the administration put together a comprehensive plan to address the same issues that they perpetuated within the criminal justice system. However, plans and promises are not enough at this point – we need to see action.

In the plan, President Biden called for the immediate passage of the SAFE Justice Act. While this bill is a step in the right direction due to calls for investment in social services, I do not feel that it addresses the overfunding of the police and over-policing adequately; therefore, I urge President Biden to consider the Breathe Act. 

On a national level, the Breathe Act calls for investment in social services as well as divestment from police forces. The end goal of the Breathe Act is a system that ensures public safety without reliance on carcerality. 

President Biden has made it abundantly clear that he does not support defunding the police, which is not an uncommon stance in America; however, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. Given the deeply racist roots of policing in America, I encourage President Biden, and others who share his mindset, to explore alternatives to our current policing system in the fight to eradicate institutional racism.

Secondly, the Biden-Harris Administration needs to prioritize the fight against Black voter suppression and gerrymandering. After all, Black voters throughout the country delivered President Biden his victory, and Black Georgians gave President Biden a Democratic Senate as well. It would be not only morally correct but also politically wise to protect voting rights for Black Americans.

From attempting to meddle with 2020 Census results to having a Department of Justice that did little to protect voter rights, Former President Trump’s Administration has shown that it is easy to tamper with voter protections. Therefore, President Biden’s Department of Justice must approach the issue of voter suppression with new vigor so that we do not run into the same issues again in 2024 – or beyond.

Additionally, President Biden should issue an executive order to mandate that anyone who comes in contact with a government agency is automatically registered to vote once they are eligible. This executive order could serve as an expansion to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allows eligible voters, if they elect to do so, to register to vote once they come in contact with a government agency, such as the Department/Registry of Motor Vehicles. Such action would likely increase voter registration in all groups.

Lastly, I would like for President Biden to revisit his loan forgiveness stance. President Biden supported forgiving, at minimum, $10,000 of federal student loan debt. While this stance is a start, many, from Democratic officials to organizations, are calling for the minimum amount to be increased to $50,000 or to cancel all student loan debt via executive order. 

While canceling student loan debt would benefit many Americans, it would have a profound positive impact on the Black community as well. A Brookings Institution report in 2016 concluded that, on average, Black college graduates owe $7,400 more in student loan debt than their white counterparts upon graduation. After a few years, the gap expands to $25,000. 

A report by The Century Foundation explores the impact of this gap on Black college graduates. They found that this debt gap worsens the already prevalent income inequality gap in the United States. Furthermore, Black college graduates are more likely to have issues with paying their debt off due to a variety of issues, such as racial discrimination in the job market.

Unsurprisingly, in a poll conducted by Vox and Data for Progress, 71% of Black participants supported loan forgiveness up to $50,000 for people making $125,000 yearly while only 43% of white participants supported the policy. While I can acknowledge that student loan debt forgiveness does not necessarily handle the larger problems contributing to it, I believe that President Biden should reevaluate his stance on student loan forgiveness so that he can help the voters that helped him win with a Democratic House and Senate.

To be clear, I understand that President Biden and Vice President Harris are inheriting a lot of problems that need to be addressed and only have four years guaranteed to work on them, but I would sincerely like to have a president that finally fights for Black people. 

In his victory speech, President Biden told his Black voters, “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.” Now let’s see if he upholds that promise.

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Featured image by Andrew Harnik, Associated Press.

Following Chadwick Boseman’s passing, many people, especially members of the Black community, felt saddened to see a cultural icon go so suddenly. We took to social media to grieve collectively. However, not everyone on social media shared the same sentiment. Many seemed more concerned about the future of Black Panther than the fact that a real person had passed away.

Most notably, Screen Rant, a news source focused on television, film and related content, published an article titled “Can Black Panther 2 Still Happen? Marvel’s Options Without Chadwick Boseman” within an hour of the announcement of his passing. Many immediately called the publication out for being insensitive in using its platform to speculate about the future of a fictional character rather than to send its condolences to Chadwick Boseman’s loved ones. Screen Rant later took down the article and issued an apology for the speculative piece.

