 Hey beauties, I'm Bianca Renee and you are watching Bianca Renee Today. And today I look exactly the same as I do in my last two videos. Yes, because we have more things to talk about and I'm not gonna do my face again because ain't nobody doing makeup during quarantine. Let's just be real. But today's message really isn't necessarily for you guys, my normal subscribers, even though I'm super glad you're here, but it really is a message to the brands and maybe you guys can help me advocate for this message to all the brands that we usually like to support. In light of the current state of the world, the protests, the fight for racial injustice, the fight to end racism, the fight for justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud Aubrey and Breonna Taylor. There's a lot of things happening that we really haven't seen before, especially on social media and with brands. I have never seen brands feel like they have to say something about the racism that is going on and I'm happy to see it. But many people are feeling some type of way about it. Some people are mad that brands are taking as long as they are to post something. I personally don't really agree with rushing people to say something because you don't really know what's going on behind the scenes. I much rather a brand take too long to post because they're actually in meetings. They are actually finding all the funding that they can to donate to organizations. I don't work at that business. I don't know if it's just like I need $50,000 and they can just get it or if they have to like get approved for maybe investors or maybe they got a checking and a savings and they got to transfer some funds. I don't know. Well, wait, racism isn't gonna end tomorrow. You're not gonna miss the train. As long as it happens, cool. Because then at some point I've seen the comments of people are like, oh, brands are only posting now because they don't want to feel left out because people called them out. They're getting pressure to do so. They just don't want the backlash of not posting anything. It could be true. But I mean, if you're gonna be mad that they don't post and then you're mad when they do post, like there's just, there's no progress in that. So now brands, you've posted this beautiful little post. Maybe you've donated, now what? Now we just go back to posting products tomorrow and the next day and the next day and then that's it. That's not what people want. We need there to be more than a one-time action. And I'm gonna give you guys some suggestions as to how you can continue to fight for the cause that you're claiming to be so down for. So the biggest way that there could be a continuous support for Black Lives is to look at your own company and look at the number of Black employees you have in your business. This is another response to Sharon Shooter, who is the owner of Uma Beauty. By the way, this is her lip color. Beautiful, it's called Tina. I've been talking for about four hours and it hasn't cracked or anything. But anyways, she is calling out to all brands to release how many Black employees they currently have at their business. She's pretty much saying pull up or shut up and that is the Instagram page she's created and that's the hashtag that's going around. Because she doesn't wanna just see you guys post that you care, but then you don't care enough to actually hire Black people. And hiring Black people is only going to better your company. So I'm just going to read the statement on here because I mean it says everything that we need to say. Your favorite brands are making bold PR statements about their support for the Black community. Please ask them how many Black employees they have in their organization and how many Black people they have in leadership roles for the next 72 hours. Ask them to pull up or shut up. So she's only given everybody 72 hours to come up with these figures so we can see how inclusive their brands actually are. Now I'm posting this video way after 72 hours, but it's not too late to make this change. These aren't brands just saying, look at all the Black employees we have. Fortunately, it's brands saying, oh, you know what? You're right. We only have two Black employees. We only have Black interns. We don't have any Black presidents or we don't have anyone of a higher position that's actually making a decision. And that says a lot. So I'm not just gonna like cancel all these brands because they don't have enough Black employees. I'm just happy that you have spoken out about it. You're being transparent, showing the actual facts and you're now realizing that you need to do better. And I am loving the statements that I've been reading on here saying, you have brought up a good issue and we pledge to hire more Black employees by the end of this year. And although some of you guys would be like, well, they're only doing it because they have to. This is like a forced thing. They don't really mean it. They're just doing it for a PR stunt. Look, I don't care. I care about getting Black people in these positions because that's how we see a change. So that is the biggest overall thing. I learned about this from Jackie Aina who's one of the most vocal influencers, period, but even Black influencers that fight for equality all across the board all year long, even when it's not trending. So that's why she's one of my favorite influencers. So I support her and I support Sharon and I wanna see what these brands do to actually make a change. So that's the bigger picture. And then when you do hire Black employees, they actually can save you. That way you don't accidentally put out a campaign with a Black boy with a monkey on his shirt. That's the way you don't release something that says for all hair types and you don't have a picture of any Black hair. There's just some things that there's just no way you could have a Black person in that meeting that goes, okay, looks good. Like, no, you need that one voice or reason to be like, I might not wanna post that or no. There's no way you could post that and this is why. Let the Black people in your business be your voice of reason so that you don't have to get canceled. Just at least one voice or reason could make or break you. But imagine having a diverse group of people from not just Black, from Latino, from white to Asian, that way you can get an actual perspective of your target audience. And even if your audience usually is one type of demographic, having a diverse group of employees will help you reach a more diverse audience, which means more people to buy yourself, which means