 Tryna go natural. Hi, everyone. Welcome to my channel. I'm a little bit under the weather and everything So I hope I can get through this but I had to come on and talk about this because you know when serious topics arise in the natural air community I really like to get on to share my views and to help inform viewers out there recently Pamela Booker CEO of course by nature did a Facebook live where she really talked about What's really going on behind the scenes for a black on natural hair companies? The existence of black own natural hair companies are being put at risk Let's say she described that bigger brands are coming in and stealing ideas Creating cheap duplicates of things not providing the same quality product and coming in and replacing Smaller black own natural hair companies on the shelves She kind of explains some of the role of the retailers again mainstream retailers in that whole process So I definitely encourage you to take a look at her life and then perhaps come back to Hear my response on my analysis of my contribution, but I was here for pretty much everything She said there were only a couple things which I'll mention at the end that I didn't agree with but overall Word-for-word she was correct, and I know it's a hard truth and some of you all don't want to hear it But that doesn't make it any less true I do feel like it's on us to save the black or natural hair companies and to not give away The natural hair industry to big mainstream brands as bloggers as Consumers as viewers to protect our wealth to protect our health to protect this whole Industry that's been built up over the last few years So somewhat disfigured for those who already believe in supporting black-owned businesses She did a great job of explaining why we should support black-owned businesses So, you know, I'm not here to completely give you a 101 or why we should but I'm gonna quickly go over some key reasons Why we should support black-owned businesses as black people and as people who are Consonant equality in general. So I don't just buy black-owned either I buy black-owned Where I see that the owner is aware of being black-owned and the responsibility and duty around that I see that the owner is giving back is speaking out for black issues Those are the ones that are helping to empower you when you buy black-owned You're investing in people who invest in us people who hire us people who don't discriminate against us because they are us Why companies they might hire a few tokens some minimal representation But they're not when they see a black person they're not just hiring you like if they don't see race So you saying that you just buy stuff and you don't see color when you buy stuff It's kind of naive because they don't they definitely see color when they decided to hire you when we invest in black-owned businesses You increase the chance of your children on your grandchildren being able to get a job being able to just be in a world Where it's easier for them to make it So it's an investment. It's not just about buying this product It's about an investment in your whole community in people who think about what black people want or black people need Now comforts first instead of us having to try our best with the mainstream things. That is So valuable. Do I need to say anything more right? We are investing in people who can come up with deep conditioners people's Do I need to say anything more than that like that should be the end of it right there? Why should I even have to explain anything more than that instead of us having to use some super stripping shampoo? We are investing in people who can come up with moisturizing Conditioning shampoos and co-washers Mainstream companies create things for people who don't look like us who don't have our hair texture Don't have our melanin and just expect us to figure out how to make do with it or Tough basically. We are the ones who come up with things for our hair that are designed for our hair And then we let mainstream companies see that money's passing see what the entrepreneurs who Struggle with little support come up with to just steal it Oh, then I shave out of let's put shape on the front and in the back is all sorts of chemicals You can't name and sell it for like six dollars and let that fly I don't even understand how that could fly with anybody knowing that you are buying something that is stolen off the back of a Black person who is not seeing any benefit from it and you are not seeing any benefit from it I mean, maybe it works on your hair. Maybe not but compared to the original. It's such like a weak fake We duplicate plus it's overpriced you are saying one that's gonna buy the cheaper thing But even though you're buying that for five dollars that cost one dollar to make so you are giving them four dollars of Extra markup with no value. You're not getting that value back and calling that a deal when you could have bought a Quality point that cost maybe seven dollars to make for ten dollars and given them three dollars profit to a company Who would again invest in you create more things for your hair not just copy But actually innovate and come up with things for your hair I always look at ingredients because I'm always thinking about value. You're calling this stuff that actually have good ingredients overpriced No Those are the ones that are priced reasonably the ones that cost sense to make and selling for two dollars That's the one that's overpriced. So