'Keep your lady-with-an-Afro tote bags': Social media calls out Juneteenth pandering

Juneteenth is quickly approaching and some social media users have advice for companies cooking up sales and merchandising tactics to appeal to Black people: You can keep it.

Juneteenth is celebrated each year on June 19 to commemorate the date that Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger told people in Galveston, Texas about President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in June 2021, making June 19 a federal holiday.

The holiday has largely been celebrated by Black Texans and people in other southern states but since becoming a federal holiday, it has been exploited, said Coiette Morton, a lecturer in the history department at Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

Some people have called companies out for it, referring to Juneteenth-themed products as fake and “performative.”

Others have given examples, telling companies to “keep your lady with an Afro tote bags” during Black History Month. 

“While I can appreciate the holiday having more visibility, whenever a counterculture or subculture practice becomes mainstream it will certainly be exploited for profit by corporations,” Morton said.

Morton has seen such critiques and said typically these companies sell products to profit off Black people but don’t put any of the money back into the community.

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What’s wrong with what these companies are doing?

Morton calls these marketing tactics and campaigns “cultural and financial exploitation.” She can empathize with those who have spoken out, she said.

“Cultural exploitation is typically what seems to happen when anything of a subculture or marginalized group becomes mainstream or more widely accepted,” she told USA TODAY. “It's going to fall victim to corporations trying to profit off of that thing.”

Some companies are only interested in maintaining Black American cultural traditions when they can profit from it, she said.

“We can verbalize something but if we're not putting the action behind it, meaning financing and essentially putting our money where our mouth is, then thank you for the shout out but I'm still in the same place, being discriminated against or marginalized,” Morton said.

Typically companies who are putting on performative behaviors sell products that aren’t normally associated with Black Americans and market them towards those communities, she said.

The ice cream that earned Walmart a social media dragging in Spring 2022 is an example.

Last year, Walmart stocked its freezers with a store brand red velvet cheesecake ice cream that was supposed to celebrate Juneteenth. 

Social media users called the company out and said it was insensitive. They also noted that the ice cream seemed to be a ripoff of a Black-owned brand Walmart sold in its very own stores: Right as Rain Red Velvet Cheesecake ice cream by Creamalicious.

Walmart topped its product with a message reading "share and celebrate African-American culture, emancipation and enduring hope,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY network.

Morton, from Prairie View A&M University, said it’s as simple as changing a label for some companies.

“You just change the label really quickly and now, you want to sell me that particular ice cream because it has red, black and green on it,” Morton said.

It happens online too when companies post about supporting Black people and holidays mainly celebrated by the community or change their Twitter avi to the red, black or green flag, a nod to the flag often seen on Juneteenth.

“That doesn't take any effort,” Morton said. “It's very easy to change a profile picture. It's very easy to send out a message on social media, but that seems to be where it begins and ends for these larger businesses.”

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What other experts say about the issue

Joe Guster is CEO and cofounder of I Am Black Business, a search engine for finding Black-owned businesses. 

Oftentimes, businesses have a heart that’s in the right place but the execution doesn’t cut it, he said. 

“It's not just one of those things to pick up and do once a year,” he told USA TODAY. “I do see it as exploitation because now that Juneteenth has become a federal holiday, it’s like everyone is trying to jump on board but they still don't get the purpose behind it.”

When companies post about Juneteenth and offer products specifically in honor of the holiday to make a profit, it’s pretty easy to spot, he said.

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Guster said companies can start supporting Black people by having them in the room more and giving them a voice when thinking about ads, marketing and which products to offer.

“Supporting Black-owned businesses doesn't just start with trying to put together a marketing campaign or finding a product,” he said. “It also starts with supporting Black professionals and those people that would be able to give you that voice.”

But if companies want to prove they really support Black people, one way to go about it is to stop using prison labor. 

Juneteenth is a celebration of enslaved Black Americans finding out they were free. Many large companies use prison labor, which disproportionately targets Black Americans, Morton said.

She also said businesses can help by paying their fair share of taxes so working class people – particularly Black working class people – don’t foot the bill.

“These corporations could sponsor networking and training opportunities in Black communities and then hire from within those communities to help revitalize them economically,” Morton said. “They could support and partner with small Black-owned businesses in Black communities instead of undercutting those businesses.”

Larger corporations could work with smaller boutiques and stores to funnel business into their neighborhoods and stock their shelves with more of their products, she said.

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Morton said Juneteenth isn’t solely a Black American holiday; it’s a holiday for all to celebrate because it commemorates the end of a “horrific period in world and American history.”

She also thinks there’s a misconception that when Black holidays are celebrated, it means another group of people is losing. It’s not true though, she said. 

Juneteenth is a celebration of the principles America values most: freedom for everyone. That includes Black people.

“If some of us aren't free, then none of us are actually free,” she said. “The more we celebrate the freedom of other groups, people of all demographics are going to benefit from that, so Juneteenth is something that uplifts us all. It reminds us all that we don't have to go back to that time period where Black American citizens were treated as slaves.”