Sharon Chuter and Pull Up For Change re-launch the Make It BLACK campaign…
They have, with new beauty brand partners, shifted perceptions around what it means to be Black and raise funds for the Pull Up For Change Impact Fund, which provides capital to emerging Black founders.
Sharon Chuter:
“Language plays a critical role in how we perceive the world. The function of language goes beyond expressing ideas and concepts, it shapes thought and defines our collective consciousness. Language should be neutral, unbiased and reflective of our current realities. It is in this regard that the dictionary has work to do.”
Teaming up with 8 beauty brands, Make It BLACK launched this week, for Black History Month. Participating brands include UOMA Beauty, e.l.f. Cosmetics, M∙A∙C Cosmetics, Mented, Morphe, Flower Beauty, Ulta Beauty, and IPSY/BoxyCharm.
Following a successful launch in February 2021, in which over $400,000 was raised and deployed to eight emerging black business founders at Essence Festival of Culture, Sharon Chuter and her non-profit organization, Pull Up For Change are re-launching the Make It BLACK campaign for Black History Month 2022 with new beauty partners.
After the disruptive launch of Pull Up For Change and the #PullUpOrShutUp campaign in June 2020 – a social call-to-action that demanded companies to publicly disclose the number of black employees in their corporate office and leadership roles to help dismantle a system that has led to low economic participation for black people – Sharon Chuter and Pull Up For Change shook up the beauty landscape once again with the launch of Make It BLACK, a breakthrough campaign delivering iconic beauty products in limited-edition black packaging to redefine what it means to be Black and raise funding for black founders.
Monica Arnaudo, chief merchandising officer at Ulta Beauty:
“Ulta Beauty is proud to join Sharon and Pull up For Change to empower Black beauty and drive meaningful change in our industry. “As a values-based company, we share the passion to shape how the world sees beauty and the intention to build greater equity for Black founders. Make it BLACK helps achieve this and we’re honored to support as the exclusive retail partner.”
The Make It BLACK campaign deals another blow to systemic racism by reclaiming the word black and making consumers understand that black is nothing but beautiful. Make it BLACK is making a bold statement to change the inaccurate and dangerous negative perception in society of the word and instead reframe and refocus on the beauty of Black. After all Black is the colour of absolute luxury – it’s chic, classic, timeless, and iconic.
The Make It BLACK campaign’s PETITION – which was created to get the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam Webster Dictionary to update their definitions of the word black immediately – already has over 6,220 signatures and counting. As an integral part of the petition and campaign, Sharon Chuter herself has written an OPEN LETTER to the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam Webster Dictionary and is writing 6,200 additional letters – in support of each petition signature – to push upon the dictionaries and advocate for real change.
For this year’s Make It Black campaign, Pull Up For Change is partnering with established beauty brands – e.l.f., Flower Beauty, M∙A∙C Cosmetics, Mented, Morphe, and UOMA Beauty – to repackage their most iconic products in black. These limited-edition products will be available for purchase throughout February (Black History Month) and will be sold online with Ulta Beauty, through IPSY and BoxyCharm’s subscription boxes, and via the Make It BLACK and participating brands’ websites.
100% of the gross profits from the limited-edition iconic black products will be contributed to the PULL UP FOR CHANGE Impact Fund, which deploys capital to black-owned businesses and are allocated as grants to emerging black founders. Last year, the campaign raised over $400,000 which was deployed as grants to eight black female founders.
Sharon Chuter:
“As a Black Female founder, I understand, first-hand, the struggles of raising capital or accessing funding. In fact, I am one of only 93 Black women in the history of America who have raised over $1M for startups. On the other hand, the average white male receives $2.1M to fund their start-ups. We have a long way to go to create true economic equality and there is no equality without equity. This is where I am proud to play a small part in supporting other Black female founders to make their dreams a reality, and to truly get the seat at the table that they very well deserve”