it's just a matter of rearranging your whole mindset So it's different if you really can't afford the more expensive brands And in that case I tend to say like they are even cheaper black one companies that eating body works and so on that I recommend or even DIY or even look for the Black Friday sales If you have a lot for Black Friday, you can be getting quality products for eight dollars I think it's important to think about all of that not just think about it Well, I'm saving a dollar off the price buying something as ridiculously marked up and full of chemicals like Existence of natural hair products is why we should support black business because with our black business They wouldn't be any natural hair products without the black-owned Companies coming up with natural hair products They wouldn't be any and on top of me about old Panty and brown bottles because they stole it from black-owned businesses in the 70s and 80s So, you know things are coming full cycle again We went from having stuff back then having it kind of being stolen by the mainstream companies buying a bunch of White-owned stuff in the 90s then creating stuff on our own again And now we are seeing mainstream companies coming in to do the same thing like the culture vultures wealth vultures Innovation vultures just peering and waiting to come in and steal their ideas black businesses that we didn't support and they didn't support Sell you the idea of their ideas not even the actual quality product But just a shea butter on the top with chemicals in the back make money like it's such a game to them And you guys are falling for it when we finally got some natural hair products like five years ago We didn't need to tell anybody that black one business was important five years ago ten years ago. Everybody was like whoa You know we have shame on sure back when it was black. Oh, we have like Jane Carter Kinky clearly some of the only ones black business is so important because they're giving us stuff We need now all of a sudden it's like who cares what black business anymore because the mainstream businesses are coming in and stealing the Very same ideas like make it make sense like make it make sense people you wouldn't have Swallow you wouldn't have head and shoulders wouldn't have creep of nature any of it with all black one businesses So how can you fix your mouth to say black one businesses are this and that and the other like it makes no sense whatsoever none at all even the stuff that you see you can tell it's like They're rehashing stuff that black one businesses came up with like years ago They're now coming up with they're now seeing honey. They're now seeing shea butter like you can tell you can tell that it's not Innovation it's not like necessarily research into what's good for you It's just researching to what you've been buying and how to make the best knock off like you wouldn't necessarily go running down to buy like Chinese knockoffs why are you running down to buy mainstream American natural hair product knockoffs? The mainstream companies are not gonna come up with the next big thing for natural hair So after you support them Allow all most of the black businesses to close like the black businesses of the 70s and 80s after you support the mainstream companies Allow them to die out. What's gonna happen is exactly what we had in the beginning of 2000 2010 except sure where black people had a new need But we did not anybody to satisfy that need because we kill them or we kill all the black businesses We didn't have any way to help us when we needed it and you guys are pretty much doing the same thing again They're just looking to see how best to get money from us as cheaply as possible That's not the same thing as support. That's not the same thing as Investment in us. So Pamela made some great points. She mentioned that if we support black businesses now That's going to lead to more availability and them being in stores So rather than complain like they're not in stores if you actually purchase from them online They will eventually get into stores rather than complain about price if you actually bought from them They would be able to buy and bulk and bring their prices down So it takes a bit of investment of big picture thinking of thinking ahead to be able to get the things that we need Especially if you look at the black woman entrepreneur, they need extra support and they need our support as black women They're the ones who best represent us as black women like the whole shame or issue the background Which I've mentioned before a black woman probably wouldn't have done that recently with the Grandbrothers thing of putting Narration dollars are like those are things black women would not necessarily do So when we support black women own businesses, we support ourselves and support our own interests You also kick a fuss about if you see a white woman in a natural hair product label and so on and rightly so But you kick a fuss about that But you don't mind if white owned companies come in and pretty much steal a natural hair community from under us Like how does that make sense because that's even worse You'll kick a fuss for appropriation and you all want to see ratio dollars aren't doing great But you're gonna support white owned mainstream businesses that explicitly come in and appropriate and steal Concepts and ideas and so on from black one businesses like how does that even make sense? Would you be buying those