BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL

{ Sherrell Design Studio | @madamedelamaison | Ron Nicole | British Vogue, 1966 | Brother Vellies Stell Mule | @tiaadeola | Blue Beeko Dress, Sika | the hattie earring | @LaTuileàloup | Black Girl Magic Rosè | Adut Akech, British Vogue }

This is an important moment in history… The #BlackLivesMatter movement started a longtime ago, but unfortunately the intent hasn’t seemed to have garnered the support it deserves until now, and we still aren’t anywhere near the goal of true equality. But in my very humble opinion, we have made progress, not enough, but we have made progress. As a social worker and therapist I have spent the last ten years of my academic and professional life learning and working with the systematic racism pervasive in our country. However, I am by no means an expert or will ever fully understand the black experience in America or any other country for that matter. But what I will say as someone who is listening, I have realized so many things already. Things I plan on doing a better job of personally, professionally and here on the blog. The first of which is a proactive effort to feature content and goods I love from black creators on this platform. This is important to me for several reasons, the most salient one being the need for us all to actively address inequity by promoting the voices and work of creators who as a result of systemic racism, haven’t been heard or seen as equally as others. Let me be clear, this is not in anyway a knock to the brands and content I have already loved and featured, but rather a beautiful opportunity to proactively include all the things I love and was missing.

As a blogger, we rely heavily on the use of affiliate links to make a commission on the items we promote. That doesn’t mean I don’t feature items I can’t make a commission on, but it does incentivize the larger shops, brands and e-commerce with larger influence and funding to participate in affiliate programs like Reward Style. As a result, many smaller businesses are less likely represented and due to systematic racism, black owned businesses are less likely as visible or connected, therefore making them less likely to sell to bigger retailers. Therefore, I see this movement to feature and promote more black created content as a grass roots effort to demonstrate their rightful place amongst all others. As more black owned businesses gain a following, show sales and popularity amongst all Americans, we can start to see equal representation become the new norm. This is how things change, people with influence show they care. Influence is not something only Instagram accounts with more than 50k followers have, it’s what we all have, the power to inspire others, to get them as excited about something as we are. To essentially evolve and make the changes we wish to see in the world. So even if my mother in law is the only one who reads this post, I’ll still consider it a small, but important success.

All the content in this post is from black creators, models and entrepreneurs. Below is a small list to start of the brands and people I’ve found and fallen for within the last week. It’s a small start, but a start nonetheless.

This might be the first post here, but there will be much much more to come. Now and always. Xx.