Screen Rant’s article was not the only ill-timed post about Chadwick Boseman’s passing. Many social media users reposted his last social media post in which he expressed his support for Joe Biden’s pick of Kamala Harris for Vice President and implored others to vote for the Biden-Harris ticket. While there is no harm in encouraging people to vote for a particular candidate, it’s in poor form to politicize someone’s death in such a way. Many of the people who used his final post and passing in that way, however, did not apologize for their choices despite receiving immense backlash.

His last tweet https://t.co/aSyVaQCSv9

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 29, 2020

Most of the outrage came from Black people who are tired of Black death being used as a political tactic to further someone else’s agenda. The response to the use of Chadwick Boseman’s passing as a marketing and campaigning technique adds another example to a recent phenomena called Black outrage.

Black outrage, to put it simply, is exactly what it sounds like – when Black people become outraged by something (usually on social media) and share it with other Black people. Sharing these posts and articles, although not ill-intentioned, allows them to reach a broader audience and, consequently, advertises the initially offensive thing for significantly cheaper than it would take to promote properly. Although the idea of Black outrage is nothing new, using it as a marketing technique is a somewhat recent development as a result of the growth of social media.

“Black outrage” isn’t solely limited to the instances discussed previously as it now permeates many different spheres in our culture. From social media influencers to makeup brands, many different industries employ Black outrage as an advertising technique. Whether or not companies and influencers knowingly use Black outrage is up for debate, but we can all see that it is successful nonetheless.

Take the Kardashian-Jenner family for example. While I cannot definitively say that they intentionally use Black outrage to promote their brand, I can say that Black outrage plays a significant role in their relevance. 

I personally find myself often forgetting about the Kardashian’s as I do not follow them on social media and do not watch their shows. However, whenever it seems that their relevance is dwindling, I always see a post about them on Black Twitter discussing their cultural appropriation or Blackfishing, which is using Black features that were historically ridiculed for one’s own benefit. It’s almost like clock work at this point.

Blackfishing usually occurs on social media when a non-Black person posts photos of themselves with drastically darkened skin (either through filters or tanning) and lip fillers to give themselves an “ethnically-ambiguous-yet-Black-leaning” look. Many influencers and every day Instagram users are guilty of Blackfishing on their platforms.

Other influencers besides the Kardashian-Jenner family rely on Black outrage for promotion as well. Some other notable examples are Nikita Dragun, who is also well known for cultural appropriation and Blackfishing, and Jeffree Star, who is a #certifiedracist at this point. Both influencers have a history of actions that are offensive to the Black community and continue to act in the same way without a substantive apology – especially in times when they hope to promote a product or service of some sort.

Even companies have begun to use Black outrage as a marketing technique. Most notably, Tarte Cosmetics faced controversy for their Face Tape foundation line in early 2018. After promising an inclusive shade range, many were disappointed to see how the foundation barely had any darker tones and was practically unusable by the majority of the Black community. The scandal caused so much outrage that many people went out to buy the product to test it out for themselves. Eventually, Tarte released a more inclusive shade range, but they had already gotten the publicity needed due to Black outrage.

I believe that it is completely valid and understandable for us, particularly Black women who constantly deal with misogynoir, to be outraged at the actions of these individuals and companies as they are very discriminatory to us. However, it is also clear that our outrage boosts their advertising, which is the main goal of these influencers and companies. 

In the age of social media, such outrage grows exponentially – especially with the existence of TheShadeRoom, an Instagram-based news outlet that mainly focuses on celebrity news and issues within the Black community. With the ability to share information much more quickly than in traditional news articles, TheShadeRoom often compiles tweets and Instagram posts that display outrage within the Black community. This method of publication allows such outrage to spread quickly, and this spread brings more publicity to the issue for free – which is exactly what many influencers and companies want.

To me, I think it would be more beneficial for these companies and influencers to be actually inclusive of and respectful to the Black community. We have seen time and time again how success comes to those who actually do so – such as Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty and beauty guru Jackie Aina.

Black people are deserving of more than being pawns in advertising tactics – especially when it is so easy to include us and be successful. In the aforementioned examples, both Rihanna and Jackie Aina have had notable success with their makeup releases due to their efforts to be inclusive. Their success alone should be enough to discourage companies and influencers from relying on Black outrage and encourage them to include the Black community instead, which is a choice that I, and many others in the Black community, would welcome.

