The black hair care industry is one very important to Black Americans as well as people in the diaspora. Our hair is unique and has it's own individual textures and hydration needs. It is a staple in our households because without it we would experience hair breakage. Black owned hair companies have been the norm since the time of Madame C. J. Walker even up until the 1970's with products like Afro Sheen which not only marketed to African Americans but spoke about black pride and black unity. Now many of the brands that talk about Africa are not even black owned. They use marketing strategies like depicting pictures or words related "Africa" or use black models giving the illusion that it is black owned but is usually owned by a white male. Why is this problematic? When we relinquish our ownership we forego our power in society, our ability to speak out against social issues without censorship due to co-ownership by white owned companies, and our products become cheapened, filled with more chemicals and no longer good for our hair. Overall, it loses it's capability to cater to those of African descent while misrepresenting itself as a quality product. Despite these obvious consequences, black owned companies get into a financial bind or fold in hopes of reaching a global market but by doing so they are falling into the "white savior" mentality. This may well be the case, with the Shea Moisture brand. Sundial Brands, the manufacturer that owns Shea Moisture and Nubian Heritage has recently announced it was selling it's minority shares to Bain Capitol a private investment firm which Mitt Romney use to own but no longer does, but he still owns share's in the firm. Mitt Romney, is the last person whom most African Americans want to be profiting from the consumerism of blacks. He seems to be a borderline racist, unconcerned about the poor and just an overall greedy rich guy. So we allow racist politicians to get rich from our consumer needs all while calling us a race of lazy welfare dependents like most Republicans do. This is why selling out is so detrimental because those in power are rich they don't go out to find a job they create their own. But black people do not have their own, at least not at the magnitude we should have. Companies that reach out to black consumers should be black owned and create scholarships and programs for blacks after reaching success. Afterall, who will care about you as much as you will. Black people have little political power or even respect from others because they are so willing to sellout for a fat check. Shea Moisture not only sold some of their company but made a statement that basically said they want to branch out to non-black consumers and no longer cater to black consumers. This is an ridiculous statement due to the fact that this brand started because it wanted to create a product for black hair, became successful due to black female customers now it turns it's back on it's customers because it see's little value in catering to black people. As black people we only feel like we made it when their is a white man helping us or giving us money. These African Americans couldn't care less about their people because if they did they would care about the plight of inclusion. Shea Moisture made a statement saying they would not change it's ingredients but I feel they have lost their integrity. Many don't realize the importance of seeing a black owned business it says to other blacks "You can do it too". It dispels the myth of black failure and black dependency on whites to be successful. I remember watching an interview of the late Don Cornelius, talking about James Brown questioning him about the owner of Soultrain because he was in disbelief a black man could own something so renown and successful. That's how colonized our minds are. We see a company that shows us black people but we feel it is ultimately owned by a white man. This has to stop. We don't live in a colorblind world the firm that now owns shares in Shea Moisture knew what they were doing they know our 1.2 trilllion buying power they saw a change in the market due to the increase in natural hair lovers within the black community and they dove right in to exploit us and disrespect us by telling us we don't matter. We need to have more pride and start worrying about building a nation and not about stuffing our pockets. I love all of this. I was so disappointed in S.M. because this has been my staple brand and I love their products. I was so heart broken to hear the news and face this reality. Felt like I just got cheated on lbs. As someone who patronized B.O.B.s, I can't support them anymore because of this. I thought they made this deal because were suffering financially due to so many natural hair brands coming out, but they had a hundred million dollar profit last year, if I'm not mistaken. I don't get why they couldn't expand without trying to take away ethnicity. No one else has do do that except us. Very sad and disappointed. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMy name is Kiara and writing is the way I express myself. Archives
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