products if it had a photo of the white CEO and like a little screenshot of all the things that they Don't do for minorities or blacks or women on it and would you buy a product like that? So why would you buy it just because they don't have those things explicitly on it? But it's basically the same thing that the CEO still doesn't care about black lives matter and so on Why would you buy it just because it's not apparent to you when you can easily google and find out? Okay, what's going on? What's black on what's not? Do I really want to be given this white guy money? Like you can google and find that out So if you won't buy it with the information printed out for you, why would you buy it if the information is not there? But they have like brown packaging Like I want you to think about that and that's not for yourself Just a few months ago. I was in town and I was pumping I was like natural hair black hole natural hair brands up and down the aisle is this one I that was just for us and I would just go to there every time I go to town It like no matter what I went for I was going through there and just you know, just enjoying just enjoying that This was for me to your praising talent like oh, they're carrying all these natural hair brands They really care about us. They're looking to the future and stuff like that And I went to town on Friday and it was completely a mess like most of the brands were gone The few that were there like just on the bottom just kind of tossed around like even the beauty box Which I first had lots of natural hair brands and stuff if you look at the beauty box now It's like practically nothing like practically no natural hair brands So they kind of hyped up to us. I think they even did like a texture chart And stuff about natural hair and stuff on their website now the time the beauty boxes hardly have any natural hair stuff They pretty much wiped the shelves of us. It was like, okay Well, that was nice and we done with your and that is exactly how those other mainstream companies are going to do it So you guys just need to wake up You think swath is going to be invested in flying around bloggers and giving you guys little checks in 10 years after the takeover everything No, blogging youtube and doesn't have a 401k doesn't have a pension So you guys doing things for a little few bucks now not thinking about how you're killing all small black one businesses now By pushing and feeding this rush to cheaper mainstream brands because you just won't get in a check now Not thinking about the future. I'm thinking about your future Because after you tell all your followers to go and buy swath and canteen and they take over the market And the black one businesses are forced to close. They don't need you anymore They don't need to be writing you checks anymore right now. We are in a bubble like the bloggers and stuff We are in a bubble. We're thinking it's easy money money's always going to be flowing No, in 10 years the scope could be completely different in terms of how much Pantene and swath and so on is investing in natural hair And that'll be you to catch because of the situation you created by you'll just like give me something now So you have to always think about that think about sustainability I am 100 certain there is not going to be as much money invested in natural hair bloggers in 10 years I can give record. I'm 100 percent certain of that So would you be a one loser in that check because of what you're doing now think about it Let me give it to them We let them take over just because they're flashing a little bit of money at us And they're not flashing anything near them or the money that they're making So it's up to us to kind of get woke stay woke and realize that so for those of you who actually want to support black business But you really you know kind of for the money or you really don't have access to the products where you live There are other ways to support that doesn't necessarily involve buying following them on social media Is support liking their posts reposting their posts that support as well Just learning about them and being aware that they even exist is support Maybe somebody might be asking and you can actually let them know about a black owned business that you heard of I would help them to reach others and help them to reach those who are able to buy when it comes to bloggers In particular the brand influencer feel is evolving. He wants your brand to be true to you and not compromise yourself for a brand Oh, let me not say this. Let me not do this. Let me get this check Your brand is a collection of your individual choices Do you want to look back in 10 years and realize that you are one of the people that's solely naturally a community to the mainstream brand You want that to be your legacy? Like think about it that I know I would have more likes and more followers if I Posted more like cheaper mainstream brands, but I choose not to which is interesting that I'll never mention a mainstream brand I do sometimes mention like Eco Styler I think I mentioned Trader Joe's ones, but it's always kind of in perspective. Like if I do mention a mainstream company I definitely try to put it in context. Like, you know, I want to use something cheaper for this reason But the ingredients aren't that good. Like I'll pretty much always let you know stuff like that Just so that you can be aware that you know the sense I'm settling or In what ways this mainstream option