What Juneteenth Revealed About Corporate America
The public blunders about Juneteenth are endemic to a larger trend of anti-Black racism
A couple weeks ago, Walmart began selling Juneteenth flavored Ice Cream. Yes, you read that right. The flavors mimicking Afro-centric colors paired with corresponding branding that set Twitter ablaze. Following the backlash, Walmart quickly pulled the holiday-themed ice cream flavor from shelves. A lesson that seemingly other companies failed to learn because not even two weeks later, Unilever released a Juneteenth version of Vaseline, naming it “Equitable Skincare”. Ironically, Unilever’s entire executive suite is visibly white or white-passing. Also, considering the context of how Vaseline is used to moisturize Black people, especially children, setting aside Juneteenth to talk equity is a bit much. What both of these mistakes have in common is something so fundamentally American, it might as well be about slavery — because it usually is — no one in power ever listens to Black people, especially Black experts.
While some may view these oversights as genuine mistakes, history shows that the erasure of Black expertise is commonplace across all media forms and across all types of organizations, which has served and continues to serve absolutely no one.
The late W.E.B. Du Bois notes that the lives and works of Black experts are part of public discourse, public life, and social commentary. Yet, the history of Black expertise being erased dates back to the inception of the slave trade itself by the very organizations clamoring to make a buck on the Juneteenth aesthetic. This means that non-Black individuals and organizations alike cannot be keen on commercializing or making an example out of Juneteenth if they have yet to grapple with how anti-Black racism informs their day to day.
Some may argue that this is America, everything gets commercialized and commodified. Christmas has become a holiday more about the gifts than the giving. Valentine’s Day has veered from becoming about showing love to flashing acts of love for likes and comments. What is important to note here, however, is that none of these holidays are used as props to make corporations look better in the eyes of the public. Uniquely so, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, and now Juneteenth, are examples of holidays where companies look to make more money while purporting themselves as equitable (even though they are not).
Notably so, Corporate America continues to be in the news for anti-Black racism in all its forms. In 2020, comments from the CEO of Wells Fargo suggested a lack of Black talent to hire from despite evidence suggesting the opposite. Perhaps more notably, there have been less than five Black women Fortune 500 CEOs ever, with corporate boards and executive suites failing to reflect the communities they claim to serve.
Saying you honor all that Juneteenth stands for, but choosing only to interact with Black American people when they are serving your financial interest is antithetical to what Juneteenth represents at its core: Black liberation and freedom.
Despite these realities, what I have learned as the editor of The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System, the first book to exclusively feature Black scholars and experts, is that Black experts should be leading conversations we are having as a nation beyond holidays commemorate the pain and progress of Black America. Why? Because crises that harm us nationally and globally often hit Black communities first and more intensely. Black American experts are able to tackle these issues in a delicate way that allows room for intersectionality and equity to take center stage. They consider all the trade offs because not doing is costly. Furthermore, evidence across numerous disciplines suggests that research and policies aimed at helping Black Americans, especially Black women, have wide-ranging positive impacts on the health, economy, education, and quality of life for everyone else.
At the end of the day, Black American experts matter now more than ever because they are not just critical to providing us with the tools and language to decipher a world bent on undermining Black life, but they are also equipped to provide the backdrop of lived experience that further contextualizes their expertise. Any organization keen on using Black holidays to prop up diversity, equity, and inclusion while ignoring or minimizing the responsibility of valuing Black life everyday is hypocritical at best.
In a phrase, the cost of ignoring Black American expertise is simply not worth it. And doing so reveals more about how corporate America perceives the value of Black people in the workplace and beyond.
Follow Anna Gifty on Instagram and Twitter @itsafronomics
