No Friends in the Skindustry

What brands can learn about performative allyship and micro-aggressions from Sarah Cheung and Sacheu Beauty

The year is 2020: We’re sweating under our masks. Doctors, nurses, and blue collard workers are still treated with respect as essential workers. Celebrities are on IG live telling us to hang in there as housekeeper number two scurries behind them to clean their pool. Oh and you’re Black so you’re getting random texts from white colleagues and acquaintances who recently learned of the new virus, “racism”, and were reminded from their Bible, “How to be Anti Racist”, to check on their Black friends. Every brand you’ve ever interacted with has posted a Black box in solidarity of Black people with captions describing how they’re listening and learning and donating to Black Lives Matter. As a Black content creator, I’m going to take you through where some of these brands are now in 2022 when outside is open, gas is $5 a gallon, and we’re back to ignoring the realities of the Black experience in America.

It all started with a product review …

As a skincare content creator and esthetician, I’m always looking for fun and effective skincare gadgets to put my followers and clients on. I discovered Sacheu Beauty like everyone else discovers new shit, through a targeted ad. I purchased their stainless steel roller because I do love cold stainless steel to calm acne and inflammation and I saw the brand was woman owned. Instant follow. I shared an Instagram reel and Tiktok in January showing my following how to use the stainless steel roller and what its benefits were and my followers loved it! Sacheu organically (meaning unpaid) reposted the video on their page and kept it pushing. Cool.

Then Black History Month rolls around and I’m surprised with a notification that this brand (that doesn’t even follow me) has tagged me in a post ..

This is where things get funky. I ended up in a video montage shared on the brand’s Instagram page where my original video is used (along with other Black creators) to highlight the creators Sacheu supports with a bunch of hashtags talking about supporting Black creators. This is where I got uncomfortable. How are you calling to action to support Black creators when all you did was repost my free promo? No payment for the video. Not even a follow. I don’t even think they liked the actual video. Let’s be real, exposure doesn’t pay the bills. As a brand, when you speak about supporting Black creatives make sure you put your money where your mouth is and financially support them as much as you do the white creators your PR agencies connect you to with every time it’s time to run a paid campaign.

Original post from Sacheu for Black History Month.

This was a teachable moment, so I took my thoughts on what "supporting Black creators” truly looks like to my Instagram story …

After I shared my thoughts on the disconnect between calling to action the support of Black creators without actually paying said creators, I got quite some buzz from my community. I spoke up because I know I’m not the only Black creator with these thoughts and feelings. Many Black creators are shy to speak on why getting paid matters, but I’m not so I was there to speak for us all. Because of that attention, my friend Esther, better known as The Melanin Chemist (Black cosmetic chemist and fellow esthetician), raised this issue to Sarah Cheung’s - the CEO and founder of Sacheu’s - attention.

Sarah rushed to my DMs to make things right, so I thought ..

Twitter DM from Sarah Cheung to me.

Mistakes happen, right? We’re all still listening and learning, so there’s room for error I suppose. Apparently Sarah had no idea the creators she showcased on her brand’s Black History Month post weren’t even paid and that’s “100% negligent” on her part. She gave me her email to work out a licensing deal to back pay me for the free labor. As a brand owner, as a brand period, please do your research on the relationship you have with creators when you are leveraging their content and stories on your platforms ESPECIALLY when you are using creators of color to connect with the Black community. I shared this seemingly genuine response from the brand with my Instagram followers letting them know my cries were not in vain and that the brand was safe to support again - you’re welcome Sarah.

Sarah follows up on the payment discussion by CC’ing her colleague Lori to take things from there and work out a deal. #BagSecured? Nope ..

Sarah connecting me with her colleagues.

LORI, stepping in to inquire about my licensing rates.

My response to Lori with my rates.

Black History Month is over and we’re creeping into March with no payment being made yet. I responded to Lori on March 9th with my rates for 3 months licensing (meaning they have 3 months to use my content however they want). Weeks go by and I have not heard a response from Lori or the brand on how we’re moving forward. A simple note letting me know the timeline of when I can expect final word on payment or even acknowledgement of my response in itself would have sufficed in the meantime.

