Jeffree Star and other makeup brands are racist and stand in fake solidarity with BLM, allege former employees
The shockwaves from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the demand for racial equality are being felt everywhere. Countries across the world have joined in the cause, signing petitions, making donations to help while also raising awareness. Various companies across industries have also stepped forward to do their part and contribute to the movement — one being the beauty industry. Many beauty brands have donated to various charities dedicated to the black community over the past few weeks, but do they actually practice what they preach?
Just as the movement began gaining momentum, former employees of some well-known brands were empowered to openly discuss the racial inequalities and unfair treatment that they experienced in their workplace. Jeffree Star cosmetics, Anastasia Beverley Hill and a bunch of other popular make-up brands have been called out for their racism, despite their blatant show of support for the BLM movement.
Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson
Jeffree Star has pretty much made a name for himself in recent times for his tendency of being controversial. He has effortlessly stirred up drama before, while also constantly telling others to move on and then issued apologies in rather long videos. Yet, it seems that he has no qualms about doing it all over again. While Jeffree has shown his support for the BLM movement, his actions are causing social media users to call him out on being fake. Beauty influencer, Kameron Lester uploaded an IGTV video on his Instagram, coming clean about his relationship with Jeffree Star, claiming that the YouTuber had "used" and "manipulated" him while making him feel like a "token black kid." In the 27-minute video titled 'Fear and Manipulation within the beauty community', Lester talks about his interactions with Star, Shane Dawson and James Charles, and why he no longer supports them.
"Silence is complicit," he asserts in his video. "As a Black beauty boy, I have fought for my spot to be heard and seen in the beauty community. I have been told not to say anything, to keep the network and benefit from it, and I'm just not that type of person. I want to remain authentic." He elaborated on the time he spent with Star on the campaign that they did together but said something had always felt "off" between them and although he was grateful, their relationship had "so many cons that outweighed the pros." He demanded to know from Lester, whether or not he liked James Charles. "I didn't even know what to say to that... he was so blunt and out of nowhere. James helped me with my career when I first got into the beauty space... he's always been very supportive of me," Kameron said. "[Jeffree] was like, 'Well you don't f**king owe him forever.'"
He said that Shane Dawson also had some ugly things to say about Charles, proving to him that Dawson wasn't the person he claimed to be online. Lester said that James had always stood by him and never made him feel uncomfortable. He also recalled how he had been replaced in the Jeffree Star Cosmetics campaign by his ex-best friend. "I felt like he was trying to send the message in some way that I was replaceable as a Black boy," said Lester.
"I felt like this was a game. Even with Shane Dawson posting me on his platform... I was grateful, but I felt like it was kind of to silence me to be like 'We're gonna keep giving you breadcrumbs and hanging you by a string and manipulating you so you can stay quiet.' I felt always silenced." Lester went on to say that he soon began distancing himself from Star and his circle. “I got to the point where I was being used as a Black boy. I just felt like it was never a friendship, it was never a friendship, in the beginning, to start with, it was always just something like I was the token Black kid,” he said.
Anastasia Beverley Hills
Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) announced on June 2, that it would pledge one million dollars towards the fight against systemic racism, oppression and injustice. A beauty influencer had previously spoken about how the brand treated her and recently exposed some receipts on Instagram to support her claim. Taj Reed, a former employee, spilled the dirt on how the brand had manipulated her by altering her contract to detail apropos to what Reed had asked for. Reed is friends with fellow beauty influencer, Jackie Aina, and when she was in financial need, Aina referred her to Norvina of ABH. When the two got in touch, Reed discussed her terms with Norvina and the type of work she had done for other brands and even stressed on the fact that she was looking for full-time work. She even disclosed the rates she would charge for her content ($950 per video), which Norvina acknowledged and informed Reed that someone would be in contact with her soon. Norvina even announced that Reed would be the brand's first-ever content creator, just a day before Halloween.
Despite clearly mentioning her expected revenue, her offer letter stated she would be paid $1000 per week for two videos, which was not what they had discussed. "First and foremost — $1000 for two pieces of content breaks down to $500 per piece of content, which is not what I quoted. But I said, okay 1K a week pays the bills. I can save, we can revisit and re-establish rate down the line when I'm situated. Never got to that point," wrote Reed. She didn't get her contract until two days before Christmas, after two months of waiting.
But in that time, one of Reed's Christmas takeover videos were edited and used by the brand, but her creative rights had been completely stripped off. She wasn't allowed to post her own content without written consent from the brand. "They were to own it IN PERPETUITY and gave themselves rights to duplicate my work and slap their name on it as the author WITHOUT MY CONSENT". In the final contract that she had been handed, they had completely altered her rates and content. "What it sounded like was they were going to pay me a ONE TIME fee of $1,000 for four pieces of content — broken down that's $250 for each piece of work. Content that I charged damn near $1000 EACH."
And in the midst of all this, when she tried to reach out to Norvina, her emails went unanswered. Seeing that Reed wasn't about to budge, the company brought in another person for mitigation, who eventually informed her that "The COO will not allow us to make an open-ended deal for that amount of money, and our needs as a company have changed. So what we are offering you is $1000 for four pieces of content." She was also informed that she wouldn't be paid for the work that she had already done until she signed the contract. She was angry and frustrated at being lead around in circles for months, and she felt dejected and like she had no other option but to sign with them.
"I was disgusted with my treatment in all been a blatantly ignoring me that I started to talk about it on Twitter. When it started gaining traction, she sent me a message asking if she could call me," Reed said. However, Norvina got in touch with her and clarified that she had no idea what was going on in her own company. This was in late March, earlier this year, and since then she hasn't heard anything from them. Norvina unfollowed her on Twitter, but the company has reassured that they want to work with her in the future. "I am TERRIFIED of the retribution I’ll likely face. But I deserved better. Thank you," she said in closing.
Milk makeup
The former creative producer of the popular beauty brand Milk makeup also exposed the racism and unfair treatment she faced while working for the company. Edelawit Hussein took to Instagram to post a statement on the same. "I wasn’t going the speak about this publicly until someone made me aware of @MilkMakeup’s clown a** solidarity #pulluporshutup post. Your company is NO ally of the black community," she said in the caption of her post. Hussein was the creative producer for the brand from 2017 to 2018, and claimed that the VP of marketing, Nicole Frusci, and all other white employees had "made her life a living hell" by being "either complicit or ignorant to what was happening around them."
"I came to Milk makeup because of its pillars of inclusivity, diversity and unity, but it stands for none of that", she said. Frusci had appointed her previous coworkers from Benefit Cosmetics and incorporated them into a new team, that Hussein closely worked with, and they reportedly "co-opted African-American slang only while speaking to me and other black employees screaming 'GURL, OKUUUURRR'. They were not speaking to white employees like this." She added, "I actively made it a priority to maintain a professional line of communication." But the same people went and snitched on her for not being a team player and friendly. Frusci cornered her in an elevator and yelled at her about being cooperative and accepting of the new team members
"Frustration quickly grew among black employees, as this new team distinctly changed the workplace environment from one of inclusivity and diversity to one riddled with micro and macro aggressions that were never discussed and that we were made to understand we're not welcome topics of discussion," wrote Hussein. "Any and every time that I stood up or didn't blindly follow orders that I didn't agree with, I was silenced as these new employees push to toxic and deeply problematic work culture in the company. At every turn, Milk makeup did not hear any of the feedback given by me and other black employees."