The Case for Why White Companies Shouldn’t Benefit from Black Struggle

From enslavement to “Black Lives Matter,” we, the Black diaspora, have always branded ourselves and created our own unique identities, and when we do, it's commodified by white institutions. When Black fashion, design, style, and art become popular, it somehow fills the inventories of your favorite department stores for quick consumption. 

For example, the emergence of Black dandyism in 18th century Europe was born out of “luxury slavery” where white owners would dress enslaved people in expensive clothing to broadcast their wealth. Today, Black people have curated dandyism as a counterculture to the stereotypes, as a way of expressing individuality and resilience by using our state of oppression as a means of liberation and personal agency. Plus Black people always find a way to be fly #af. 

Yet Black struggle is often, if not, always, repurposed and sold in mass production. Unfortunately, Black social and cultural movements get co-opted, commodified, appropriated, and expropriated for someone else’s gain, which contributes to erasure or dilution of original intent.However, there's a long history of branding for Black liberation that’s rooted in strategic and revolutionary design. Too long for me to share. I'll write a book about it one day, I promise. For now, here are some examples:

Marcus Garvey

In the early 1900s, there was no singular unifying flag for the Black diaspora. That’s right! Black people didn’t have a unifying brand, something that tells our collective stories and represents Black pride. In 1920, Marcus Garvey, along with the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), designed the Pan-African Flag, informally called “the “RBG” flag.

According to the UNIA’s official website RBG stands for:

“Red: the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and shed for liberation;

Black: black people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag; and

Green: the abundant natural wealth of Africa.”

Look at all the flags of the African continent— they all have some variation of RBG mixed with gold/yellow, white, orange, or blue. This is not a coincidence. This was an intentional design.

Non-black businesses print and sell RBG flags en masse. This defeats the designer’s intent. The flag is meant to represent Black people globally. It should only be printed, manufactured, and distributed by Black people. At best, every Black person should be given one for free.

BLACK PANTHER PARTY

The Black Panther Party (BPP) is responsible for many emblems of the Black freedom struggle — sporting afros, berets, pins, and all-black clothing. One of the most impressive branding tactics they executed was the “Black is Beautiful” campaign.

The “Black is Beautiful” movement emerged in the 1960s to embrace African culture, heritage, and beauty as a means of moving away from Eurocentric standards. The BPP used the campaign as a call to action, making themselves more appealing to young people through their willingness to challenge authority whilst instilling strong messages of Black pride for all.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

In 2016, Diana Budds of Fast Company asked a very key question: “A social movement is not a corporation. Do the same branding rules apply?” She argued that, “While ‘branding’ is typically more of a business strategy than a tool for grassroots activism, establishing a visual identity was crucial for Black Lives Matter.”

I argue that demarcating the lines of visual identity has always been an important tool for Black liberation. Most of the time it’s not arbitrary; it’s strategic. It’s intentional.

In the summer of 2018, Black Lives Matter rebranded with the help of creative agency THE ARTOHOLIKS. Together they focused on creating brand assets that are recognizably official as the organization began partnering with major brands like FUBU.

On one end, the trending support of BLM from major companies is something to be noted in history. On the other hand, it's both exhausting and disgusting. The amount of social capital major companies gain over pandering Black pain is unmatched. How can one measure social capital in connection to the revenue it brings to a company? How can one measure the increase of lifetime customers a brand will obtain for simply saying three words we know to be true, “Black Lives Matter”?

This is why I promote digital archiving for Black lives, to collect our visual history as a form of resistance against narratives that seek to miseducate the masses. Design is a pivotal tool in Black movements, but at what point does it become ornamental, a thing for your aesthetic purposes and nothing more?

why white companies shouldn’t benefit

If brands (especially legacy brands) speak out against racial injustices, they must be prepared to measure the revenue and social capital accumulated from doing so. They must ensure that 100% of that money is DIRECTLY delivered to Black people.

In her weekly newsletter, tech influencer Alex Wolf defined how tech turned Black voices into the biggest media company in the world. She provides deep insights to prove that “because black people use, consume and create so much of the content on social media, we have collectively become one of the largest ‘media companies’ in the world.” 💯

It's our brand. It's our story. It’s our lives.

Don't steal it. Pay for it or leave us the fuck alone.