Looking for a Black-owned business on Instagram to support has just become a little bit easier, as the app launched its new “Black-owned” label.
What We Know:
- Instagram dropped their “Black-owned” label on Wednesday, allowing those with Black-owned businesses in the U.S. to add the label to their social media page. Their goal, with the label, is to make it easier for people to find the brands and individuals they want to support and to help promote Black-owned businesses on the app.
- Users will click on “Edit Profile,” choose “Business Diversity Info,” tap on “Get Started,” and then end up on the “Diversity Info” page. Here users will click on the setting “Show Black-owned business label” which will allow the “Black-owned” label to be seen on their business pages.
- During the summer of 2020, racial tensions arose after the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, prompting the Black Lives Matter movement to take off. There were protests seen all over the world, from New York and Georgia to London and Belgium. Various businesses and organizations came out with their support for the Black community, but those who had previously shown support for groups or individuals that were anti-Black trended on social with the words #boycott(companies name). Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, and Amazon were some of the companies that Black people were closing their pockets to.
- Due to the outrage of lives lost at the hands of police brutality, the number of businesses getting blacklisted, and a global pandemic changing people’s lives, the #BuyBlack began to trend. Black people rallied behind one another and began promoting those within the community who were creating products and offering services, from clothing to hair products to therapy.
- In response to BLM, Instagram came out with its own policies on how to support those in the Black community, ultimately forming its new equity team. This group noticed the Black community coming together to support products made by them, for them. Rachel Brooks, product manager for Instagram’s equity team, stated that the group saw users putting “Black-owned” in their bios and captions under pictures and that it was inspiring to see the community coming together during such a tough time.
“We started seeing and noticing people using the #BuyBlack and adopting different ways of labeling and stories so that people can identify and find Black-owned businesses to support, and we just saw this natural phenomenon that was happening on Instagram. And so it was really inspired by the community themselves and people wanting to support businesses that they really love,” said Brooks.
- Instagram partnered with @blackownedeverything, @ghettogastro, @browniepointsforyou, and @alexandrawinbush to create the label and raise awareness for those on Instagram that are Black-owned. The app was particular in the brands and individuals they decided to work with on this idea and in helping the vision come together. Brooks has explained that the company wanted to “make sure it’s creating something that, one, will resonate, two, people will use, and three, is useful and make sense ultimately for the people we’re trying to empower.”
The development of this label has brought up discussions of having labels for other communities, such as Latinx and LGBTQ+. No word as of now if these labels will be created, but Brooks can see this concept happening naturally for other communities. Those who put the “Black-owned” label in their bios, will be able to have their businesses found on Instagram’s “Shop” tab.
