18 minute read
Culture
The Sudden Highs and Many Lows: Black Creators in the Beauty Community
By Damica Feliciano
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Kristin Ferguson watched her profile on Instagram skyrocket from 4,000 followers to 20,000 in less than two weeks during the Black Lives Matter trend last summer. This growth was attributed to Ferguson’s continuous work of uplifting and recognizing Black and Bahamian makeup creators on her platform. When the trend died down, however, the make-up industry returned to their usual content creators: white people.
“I was getting so much attention, and I finally felt like I made it to where I wanted to be,” Ferguson said in a Google Meets interview with The Intersectionalist. “Then I realized the likes stopped coming in, and it’s not like I need the likes to feel good, but
people only appreciated my stuff because [at] that moment ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and then all of a sudden all
of our engagement died down, brands stopped noticing us, and people stopped coming to our pages.”
The Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 sparked initiatives across the United States to support Black makeup creators and acknowledge the racism in this long-held industry.
One initiative was the “Pull up for Change,” also known as “Pull Up or Shut Up.” Created by Sharon Chuter, this social media campaign called upon major commercial brands to reveal statistical data of how much Black representation is in their executive leadership level. Some of the most popular brands such as Lime Crime, BH Cosmetics, Sephora, and Morphe all reported a dismal amount, between zero to three percent, according to the initiatives Instagram page.
Ferguson said she always knew that there was a marginal gap between
Courtesy/Kristin Ferguson Kristin Ferguson, @itskaijasmine, is a distinguished makeup creator who uses her platform to uplift and create more spaces for Bahamian and Black creators.
the appreciation of white versus Black creators, which is a reason why she initially began working with other Black creators to elevate their voices. As one of the few Bahamian creators in the makeup community, she wished to see more people like her in the beauty world.
Ferguson said. “You have to be in it to know what’s really going on.”
Many of the brands exposed for their lack of diversity in leadership released public statements, committing to increasing their Black leadership roles and showcasing more Black creators throughout their social media. Ferguson said this initiative was short-lived, however; by mid-July, she saw most beauty brands return back to posting primarily white people, sprinkling in Black creators every 20 posts.
Only a handful of beauty brands, such as Milk Makeup, reported a progress update to the “Pull Up or Shut Up” initiative. None of the companies mentioned above have released their updated diversity data as of yet.
“A lot of the brands that actually tried to reach out to me didn’t necessarily keep up with me or work with me,” Ferguson said. “I would see brands who would notice me or other creators [and] get PR in [June and early July] and then never hear from them again. They stopped engaging with our content.”
Ferguson said that the broken promises from the brands echoed similar responses from most famous beauty influencers. Creators such as Jeffree Star, Nikita Dragun, and James Charles have an extensive track record of being racist and exploiting Black content creators—but with one Notes app apology or tearful video later, they’re back on top as they continue to benefit from Black makeup artists.
“A lot of influencers do the same things that brands do. They’ll do something racist, homophobic, or xenophobic, then pull it back and say ‘we all make mistakes,’” Ferguson said. “There are millions of creators who deserve that platform, but there’s no space at the top because [it’s] the same people who keep circling out the same scandals every week.”
Haddy Badjan, also known as @baddyhadjan on Instagram and TikTok, said she noticed that as engagement from major brands decreased, so did the users.
“Around that time when everybody wanted to be part of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and push to support Black people within our communities, engagement was a lot higher, follower counts were going up, and I was like, ‘wow, this is getting a lot easier,’” Badjan said in a Google Meets interview with The Intersectionalist. “But now, everybody’s gotten tired of it after only a few weeks and Black creators are just going down the algorithm again.”
Badjan said it’s not only the performative allyship that upsets her, but when white and non-Black creators who’ve publicly advocated for more representation of Black creativity in the makeup industry also steal looks and ideas from
Courtesy/Haddy Badjan Haddy Badjan, @baddyhadjan, is a content creator new to the beauty community who is concentrating on increasing Black representation in cosplay.
smaller accounts run by Black users.
Stealing looks and claiming them as your own original idea is a disturbing norm in influencer culture because of inherent entitlement, as Ferguson describes it. Ferguson herself designed and posted two distinct makeup looks that were stolen by two creators with larger platforms. She said that the two creators went on to do sponsored posts because of her original idea.
“When they steal looks, that’s insulting,” Ferguson said. “Because if someone took their time to look at colors, study concepts, and spend two, three, or four hours for that person to do [the makeup look] and edit the post, then to see someone to profit off of your hard work—that doesn’t sit right with me. When they get called out, they gaslight the person.”
