ISSUE 23 : DOES SUPPORTING BIPOC BRANDS STILL MATTER WHEN THE WORLD IS ON FIRE?

recalibrating...

I began this project in 2020, galvanized by the rising tide of awareness of the inequitable and exclusionary nature of the fashion and beauty industries. Concepts like decolonization, which I’d written about for my dissertation in 2015, were suddenly being discussed in popular media. Yet while we saw a wave of progress between 2020-2022, we were far too optimistic and unprepared for the resounding backlash over the past two years. Are we back where we started, or have we receded even further? Somehow it feels like we’re in an entirely new and precarious position - and nobody is quite sure of what’s to come.

In the midst of grappling with what our collective future might hold, shopping may seem like a silly topic. Like, the world is on fire (literally), so who cares what brands I’m buying? I’m not sure about you, but I personally don’t have much desire to shop, or think about shopping, right now. Which is a weird feeling as someone with a longstanding addiction to retail therapy. But the reality is, we’re all inevitably going to be buying new things for ourselves, or family and friends, over the next few weeks, months, and years (barring a complete apocalypse (which is possible)). Brands and retailers are already flooding our inboxes with holiday collections, and an onslaught of Black Friday sales is inevitably incoming.

Entering this shopping frenzy so soon after last week’s election, I’m more hesitant than ever before to buy brands that espouse questionable values (I was kinda disappointed to learn about Merit’s founder, though I guess that’s a reason to buy more Fara Homidi). I don’t think it’s helpful to anyone to get swept up in trying to cancel every major corporation. But where we spend our money still matters — perhaps more than before. Marginalized individuals are about to face an even harsher cultural climate than where we were in 2020. Just this past September, a court ruling forced Fearless Fund to shut down its grant program supporting Black women founders, after a conservative group brought a lawsuit alleging that it was "racially discriminatory" against non-Black business owners. The same conservative group was behind forcing the end or affirmative action policies in higher education. And that all happened before this election. It’s clear that, if any of us remain interested in equity and inclusivity, it’s our prerogative to practice those principles via our behavior and choices. We’re on our own.

I still believe, as I did four years ago, that prioritizing purchasing from BIPOC-owned brands is one small way to translate our principles into action. Especially considering that so many BIPOC founders have either bet their life savings, or struggled for years to raise investment capital, and are now being confronted with a funding drought combined with cultural backlash - making them increasingly dependent on consumer support. The purpose of Revisionary has always been to spotlight these brands — hopefully introducing you to new favorites and curating an aspirational point of view outside of conventional fashion and beauty systems. In an ideal state, it also includes an element of raising money towards supporting marginalized communities — like our AAPI Impact Initiative, which donated to various non-profits in May 2021, during the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans. With your help, I was able to raise over $10K in support of non-profits like Stop AAPI Hate, Heart of Dinner, and Project Lotus. But that project took nearly two months of work to bring to life. And as you may have noticed, it’s been a struggle for me to even find time to write this newsletter consistently while balancing a post-pandemic personal life and full-time job.

The sociopolitical realities of the current moment have revived my commitment to this project, but I’ve been thinking about whether there are more sustainable ways to achieve its goals. Smaller seasonal curations, like the summer style and summer beauty edits that I’d shared earlier this year, are much less time intensive than something like the Impact Initiative. But I’m still a really awful (or really skilled?) procrastinator. Sometimes mustering the willpower to write a thoughtful piece contextualizing these curations takes me a while. So I’m going to give myself permission to send out these shopping edits even if I haven’t had time to articulate a deeper perspective. I think it would be feasible for me to share these on a monthly basis, so that will be my goal. But I still feel that some external motivation would help hold me accountable. So here’s a crazy concept, taking inspiration from the Impact Initiative:

Beyond accountability, the aim here would be to amplify our collective impact. I think it would be pretty cool for a shopping newsletter to fund mutual aid; converting our most capitalistic impulses into a positive contribution. This newsletter currently has 425 subscribers and a 58% average open rate. If, say, 200 of the people who open this email committed to a $5/month paid subscription, we could collectively raise $12,000 over the course of the year. Even if just 10 people subscribed, we could raise $600. If I take this route, I don’t think I’d paywall these posts, since their purpose is to bring as much attention as possible towards the BIPOC-owned brands featured. Maybe there’d be a paid subscriber chat or comment section. I’m not sure about those details, but paid subscribers would be able to nominate and vote on which organization they’d like to donate the collective fund towards. Is this an insane idea? Am I out of my mind? If nobody is vibing with this concept, we can just ignore it and move on — I’ll just continue sending these letters out whenever I can find the time and self-motivation to write them. But let me know what you think via the poll.