Black-Owned Brands Mull Making Products More Neutral

The co-founders of a company that makes lip products for darker skin tones no longer hope to get their line into Target. A brother and sister who make jigsaw puzzles celebrating Black subjects wonder if they need to offer "neutral" images like landscapes to keep growing. Pound Cake and Puzzles of Color are among the small businesses whose owners are rethinking their plans as major US companies weaken their DEI programs, per the AP. "We are really having to evaluate our strategy in how we expand and how we want to get in front of new customers," says Ericka Chambers, one of the siblings behind Puzzles of Color. More:

• Fears: Some Black-owned brands suspect major retail chains will drop partnerships they pursued after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. In the current anti-DEI climate, other entrepreneurs worry about personal repercussions or feel pressure to cancel contracts with retreating retailers.
• Discontent over corporate diversity: The first prominent names in US retail to end or retool diversity programs surfaced last summer amid threats of legal challenges and negative publicity from DEI critics, who argue that setting diversity goals for underrepresented groups constitutes reverse discrimination. After President Trump's win in November, Walmart joined the corporate pullback. Target's suspension of its comparable DEI targets in January stung Black and LGBTQ+ customers harder, largely because they regarded the company as more of a natural ally.
• Boycotts? Target's stance has created a dilemma for brand founders with existing distribution deals. Product creators are highlighting the impact that boycotts have on their businesses and urging upset customers to limit their purchases to items from Black-owned enterprises. Some activists understand; others push the brands to join the protests by cutting ties with Target.

• Pushback: Chantel Powell, who launched the Play Pits children's deodorant in 2021, calls such an ask "unrealistic." "We signed up to be in business," she says. "I understand why people are having that conversation of boycotts. As a Black founder, I also understand ... how it can be detrimental."
• The positive: Aurora James, the founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge—which asks businesses to allot 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands—said nearly 30 major companies that joined the initiative remain committed to it, including Bloomingdale's, Sephora, J. Crew, and Gap.

More here. (More DEI stories.)