may not be as good as the typical options that I use You know sometimes you might want to show a mainstream brand just as a curiosity to say well You know, let's see how mainstream brands compare to the black one businesses something like that That's fine too. It's not like if you just have that how you don't exist But if it's always in a context where people know that you value black one businesses Then you don't even need to explain further Like you don't even need to explain why you're showing mainstream brands If you going on to when you show black one businesses talk about how much you value them being black Own and how much you value their donation or investment in the community Maybe you can give black businesses a discount if you're a blogger Or maybe you could be more flexible and take more Commission on sales as opposed to money up front or even if you have to take that swap check Maybe you could be a more honest in your reviews Maybe you could do little subtle things like show us the ingredients in the back in a way that you let us know that this is crap Without letting them know that you're letting us know that hey, I'm getting this check But be careful about this think about how you can play the system if you really need to get that Swap check and I had a show let's check you be the player don't be playing And when you're reviewing the black one business, you can definitely focus on the quality of the ingredients On the investments made by that owner into the community Just highlight them being black owned and so on black woman owned and so on And how much you value that just doing that alone will give your viewers a sense of what's what I would have to curtail this big huge run to the store to pick up the knockoffs If you like black one business, who then clearly you're going to be part of the reason why People flock to mainstream companies and part of the reason why the black ones go on there is just the truth Deal with it. Don't blame me So I know many people don't care beyond how much money comes out of their pocket and why their product works for them And it's impossible to break down about black well about Investing in the community about fighting discrimination like they don't care about any of that It just goes right over their heads. They don't care about mainstream companies stealing from black businesses They don't care about any of that and it's frustrating But it's part of life and it's just something that we just have to accept And I guess the same for Pamela Booker and the same for anyone else that's working believes in supporting Black owned businesses. You just have to accept that not everybody would and I guess co-exist So I disagree with her saying get a job Instead of like taking checks from swap and so on in the sense that I do think that blogging is a job But I definitely agree with her saying think about what's happening when you're taking checks now And how it's going to impact the future Like I said, blogging that's never forward. Okay. That's never pension YouTube kind of often does just decide to kill channels like just cancel delete channels or delete all their subscribers and stuff So other young people are coming on say, oh, this is great. I'm making money. Yes, you're making money today But are you gonna be making money 10 years from now? Your most secure future is tied up into bad business to be honest as a blogger I also disagree with her comment about people who buy can't do and who I guess push market can't do and the mainstream runs Lacking integrity like I said before not everybody believes in supporting black owned businesses So I guess if they don't even believe it then they're not going against their moral code by Buying means she will buy not supporting black businesses. I think by that part She was just frustrated that everybody is working. You just have to kind of understand and accept that at the end of the day But I do understand as she was going from a point of focusing on those who believe in buying black on investing black As we all should if we are black and that she is trying to actually encourage us to support black business Which I also agree with she spoke the truth the whole truth And I do think that we as bloggers and consumers need to understand our power not allow ourselves to be used by mainstream companies Even be used by black businesses to be used by anyone we as consumers can make a business successful by our choices We as bloggers can make people flock to certain businesses or not By our choices and what we choose to say and portray on the content that we create So that is a responsibility and we do have to think about the impacts of that Our actions now will definitely determine whether there will be problems for us and money for us as consumers and bloggers 10 years down the line So I know of course now everybody will agree or the people will be like take the money And people will be like as long as it works But hopefully even if you are one of those people in those camps you at least got something from this video Let me know what you think down below. Let's talk about it Do we have a responsibility to black businesses? Is there a benefit to having black businesses around? Should we support black businesses? Let's talk about everything in the comments down below. So that's pretty much it. Um, I realized my hair wasn't completely fluffed So I hope that wasn't too distracting, but thanks for watching. Uh, see you in the next one. Bye