For the
past few years, the beauty industry has been abuzz with talk of 'transparency'
when it comes to ingredients and supply chains and 'inclusivity' when it comes
to shade ranges. But what if brands approached their own employment practices,
corporate structure, internal training, external marketing, product development
and on-set talent with that same level of regard for transparency and
inclusivity? Despite the relative ubiquity of 40-shade foundation ranges and
self-aggrandizing empowerment messaging, the beauty industry — like most of
corporate America — remains a racist and toxic place, wherein Black talent is
often neglected, ignored and erased. Sharon Chuter is on a mission to change
that.
On June
3, in the midst of a growing international movement to fight racism and scores
of performative posts on social media from brands across corporate America,
Chuter went public on Instagram with a simple ask:
Pull Up or Shut Up. The founder of UOMA Beauty — whose tenure in the industry
includes roles at Revlon, L'Oréal and Benefit —
was inspired by Rihanna's moving speech at the NAACP Image Awards
encouraging people to ask their friends of all races to "pull up" for
the Black community. Chuter turned her attention to her own industry, calling
upon beauty brands to not just share hollow messages of solidarity on social
media — but to get honest about their own shortcomings, offer transparency
about the diversity of their employees and outline concrete goals for
doing better in the future.
"We ask all brands
who have released a statement of support, to publicly release within the next
72hrs the number of black employees they have in their organizations at
corporate level. We also need to know the number of black people you have in
leadership roles. You all have statements and policies about being equal
opportunity employers, so show us the proof," she wrote in an Instagram caption. Within that first 72 hours, dozens of companies, including Ulta,
L'Oréal and Glossier, had indeed pulled up — a testament both to the power of
social media and of Chuter herself. The movement has also expanded beyond
beauty, with companies like Gap, Levi's, Apple and Microsoft coming forward
with employment statistics and action plans for change. But all of this, says
Chuter, is just the beginning |||READ
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