So on March 21st, I head back to my Instagram stories to discuss how quickly I fell off the brand’s priority list when the buzz of Black History Month died down and they were off the hot seat. Here’s what I shared through my Instagram stories:

via @selfcarecoka

All facts. It’s true. Black consumer can tell when you, as a brand, only care about Black creators when it’s MLK Day, Black History Month, or Juneteenth and I’m tired of it.

Sarah did not like that free publicity … so I finally heard back from the brand after being ghosted with a piping hot scolding from Sarah herself. I’m going to take you through and unpack how this email was the microaggression you learned about in those racial seminars you took in 2020.

The email starts off calling out the very “hostile” nature of how I depicted our conversation on social media. Speaking my truth as a Black creator through my experience with Sarah and her brand is hostile? Once I saw that word, my blood began to boil. As a Black woman, any time we express anything other than happiness and support we going from being your “homegirl” and “sis” to being “hostile” and aggressive. If Sarah was truly an ally to the Black community she’d understand why starting this email off calling this situation hostile is an inappropriate choice of words - point blank, period. It gets worse from there ..

The good ol “you should be happy we recognized you” sugar coated speech. The narrative went from my content being “free labor” to me having to be grateful for the “exposure on our brand account”. News flash, Sarah, and brands in general - EXPOSURE DOESN’T PAY THE BILLS. Hell, exposure doesn’t even give me the money to even afford to shop your brands. Oh how the tables turn behind closed doors. Let’s keep going, there’s more ..

Now it’s time for some #girlboss gaslighting. The “ghosting” being in quotes mocking me expressing my frustration on my Instagram story and this bullshit response. Because I was a decent person and replied to the person who DIRECTLY CONTACTED ME, I’m the one at fault for why my free labor has gone unpaid? If Lori is not at discretion to approve any content creator budgets .. why did Lori ask for my rates in the first place? Because I didn’t “personally” contact Sarah to follow up on money SHE SAID SHE OWES ME, I’m at fault. Would a white creator get this treatment? Aside from being a creator, as a customer are you expecting the people who spend their hard earned money to chase you around to get answers? It’s truly despicable how Sarah’s attitude in private correspondence varies so much from where it started during Black History Month. But of course, it doesn’t end here.

This is where we learn about the difference between Black and a Person of Color. After throwing the Angry Black Woman label on me with her opening statement on hostility and insinuating that I should just be grateful for the exposure of Sacheu’s repost of my “free labor Sarah decided to remind me of what makes her unique as an “immigrant and woman of color herself”. If you were really connected with these demographics, you’d understand the racial undertones of your words and actions.

The funny part about this is when she begins to list her efforts of how she and Sacheu has supported “creators of color” and “communities of color”. Was it Communities of Color Month or Black History Month where my content was used for her brand’s free promo?

I had to laugh when she mentioned doing an IG live with the CEO of Black Girl Sunscreen to bring exposure to their brand because Black Girl Sunscreen has a whopping 163 thousand followers on Instagram compared to Sacheu’s humble 38 thousand. Who really gave who the exposure? And remember, class, exposure doesn’t pay the bills! You’re talking about passing the mic when you need to be talking about cutting the check. To wrap this lesson, and this email up, let’s get into Sarah’s closing statement.

Sarah decides to not even attempt to pay me anymore because of my expressed frustration. At this point in reading this email I realized I was not getting apologized to and I was not getting paid. Sarah reached out for respect. This was a sugar coated way of her telling me to watch my mouth when I speak about her and her brand. As an “immigrant and woman of color” I wonder how she’d feel if the roles were reversed and I was a white man. She’d probably feel pretty threatened. I wonder what type of response she was expecting, but to conclude this lesson for us all I’m going to share with you what instantly came to my spirit when I realized I was exploited for my content and connection to the Black community.

I’M TIRED. As a Black woman reading this email I realized many truths. No matter how educated you are, no matter how dope your content is, or how understanding you are - the world may be committed to seeing you as the stereotypical Angry Black Woman. As a Black content creator in this Eurocentric beauty industry I have to get used to giving “free labor” to brands who see me as hostile, to brands who think I should be grateful for their mere acknowledgement of my existence. As I watch mediocre white influencers secure bags left and right with often stolen concepts from smaller Black creators. I don’t really know how I feel about my future in this industry these days, experiences like this may not be one of a kind, but I do know that there needs to be a larger conversation about this. By amplifying this story, you can help start that conversation.

Cheers,

Kahina aka Glowja Cat aka THE Hostile Black Woman