Sharon Chuter’s Make It Black Campaign

Make It Black BLM Pull Up For Change Sharon Chuter Uoma Beauty

Sharon Chuter’s Make It Black Campaign

Sharon Chuter, Founder and CEO of Uoma Beauty, is back with another campaign to shake up the landscape of the beauty industry.

Last Week, Chuter debuted the Make It Black campaign tied to Black History Month to shift perceptions around what it means to be Black. Chuter has partnered with nine beauty brands to release limited-edition hero products, complete with updated black product packaging, that will raise funds for emerging Black founders. Participating brands include Briogeo, Colourpop, Dragun Beauty, Flower Beauty, Maybelline, Morphe, NYX Professional Makeup, Pura and Ulta Beauty, as well as Chuter’s own Uoma Beauty. Products will be sold through each brand’s individual website, MakeItBlack.org and Ulta.com.

All of the proceeds of the products will be donated to the new Pull Up For Change Impact Fund, which helps gives grants to black-owned businesses. Members of the foundation can also donate directly to the fund via the website.

This initiative comes after last June during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Chuter launched the #pulluporshutup campaign on Twitter. It was a call to action, inviting beauty brands to disclose the number of BIPOC members they had on their staff.

Following this campaign, many brands vowed to become more inclusive in their staffing, product offerings, and actions as a company.

“The first [focus] of Make It Black is to attack language. People don’t pay enough attention to language. If you go to your dictionaries today, the definitions of black will shock you. They are confronting; the synonyms, the related words are things like ‘evil,’ ‘threatening,’ ‘vile,’ ‘wicked.’ Language is so important because it shapes our collective consciousness,” said Chuter, who also started a Change.org petition this week to make the Oxford English Dictionary change its definition of the word black.

She said Make it Black was created to “reject this negativity” that exists. Moreover, Chuter argued that the way the word black is positioned is in stark opposition to the way it’s perceived in fashion or beauty, as it is known to be a chic or elevated color.

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