The stolen looks and performative allyship are only a part of the problem. Badjan said Black creators repeatedly struggle to obtain followers on social media, especially Tik Tok, because many Black, Indigenous, and other creators of color are constantly shadow banned and their content are being pushed further down the algorithm.
Additionally, the privilege of white creators adds to this lack of engagement. So many white creators and influencers in the makeup community grow overnight while Black creators work repeatedly to be noticed, Badjan said.
“I feel like for smaller TikTok creators, especially smaller POC, we have to do looks [that are] out of this world or something nobody’s seen before,” Badjan said. “Whereas a lot of white creators don’t have to work as hard. They can get away with doing one cut crease or a basic liner look and it’s like, ‘oh wow, now they have 100,000 followers and have so many brand deals.’”
“I felt like my content wasn’t as good as I thought it was. I began questioning myself, I began questioning my work, and I just started questioning—should I even be in this at all?” Ferguson said. “But [this] definitely helped me to build a backbone and say: ‘whether people mess with Black Lives Matter or not, you should be comfortable in your work to know that you will get noticed when it’s your time.’”
Ferguson and Badjan said they both experience a mental toll from toxic social media. They said they both rely on their respective communities as pillars of support in getting through the plights of the beauty community. For Ferguson, the Bahamian community is a significant part of her identity that she shares extensively on her social media. Although she feels united with the Black beauty community, her aspiration is to provide more representation for the international beauty community.
“My purpose right now is to find more Bahamian creators, develop that community, and let them know that we’re here—we have talent too,” Ferguson said. “People vacation here, but they don’t actually think people live here, work here, and have talent here.”
Badjan aspires to experiment with more cosplay-based looks and continue building more Black representation in the cosplay makeup community. It’s her hope to collaborate with more Black creators and brands that care about BIPOC communities and creators.
“For all small Black and [people of color] content creators, try to keep going and be as positive as possible,” Badjan said. “Unfortunately, we can’t change everything. It’s going to take one day at a time. To the white creators, use your platform for good. You have privilege even if you don’t think you’re the best out there—you should still be helping out smaller content creators within these marginalized communities.”
Graphic by Ricki Kalayci. Disabled and low-income people are excluded when mainstream environmentalism is pressured on to people as an universal concept instead of intersectional environmentalism that centers the marginalized.
There is no right way to be sustainable
By Emily Cardona and Shruti Rajkumar Reduce, reuse, and recycle are the three steps most people were taught in grade school to help the environment. But with the increasingly pressing issue of the climate crisis in the past decade, environmental education has evolved from these three mere words to bans on plastic straws without thoughts of accessibility or the disabled community.
Environmentalists have urged the greater population to make drastic and sustainable lifestyle changes such as transitioning away from plastic straws. However, many of these mainstream alternatives and steps pose accessibility challenges for people with disabilities and low-income households and should therefore not be pushed onto everyone universally.
Annie Segarra, a disability activist, said that plastic straw bans are dangerous for disabled people because plastic straws are medical
equipment, and alternative options have proven to be inaccessible for some disabled people. In an IGTV video, they talk about how creating legislation around plastic straws is dangerous for communities that rely on them, and the campaigns against plastic straws have actually created stigma for disabled people and thus made them targets of harassment.
“I have some personal examples in my life of people who sometimes cannot lift a heavy glass, that includes myself because I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and I have chronic joint and muscle pain,” Segarra said in an IGTV video. “Oftentimes, it is very difficult or very painful for me to hold a cup, so in those moments, I do need a straw to drink.”
This ban on non-plastic straws has become one of the major sustainable practices in recent years. According to a 2018 article by Business Insider, California became the first state to ban plastic straws at restaurant tables in 2019, and Seattle became the first city to ban single-use plastic straws and utensils entirely. Corporations such as Starbucks have recently replaced single-use plastic straws with recyclable, strawless lids.
Many environmentalists support plastic straw bans and encourage people to transition to alternative non-plastic straw options such as metal, paper, or bamboo straws. However, Segarra said that these alternatives to plastic straws don’t suit all needs or all disabilities, and many of them are injury risk, allergy risk, choking hazards, and difficult for disabled people to clean.
“Plastic disposable bending straws are the most accessible due to their sterilization, their adjustable positioning, durability, and safety,” Segarra said. “Reusable straws also require the cognitive ability to be able to remember them when going out. But someone not having a straw on their person when out at a restaurant shouldn’t mean they can’t be a patron. Does that happen when people forget their reusable coffee mugs at home?”