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photo from DailyMail.com, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West wearing box braids as promotion for her KKW makeup brand

When entering college, I knew that Greek Life permeated practically all aspects of campus life at many universities. It dominates the party culture, provides connections to other organizations on campus, and (if all goes well) ensures that you will have a group of friends to stick with throughout your time in college. 

Although I acknowledged the possible benefits of joining Greek Life, I had my reservations as well because I knew that there were many ways that I did not fit the mold of a typical sorority girl. I come from a single-parent household, and I would not consider myself to be wealthy in the way that many in Greek Life are.

Most notably, I am a black woman that is not white-passing or ethnically ambiguous in the slightest. Although I would be able to hide certain aspects of my identity if I had wanted to, I knew that there was, obviously, no way of hiding my race. Being a Black woman, I knew that women who looked like me were outliers within the Greek system. As Greek life is a historically (and, truthfully, currently) discriminatory system, I knew that being visibly different would make it harder for me to receive bids from what are considered the “top houses” on my campus.

Despite being conflicted, I eventually decided to go through recruitment for the benefits even though I knew that there were a lot of problems within the Greek Life system that I would be feeding into. Many other students told me that Greek Life at my university was less toxic than at Southern universities. 

My recruitment experience, like many others, was negative. Although I was invited back to the many houses each round, I began to like fewer and fewer houses that I went back to as the days went on. From not feeling that I necessarily fit with the people in the houses that invited me back to being sad that many “top houses” had dropped me, I lost a lot of the initial enthusiasm that I had felt at the beginning of rush. In the end, I got a bid from a sorority that I did not want to join and rejected the bid as I was not willing to pay dues for a sorority that I wasn’t passionate about.

Despite not being in a sorority, I was still able to go out and party with my friends. However, I did notice that there were fewer opportunities to do so now that everyone was in their respective organizations and began having more closed events. As an outsider to a very prevalent system, I began to understand that Greek Life honestly did more harm than good on college campuses, but I still considered rushing again my sophomore year as I wanted to be part of the “in” group.

Therefore, as someone who rushed earlier this year and considered rushing again, I was initially conflicted when the account for the chapter of the Abolish Greek Life movement requested to follow me on Instagram. I read the posts submitted from other students at my university and was able to empathize with their experiences, but I was still hesitant to follow the account or let it follow me as I did not want people to think negatively of me for (possibly) being opposed to such a dominant system on campus – and throughout the nation.

However, as I continued to read more of people’s stories on that Instagram account, I began to realize that Greek Life has done more harm than good for many communities on campus – including those that are part of Greek Life themselves. Many students on my campus have suffered from sexual assault, addiction, eating disorders and many other detrimental issues as a result of Greek Life even though our system was supposed to be one of the “less problematic” ones. 

Even though Greek Life was supposed to be “better” on my campus, it was still racist, classist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic along with many other bad aspects. Although I cannot speak to all of these issues, I can say that I have noticed that Greek Life values women with a closer proximity to whiteness and thinness more. It’s hard not to when you notice that fraternities readily allow girls that fit this mold into their parties but give those that are different a harder time – or completely turn them away.

Some may be on a campus in which Greek Life is not as harmful. Others may be on a campus where the system was sincerely reformed. Even if you fit into either of those categories, you are still feeding into a larger system that supports discrimination and other problematic ideologies. Although it’s easy to absolve yourself of guilt in many ways, it’s important to remember that the dues for chapters go to the national organizations that fund and support the oppressive systems that still exist at many other universities.

I’m not here to say that all aspects of Greek Life are inherently bad. It does provide a community for many that are looking for one if the process works out for you. There’s no doubt that they provide parties, along with other social events, but only for those that know somebody that can get them in. And even so, are either of those things worth the cost of harming so many other individuals?

To those who are part of the communities that Greek Life historically, and currently, oppresses that are also members of Greek Life, I understand that it can be difficult to reconcile these two identities, but it is very important to do so. I know that many think that they can reform the system from inside (I felt the same way), but I sincerely believe that Greek Life is beyond reform at this point because reform efforts have been made before – to no avail.

Although the idea of abolishing Greek Life causes sadness and uncertainty for some, it’s something that we need to do for others. It’s not something that happens overnight, but abolition is a way to ensure that many students feel comfortable and wanted on their campuses.

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photo from Cosmopolitan.com