If you know about People of Leisure, you know how important sustainability is to the company, especially when it comes to the products they use in their clothing. This minimizes waste and lowers the negative impact on the environment. Recently, a new wave of Black Lives Matter has surfaced and has had an intensely positive impact on our environment. Let’s talk about how you can get more involved, ways to educate yourself and how to make the Black Lives Matter movement sustainable in our daily lives. I asked Florence, a lovely black model, creator and influencer, if she would give me insight on ways to help the movement and prevent a fade out.
Flo has been creating content for five years now, ever since she moved to Atlanta with her fiancé. She is a paid content creator coach as she loves helping others optimize their influence. As a lover of sustainability and all things ethical, she shares a lot of information about how to limit waste in your life and spreads information on cruelty- free beauty products. She believes in making your time here valuable by making good changes in your life for the world around you.
As a black woman, what is the most effective and efficient way(s) people can give back to the black lives matter movement? What have you seen be the most effective?
I think the number one best thing to do is put money into supporting black creators, black educators, black restaurants, black charities … anything that we are a part of that is putting money back into the black community. Try to switch out something you use everyday like body wash for something made from a black business, locally would be even better. I feel it is also important for our movement to find something you enjoy from black owners, black creators, black business owners, etc. and include that into your daily life. Continue to purchase from that person… it is going to help us put money back into our pockets.
I have seen a lot of people post book lists that are educational and informative when it comes to black history and black culture, do you have any books, articles or documentaries that come to mind when it comes to being informative?
I actually have an educator that I really love, her name is Rachel Cargle, she truly has a wealth of knowledge. I’ve learned so much from her over the years through the way she beautifully documents her writings. Also, anything from James Baldwin is amazing. I actually watched this movie called, “I’m Not Your Negro”, which is a really great film about how black people are effected in America. I also think the book, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People To Talk About Racism”, is a great book source. This book goes into white guilt and how that gets pushed onto black people. I appreciate that because that often gets missed. Along with phrases people may say and not know they are being racist. Again, very mind shifting in a way white people can really understand what is going on within the black community.
How can people who work with brands sustain the black lives matter movement into their daily lives and prevent the fade out?
For a brand to sustain, you need black decision makers to check and balance your brand. It’s about the internal portions that matter before they do anything performative, like only consistently putting brown people on their page, it has to be more than that... it has to start from within. This is to make sure everyone, especially black people, feel included into your business plan. Even donating monthly to a black charity, black mental health business or to the NAACP would be a way to sustain support for the black community. They could start a diversity group to consistently talk about steps they are taking to support their black and brown supporters. Paying your black creators their worth is also huge. We have seen company’s emails stating black people are hard to work with because of stigma, making it harder for us to get paid our worth or not having people work with us. Brands also need to continue partnerships past movements, not just for performance acts or for tokenism.
The ideas are simple, yet effective and the motives are clear. This compilation has one main idea in mind, taking initiative. In order to be ethical, we need to expand our morals into our everyday lives and the way we live, not just in our clothing. Sustainability in the way we live is important for future generations, and that also speaks for how we treat each other and take the time to understand each other in an ethical way. We have the power to be ethically balanced and educated, it is the initiative we must acquire to make it happen. I challenge you all to keep making that change and challenge yourselves on how you can keep becoming an enlightened and informed human. Together we can create a society that is ethical and sustainable for everyone.
Resources:
Follow Flo on her socials: Instagram- @theblendedbeauty
Watch, “I’m Not Your Negro”- https://youtu.be/rNUYdgIyaPM
Read, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People To Talk About Racism”-
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/06/9851084/black-owned-bookstores-independent-online
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/white-fragility-robin-diangelo/1127171010?ean=9780807047415
Follow Rachel Cargle’s Instagram- https://instagram.com/rachel.cargle?igshid=t6q7dkp3x1si
By: Jordan Johnson
