Levi’s® Employees Respond: What Does Black History Month Mean to You? on Off The Cuff
Source: Levi’s® Employees Respond: What Does Black History Month Mean to You? | Off The Cuff
Commodification happens so often that we overlook when it’s occurring and this contributes to apathy. Black people find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to justify the need for Black History Month. It’s the antithesis to what happens for the Jewish Community in acknowledging and reminding everyone of the Holocaust. The persecution of people is a theme that can be traced back to the beginning of time. Yet, only a few cultures are capable of openly discussing the mistreatment of their people.
Consider indigenous people in the U.S. and the fact that a team is preparing to play in one of the most watched events in the world and that team is named Chiefs. The fans of that team will show up in “costumes” that demean and minimize what happened to Native Americans. Native Americans have some of the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide due to the legacy of trauma that founded this country.
Blacks are only a few years removed from what many people think of as the past. Consider that I run this blog and I was in the group of kids who were bussed to integrate White schools. That was less than 40 years ago. Then consider that the stereotypes of Blacks created throughout the history of this country are what has led to the mass murder of Blacks in churches by White Nationalists and the murder of Blacks by Law Enforcement, and it becomes painfully clear that the U.S.A. is a country that remains afraid to face the treatment of a group of people an entire economy was built upon. Looking again at the Super Bowl the majority of the players are African-American, but they can’t use their platform to protest the issues affecting Blacks in America.
Black History Month offers a chance to celebrate those who have been marginalized, mistreated and misunderstood. The fact that White people, or any people would respond, “What about White History Month?” is an insensitive, but eye-opening phrase that lays out in a very simple statement, why the United States isn’t as great as it could be. I write that this question is a statement because when someone asks about White History Month, they aren’t doing so to get an answer. They are doing so to erase an opportunity for growth. Even if Black History was truly integrated into the education institutions of the U.S. our history would still need to be celebrated. When you consider how much was done to Blacks to build America and how long this treatment has taken place, the accomplishments made become so much more amazing. Which steers me back to commodification, sportswear and Levi’s.
Kawhi’s “Inspire The Dream” Collection From New Balance Should Do More Than Inspire Through Fashion
I wrote a scathing post about New Balance and their upcoming Black History Month Collection. It was written from a place of frustration because I didn’t do my research. The reality was New Balance took a similar path to Levi’s, but because their PR team was allowing other sneaker blogs to simply share the sneakers without allowing the employees to have a voice, I didn’t know because of their own PR how much like Levi’s approach New Balance took.
Levi’s utilized a strategy closely related to my E.N.D.E.A.R.S. concept. In this marketing strategy I stress the need for brands to introduce fans to the designers and people behind the products. This educational approach gives a brand more content to share which ultimately establishes that there is some diversity within these billion dollar businesses. By endearing fans of the brand to those behind the scenes there is a bridge created. There are always more people who can be like a Senior Graphic Designer than there are people who can be like Justin Timberlake for Levi’s or Kawhi Leonard for New Balance.
Justin Timberlake and Levi’s actually went above and beyond and it wasn’t even Black History Month. A few months ago Levi’s and Justin Timberlake created a songwriting cohort here in Memphis at the Stax Music Academy. My son is a guitarist in the after school program. The program runs out of a place that is the foundation of Black soul music Stax Records. Stax is the home of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Isaac Hayes and just as important as Motown is to American history, Stax is American history. Levi’s donated 200,000 dollars to the Stax Music Academy.
New Balance did something very similar and they’ve been doing it for a long time, but their PR team failed to establish that the Black History Month Collection was attached to the people pictured and had been continuing to give to the West End House:
Boston Celtics & New Balance Collaborate To Help The Kids In Their Backyard
New Balance had also established a program at UMass Amherst which for those of you who know a bit about Black History, this is the home to the W.E.B. Dubois Department of Afro-American Studies. Many of the papers written by Dubois are housed there. This includes letters where he fought for artists like Augusta Savage to gain scholarships from Countess de Robilant to study in Rome (I learned this yesterday by visiting the Dixon Art Gallery with my daughter to view sculptures and artwork by Savage. I just thought I’d tie in a bit of Black History 🙂
What has happened far too often in the sneaker industry is Black History is simply a month to promote new apparel without any message. When you visit Levi’s homepage it’s clear that they are taking Black History Month as a chance to educate. While New Balance clearly is doing the right thing, their message isn’t being promoted in a similar fashion, but it should be because it’s on par with Levi’s. Sneaker brands are rooted in the African-American experience, but it seems that they aren’t willing to take the time to deliver the story in the right way, but they should.