Posted on 03/07/2021 7:23:25 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Aurora James was frustrated when she would go to stores and see a lack of Black-owned brands on shelves. It was out of that frustration that the fashion designer decided she needed to be a part of the solution by disrupting business as usual.
"I was so fed up as a woman and a woman of color, being disappointed by the choices that people or companies were making. But I also realized that I failed in a lot of ways to really ask for what I needed," James told CBS News' Michelle Miller.
In the aftermath of George Floyd's killing, she took to Instagram and demanded major retailers commit 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands, creating the initiative the "15 Percent Pledge." "Black people in the U.S. make up nearly 15% of the population," its website says.
According to a report conducted last June by the National Bureau of Economic Research, 41% percent of Black-owned businesses have closed due to the pandemic compared to less than 17% of White-owned businesses.
To date, more than 20 companies have signed on for James' "15 Percent Pledge" across the retail spectrum. Companies are asked to conduct an internal audit of their current spending power and contracts allocated to Black businesses, along with committing shelf space.
For James, the creation of the "15 Percent Pledge" was about making a difference.
"When we talk about supporting small businesses and we talk about supporting small, Black-owned businesses in this country, what that really means is supporting underprivileged communities that need it the most. And it's important for everyone to understand that the 15 Percent Pledge isn't just about positively impacting Black people, it's about positively impacting the country at whole," James said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
With average retail net profit margins ranging from .5% to 4.5%, yeah, let’s mandate 15% of inventory.
Maybe consumers don't like fashion that harkens back to the ghetto, incarceration and drive by shootings.
Seriously, when does the backlash begin against these people? And how long is whitey going to tolerate it? Or is this the beginning of the end for us?
Does the 15% apply to crime too?
Asking for a friend...
To be diverse, inclusive and multicultural, it should be 18% for Hispanic/Latin, 13% for black and 9% for Asian products.
And the Hispanic/Latin and Asian percentages are growing faster than black (ever heard of Planned Parenthood?).
Say 8.5% for "non-White" and 8.5% for "White Hispanic" brands.
Agreed?
Regards,
No doubt many black-owned businesses have been forced to close due to the pandemic, but I suspect a whole lot of that 41% closed businesses involved personal services, e.g., hairdressing, barber shops, manicure shops, repair shops which won’t be helped at all by this push to stock black-produced goods although it helps her as a fashion designer. I wonder if all the services she uses to move her designs to the consumer use 15% black workers.
Ah quotas.
Where are the White employees (predominantly male), sitting on stools on the dais, wearing dunce caps, and with signs hung around their necks?
Regards,
Is that kinda like destroying a town in order to save it? What a dumbass! Make a good product and retailers will sell it.
It is sad that we have become so divide that we must now shop based on skin color and political correctness. Why can’t a Coke just be a Coke or a shirt just a shirt or a toy plastic potato just a toy? Mr. Potatohead will soon be declared racist because it portrays brown-skinned people as fat and dumpy.
Perhaps those brands could compete in the marketplace.
We know how well that worked out.
Why all this catering to group that only comprised 13% of the US population? Don’t answer, please.
I buy products based on several considerations the least of which is what is the skin color of the ownership of the company that produced the product. That seems irrelevant to me. Make a better product, cheaper, faster, whatever and you can be a gray alien from Decatur for all I care.
Many states and large companies already do this, and more, for “minority, women, Native American, disabled” etc… suppliers.
My friend owns a company, so he put his wife’s name on a sales subsidiary. So the bureaucrats were happy.
Marx said “history repeats, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”
From the photo, I see we are in the farce phase
They can’t survive without Whitey. Look at countries currently run by blacks.
There are some very intelligent, educated, hard-working blacks but they are in the minority. The ferals don’t like them anymore than they do us.
I would have walked out the minute I saw that gal as the Instructer.
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