by Olivia Estrada – Contributor
Sharon Chuter, the owner of UOMA Beauty, is challenging brands to do more than just post messages of solidarity for Black Lives Matter. On June 1, @pullupforchange dared companies to reveal publicly just how many black employees within 72 hours.
As Sharon explained in an IGTV post, makeup brands were quick to take on the challenge, partly because a lot of beauty influencers called on cosmetic brands to step up.
The 72 hours has long elapsed, but the #pulluporshutup challenge continues, with the hope that fashion labels will respond the same way beauty companies have. To spread more awareness about this challenge, Sharon is tagging brands and encouraging netizens to put the pressure on them as well.
Out of the six brands that she tagged four days ago, Kylie Cosmetics and Estee Lauder Companies (which owns MAC Cosmetics along with several other major makeup labels) pulled up.
On the fashion front, Adidas shared their employee breakdown along with Old Navy.
In an interview with Forbes, Sharon shared that the transparency and information collected by #pulluporshutup is just the start of a series of developments toward actual change in the name of anti-racism. “Action starts with accountability, and we have to make the public the custodians of this. But eventually, we need to have an independent diversity board, and that board needs to be charged with helping companies create initiatives for diversity and inclusion of all people—white, Black, Asian, Latinx, Native American, LGBTQ+.”