Organizations such as Lonely Whale have openly expressed their support for a transition to non-plastic straws. In 2017, they created a movement and social media challenge called For a Strawless Ocean and #StopSucking to encourage people to stop using plastic straws. Such environmentalist groups and individuals believe that these actions can contribute to a larger impact, and they emphasize how easy and small these lifestyle changes are. However, this one-dimensional perspective––promoted not only by Lonely Whale but many other organizations and campaigns––overlooks accessibility for the disabled community and results in new methods of discrimination. In 2016, a Twitter post of a photo of pre-peeled, plastic-packaged oranges with the caption "If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges, so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them," went viral and prompted online controversy.
According to an NPR article, Jennifer Hacker, a woman with peripheral neuropathy and poor grip strength, said that prepared foods are a lifesaver for people with mobility issues, noting that she had to stop cooking anything that involves cutting or chopping due to pain.
Hacker said she got angry that people online attacked disabled people for wanting prepared foods.
“I had people on Twitter tell me that I had gotten along without peeled oranges before," Hacker said. “I had another person tell me that I should just ask someone else to peel an orange for me."
While reducing plastic consumption is essential in combating climate change, it shouldn’t come at the expense of disabled people’s access to daily necessities.
Additionally, pushing a universal concept of what sustainability is or should look like has been proven by the disabled community to be harmful because it fails to consider
various disabilities and conditions that may not be able to commit to such a lifestyle.
Many mainstream environmentalists and individuals also encourage veganism as a sustainable practice because of the excess carbon emissions caused by meat consumption. However, this is inaccessible for some. In 2020, a TikTok creator known by the user @thatveganteacher, started making videos promoting veganism and denouncing those who aren’t vegan. According to a recent article on Medium by writer Zo Sajjad, the delivery of the TikToker’s message is very aggressive and doesn’t acknowledge people who have spoken out against her, saying that they can’t be vegan due to health conditions.
Although veganism is possible for some people, others within the disabled community are unable to take up this lifestyle or even incorporate a meatless meal plan; therefore, nobody should be pressured into it.
Another mainstream sustainable trend that gained popularity in recent years is thrift shopping. Thrifting has many environmental benefits such as the reduction of mass production and reusing items that would otherwise end up in landfills. Sustainable shopping practices such as thrifting are difficult for disabled people to partake in when they rely on online shopping and affordable clothing. Mainstream sustainable clothing stores are typically more expensive, which creates inaccessibility for disabled people and low-income people. Reusable fashion and other sustainable fashion practices at the forefront of the environmental movement are not affordable for everyone.
There isn't just one universal way for disabled and low-income people to be environmentalists. Instead of pushing these practices universally and policing others on how to be sustainable, it's important to educate people on alternative practices that deviate from mainstream trends and are accessible to more people.
Intersectional environmentalism allows for out-ofthe-box thinking in reducing plastic consumption, which can replace pushing potentially inaccessible mainstream practices on to people.
Legislation—such as a plastic straw ban—that would deny a disabled person accessibility on the basis of environmentalism shouldn’t exist. Instead, plastic cup alternatives could be encouraged, as that would reduce the amount of plastic waste and consumption more than a ban on plastic straws.
If a disabled person can’t switch over to non-plastic straws, they can do their part to help the environment in other accessible ways such as by ordering groceries from a zero waste online grocery store.
Additionally, period panties are another sustainable environmentalism practice that are significantly more accessible for disabled people who struggle with dealing with menstruation hygiene.
Environmentalism shouldn’t exclude certain communities, and they should be able to partake in the movement in whatever ways that are accessible to them. If an individual is capable of doing mainstream environmental practices such as reducing meat consumption or switching over to non-plastic straws, then they should. However, these practices shouldn’t be pushed on people universally with no consideration for potential inaccessibility.
At the end of the day, everyone should be on their individualized sustainable lifestyle journey, and every contribution, no matter how small, counts towards a greater impact.
Why Your Why Your Why Your ForYouPage is ForYouPage is ForYouPage is Overwhelmingly Overwhelmingly Overwhelmingly White White White
By Shruti Rajkumar, Melanie Curry, Eryn McCallum
In early February 2020, TikTok star Charli D’Amelio profited off the “Renegade” dance that was originally created by Black teenager Jalaiah Harmon. While D’Amelio apologized to Harmon and eventually gave her the full credit she
deserved, profiting off of Black creators is a common example of the anti-Blackness that thrives on TikTok.
