Optics Of Inclusion
We’ve been sleepwalking.
It feels like I’m stumbling into some semblance of consciousness. At the same time, it scares me to think that we’ve been here before. I wonder, what else am I not seeing?
Inclusion has been a major buzzword, especially in the beauty space.
As a makeup artist, and a consumer - I’ve watched brands shape shift and re-design/re-market their images into something more inspiring for those of us who demand representation.
Herein lies the inspiration to project the optics of inclusion.
Brands made us feel like they were pulling their own curtains back and showing us the messy process of changing and genuinely wanting to do better.
Behind that image however is yet another curtain.
They mirrored and echoed our wants, wishes , desires and even us. Sure, it could sound like well that’s just marketing. However, in a time when consumers are becoming more educated about the power we hold and seeking to spend with brands that align with our values, this “marketing & pivoting” feel more like propaganda.
This definitely touches on woke-washing.
However, in this current political climate, I’m speaking specifically about being a black consumer, seeing my image reflected back to me and then learning that as it pertains to the very top, it’s actually just a superficial attempt on my pockets.
Once these lists of companies supporting an administration I don’t align with started popping up on my timeline, I started to see how many places I’ve essentially voted against myself with my dollar. The more I looked into it, the more I saw how difficult it is not to engage with these entities as well as the areas where I have to do the work of seeking out those that truly value my life and to choose them at every opportunity.
“There is a lot that goes into marketing that doesn’t meet the eye. But in the case of propaganda, the visible tip of the iceberg is even smaller.” - Slangbusters Branding Studio
The optics of inclusion are manipulative and dangerous. It’s the diverse ads, but not one black person on the team making the decisions. It’s the social media protests, but actively denying qualified POC opportunities or paying them less or not at all. It’s saying you stand with us while working to ensure the re-election of a racist.
We are so deeply entangled with our oppressors.
This realization has made me feel completely powerless at times.
In trying to “follow the money”, I started to find more disturbing discrepancies between what companies who prioritize optics over action market themselves as and what they actually support.
I wanted to understand this complex and nuanced issue more, so I started researching who the original founders of a few companies who’ve been acquired by these bigger and more powerful machines are. What I learned is at the end of the day, business is just about numbers for a lot of these big players. They see something working that may very well start out with pure intent and a clear mission, often by people of the communities they seek to represent. Then they just acquire them. They allow them to keep their identity, because it works.
As consumers we are emotional. This game however is not.
These authentic origin stories and fingerprints are why they are able to hire authentic and well intentioned people and it’s why we believe in these companies.
Unfortunately it’s difficult if not impossible not to transact with such companies as they seem to own almost everything and are the same ones pulling the strings of an entire country. To further complicate these relationships, they employ many of us and some of these practices have actually helped to create more opportunities and even acceptance in our world.
This undermines social issues in such an insidious manner on one hand, while in other ways giving us the feeling of progress. It’s more than I can process at this moment.
It also begs the question: Do we want to simply feel like we’re making a difference or do we want to actually get a bit uncomfortable and learn how we can truly effect change beyond the shopping we were going to do anyway?
Documentaries I’m watching today:
13th on Netflix
“ 13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States;"[3] it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.” - Wikipedia
Description
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.
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“HyperNormalisation is a 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. It argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex "real world" and built a simpler "fake world" run by corporations and kept stable by politicians. “ - Wikipedia
Optical Illusion Image by @armand_khoury of Unsplash