more money. Huh? Another advantage to having more Black people in your business and higher up positions is that they can help make decisions that are going to help with your product development. I've said this over and over again in my Foundation Friday videos I would make when I review foundations where there is a very limited shade range. It's 2020. Why are you releasing 10 shades of tan? Like you don't know people of color exist. Like at this point it's just like a broken record when they have to do a second launch to release more darker colors. No, we're tired of being the second release, the afterthought. There's no reason why a Black person should walk into a Sephora or Ulta and then look for a foundation and they're like, oh, we don't have a color for you. Why not? But if you had more Black women or Black people in general in your office, they would be able to say, oh, wait, before you hit the launch button, we might wanna add some more colors. It also has to come to formulating products. So let's say you're doing a hair care line and you wanna make a product that says for all hair types. One, we don't really wanna see for all hair types because you have to create some type of magical product that will work on straight hair just as well as like type four hair. It's gonna be kinda hard to do so. We much rather you take the time to create a product that is made for straight hair, made for curly hair, made for wavy hair, made for super coily hair. We don't care if you gotta split it up, we just wanna be included. We just wanted to actually work. So if you have a hair care line and you have employees that actually have type four hair, they can let you know if it's gonna work. They can let you know what kind of products they would like to use, what kind of products or what kind of ingredients work best on black hair. You don't even have to outsource because the person in the company can let you know what the people want. And one of the last things you guys could do that should be a really easy no-brainer is to diversify your feed. Look at your Instagram page. Do a couple swipes for me real quick. How does it look? Do you have multiple ethnicities on there? Do you see women of color or the looking kind of pale? Ask yourself that. We don't want to just be the token black girl either. You know, I have definitely been that person before and I felt that way. And sometimes I'm like, hey, if this is the only way for me to get in here, I'm gonna make the most of it. But I don't want to be the token black girl. Nobody wants to be the token. We accept it sometimes, but we shouldn't have to. So what you could do to support black lives even after the trend is to work with black creators with black influencers and not just work with them, sponsor them, pay them for their work, pay them for their time. This is our job. This is our livelihood. So show us that you care by paying us just as much as you pay the white influencers. And I'm not just gonna call out white brands. I'm gonna call out black brands too because to be completely honest, unfortunately I have been in many situations where I can't get the black brands that I want to work with to pay me. And that's really disheartening. Like I've had multiple conversations with many of my fellow black influencers and we're like, yeah, I just, I really want to promote them, but they just, they're low balling me or they don't want to pay me or they only want to pay me in shampoo. And I can't pay my bills with shampoo. Help me help you. We just want to be treated and paid equally across the board, whether you're a white brand or a black brand, we want to be paid our worth. And I would love maybe even more to support my own people but I need y'all to support me too. And it's not always the case that the white brands have more money because I know some of these brands got that money. I know if you can sponsor Essence Fest you can pay for an Instagram. Obviously I want to continue to work with you. Obviously I've created a platform that produces sales because I always give honest reviews and my subscribers believe in me and they support me and they know if I don't like something I'm just not gonna like it. But I'm always gonna be honest and because I'm honest, my subscribers trust my opinion and they go out and they buy what I like. Look for influencers that actually influence sales that have created a credible platform to reach your target audience. Now to all the subscribers watching that are thinking like, cool, what's this have to do with us? You guys are the ones that are going to be purchasing from these brands. So if you're someone that's tired of going into a store and not finding your foundation shade or trying hair products that don't work for your hair type because they don't make them for your hair type or maybe you're someone who's looking for a job and you're not getting hired because of the color of your skin. These are all reasons as to why you should feel like this is affecting you personally. And even if it's not affecting you personally just think about how it feels to be someone that is being affected like that. And now to my viewers, the ways that you can help with this type of inclusivity is to tag us when you purchase a product because of us. That lets the brand know that that person, that influencer actually has influence and then they will continue to want to work with us. That adds value to our brand. Watching, liking and commenting on our content shows the brands that we have viewers that care. So when we get larger numbers and we get more engagement that makes brands more interested in working with us. If you guys wanna know about the pull up or shut up called action I guess I would call it. I'll link it below in the description box. You guys could follow that page and see all the brands that are posting statements being completely transparent and showing exactly how many black employees work at their businesses. I will be posting this clip on my Instagram as well. So if you wanna know about a certain brand go to my Instagram and tag them so they can pull up or shut up. Before I go I do wanna reiterate that if you have not seen it my husband has created two Google Docs full of different petitions you could sign and organizations you could donate to to help the Black Lives Matter movement to help end racism in the world. Check it out, donate if you can, share on your Instagram and let's all vote when it is time to vote so we actually can make sure that our voices are heard. I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for watching Bianca Renee today.