Eyebrows are raised in concern for white owned businesses selling Black Lives Matter merchandise on Etsy.
What We Know:
- Many white owned businesses are showing they are in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement through their merchandise on Etsy. And while they are sincere in their actions, others are concerned that the businesses are exploiting the movement.
- Julie Muller is a 67-year-old woman who is using her homemade cookie-decorating business to support the BLM movement by selling cookie-decorating kits that have cookie cutters in the shape of Barak Obama’s face, sprinkles, and icing in red, black, and green, which are the colors of the Pan-African or Black Liberation flag. Her hope is for her kits to start a discussion that will teach children about the movement.
- 45-year-old Ashleigh Boutelle from Twin Peaks, California used his garden gnomes business to show support for the movement by painting the gnomes with a darker skin tone and the pointy hates with “BLM”. “I was trying to be very careful and present something that you might say is neutral,” Boutelle said. He added that he hopes his creations don’t offend anyone. He also said that he is planning on donating $10 from each sale of the $60 gnome to an organization that he hasn’t chosen yet.
- BLM wine bottle stoppers are also being sold by 37-year-old Kate Mayer and 25% of each sale is going towards the Black Voters Matter Fund. Fresco Steez, an activist for the Movement for Black Lives and the co-founder of Black Youth Project 100, said that she hopes that when a white woman with the BLM wine stopper uses it at a dinner, that a Trump-Pence supporter starts a debate.
- Although the gestures of these white owned shops seems genuine, the problem is that these objects like the gnomes and wine stoppers are they are associated mostly with white suburbia. Also, not all of these businesses are donating their profits to a Black organization of some kind. In a Reddit post, a user by the name of “Iamlunasol” talks about how they wanted to buy a Black Lives Matter yard sign from a Black-owned business but one company that they talked to weren’t Black-owned but were selling BLM merchandise without donating profits.
- “Before you buy a BLM shirt, sign, car magnet, etc., ask questions to make sure you’re not giving sales to a non-black seller that’s exploiting the suffering of black people for personal profit,” the post said. Eventually, the user found a business that was donating “100% of their profits”.
While Jasmine Renee, owner of Etsy shop — Shea Butter Apparel, commends these businesses for supporting the movement, she hopes that the people buying these products are also looking into Black businesses and the white sellers are promoting Black sellers selling BLM products.