Popularized during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok, a social media platform that allows users to create up to 60-second videos, has become an app that perpetuates oppression, racism, and the silencing of marginalized voices.
TikTok star Anania Williams, a junior at Emerson College who has almost 2 million followers, said he thinks TikTok has anti-Black content because content creators and viewers are scared to see the app transition from trending dances, cooking videos, and fashion into a space where marginalized people talk openly about their experiences with oppression.
“People are scared of change, and people are scared to tackle their implicit biases,” Williams said in an interview with The Intersectionalist. “I just wish Black people and Black women especially didn't get punished for being different and needing different things from [TikTok].”
Anti-Black content on TikTok consists of video creators name-calling Black women, saying the n-word, shadow banning Black people, and more, according to Williams.
“I have seen a lot of videos where white girls [are] saying Black people aren’t allowed to call them white girls because it’s racist, or the example of white girls making fun of the way Black girls dance,” Demiah Crawford, a junior at Emerson College, said in an interview with The Intersectionalist. “It’s just super
Graphic by Ricki Kalayci
The anti-Blackness on TikTok is being exposed as Black creators speak out about overt racism, shadow banning, and censoring of their content.
sad because it’s a space for people to be openly racist and [white people] do get a lot of support which is also sad to see.”
Shadow banning is when a user’s content is taken down or suppressed on the basis that they have violated community guidelines— without notifying the original creator, according to Refinery29. Shadow banning occurs more frequently to Black creators than their white counterparts, even if the Black creator’s content does not violate the guidelines.
has over 200,000 followers, said she experiences shadow banning frequently because of TikTok’s algorithm and how it’s tied to banning anti-racism content.
“Once I posted “don’t be anti-[Semitic]” and my post was taken down for hate speech, which is why I censor my captions so intensely, so I don’t tip off the algorithm,” Simone said in an interview with The Intersectionalist. “It’s really annoying and makes it hard for me to want to post content, because it can be so time-consuming and energy-consuming.”
Simone also said that shadow banning isn’t solely tied to anti-racist content but also any content featuring Black creators. Her friends on TikTok are shadow banned even though their videos are not political.
“Someone else had their video taken down for dangerous content, even though she was doing an Us cosplay with a very large and obviously fake pair of scissors,” Simone said.
Not only are Black creators shadow banned more frequently, but they face additional barriers with receiving higher viewership because the algorithm purposefully uplifts white content, according to Forbes. videos less than two months ago and yet, her views remain low, something she believes may be from the algorithm. “I know that my views aren’t a lot, and I’m not sure if that’s because of this idea that [TikTok] has where they don’t advertise a lot of Black content or if it’s just because my content may not be appealing,” Crawford said.
Crawford also said it’s frustrating to see white creators receive thousands of views for doing little to no work while Black creators continuously exhaust themselves producing content and see limited viewership compared to their whiter counterparts.
The recurring racism within TikTok has impacted Black creators’ autonomy and the way they produce content. For Williams, this impact is shown through his less frequent posting.
“It's tiring to fight something you can't see,” Williams said. “I try my best to turn on the camera when I'm inspired to, though.”
The anti-Blackness on the app has encouraged Simone to create anti-racist intersectional videos aimed at addressing the issue at hand.
“Seeing anti-Black content inspires me to do more and educate more because I feel [like] so much racism stems from ignorance. After I’m finished being angry of course,” Simone said. TikTok users are white, according to Business Insider. This leads to the algorithm featuring more white creators on the For You Page. “I think [TikTok] is just a way to be openly American in a sense. America is built on racism,” Crawford said. “[TikTok] does not care [and] they support these racist ideals. If they wanted to do something about [it], they would. And they don’t.”
While giving a platform to white people and simultaneously censoring Black people, TikTok has facilitated racism and hindered anti-racist work. While TikTok hasn’t been transparent about how the algorithm works, users speculate that this is another way that racism has presented itself within the app.
To combat the anti-Blackness on the app, Crawford encourages people to support Black creators by following and liking their content to increase visibility and amplify their voices.
Williams has found that using the “not interested” feature, blocking, and reporting racist content has changed his For You page significantly, and he recommends this to other Black users.
“I know for myself as a Black, queer kid, it's nice to see people like me doing what they love. Whether it's comedy or advocacy, it matters to see people doing well that look like you,” Williams said. “I'm lucky enough to be doing well on the app, myself. And hopefully, I'm inspiring others to speak their minds and find humor in everything that seems scary.”
