A high-priced, multilevel-marketing makeup brand built on vaguely decrying “chemicals” wanted to make sure everyone knows it is really dedicated to being woke.
“We Will Do Better,” Beauty Counter emailed its customers and “consultants” (what it calls the women who pay to sell its products). “As advocates, we champion safety,” the company wrote, referring to its lobbying efforts to outlaw competitors’ makeup products on supposed safety grounds, “but racism is putting Black lives in danger every day.”
The hashtag #Blacklivesmatter, the unorthodox capitalization of “Black,” and the awkward attempts of white business owners to thread the needle between woke and anodyne characterized a flood of tweets and emails for the social media event “Blackout Tuesday.” On June 2, amid the protests following the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd in police custody, companies across the country tried to signal their brands’ fealty to the politics of today’s youth.
The results were often embarrassing.
Some business owners apparently instructed their lawyers to explain, in lawyerese, that their brand had already achieved wokeness. The owners of the world champion Washington Nationals, the Lerner family, issued a statement “on behalf of … the minority owners of color of the team,” declaring their wish for solidarity.
The Nationals’s statement went on to brag about how “last year we stood side by side to witness and celebrate a success of ethnic harmony and resolve like no other.” Because getting some black, white, Asian, and Hispanic millionaire professional athletes to beat some other black, white, Asian, and Hispanic millionaire professional athletes in baseball is the model of ethnic harmony this country needs.
The Nats said that building opportunities and mentorship for “the next generation” is crucial, “as we have done since 2007.” The owners made sure to state that they “do not support brutality or intolerance of any kind.” All brutality matters, it seems.
Popeyes, the fried chicken chain, got side-eyes for its Twitter statement: “Popeyes would be nothing without black lives.”
Speaking of eyes, Garfield Eats, a restaurant chain that sells pizzas shaped like the cartoon cat, tweeted out “#BLACKLIVESMATTER” in a comic-strip font, with the famed cat’s eyes peeking through the blacked-out frame.
Chris Hayes, the liberal MSNBC host, wryly captured the spirit of the day when he tweeted just before going on the air, “In honor of #blackouttuesday, all of tonight’s guests … will be #brands.”
