Should Brands Post About Juneteeth on Social Media?
Throughout the past week, I’ve had a few (white) small business owners and friends DM/email me to ask if they should post about Juneteenth and the Black Lives Matter movement on social media. I decided to talk to a few friends to get their take and write up a longer blog post about this topic because there isn’t really a “one size fits all” answer to this.
For those who just recently heard of the holiday (shame on our school system), this Friday is Juneteenth, a day that has flown under the radar for most Americans outside of Texas.
June 19th, aka Juneteenth, is the celebration of the day in 1865 when slavery was “abolished” in Texas—two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation (there is more to this story because the US still has a problem with modern-day slavery within our prison system. According to this article in The Atlantic, “the Thirteenth Amendment forbade slavery and involuntary servitude, ‘except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”).
An important distinction: “The Emancipation Proclamation was a broad military strategy that just made it so free states couldn’t become slaves states. It didn’t technically free the slaves.” - Aleshea Skitch Carriere of glitzngrits, a lifestyle blog.
Source unknown.
The holiday itself started in Texas in the 1980s.
I heard about it about four years ago through the Wine Country Moms Blog, for which we wrote a round-up of Juneteenth celebrations around the Bay Area.
Now the holiday is a household term because of the ridiculousness of Trump wanting to host his first MAGA rally (in the middle of a f*^@&ing pandemic) originally on June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma (the location of the worst racial attack in U.S. history—you can see why this is problematic). Please read more about this horrific part of our American History that many of us never even heard about until now. He changed the date, but he can still suck it.
Brands Posting About Juneteeth on Social Media
Even though I have been asked this question several times this week, I really wanted to do the work, dig into some research, and make sure my answers go further than a black square on Instagram to show solidarity for this important movement that has protesters in the streets and on social media over the past few weeks.
And just like I am doing, I urge you to educate yourself and your team before you post anything.
One result of the Black Lives Matter movement happening now is that people are asking more from the brands they choose to spend money on. They want to know where businesses stand on issues that matter to them. They want to know about hiring practices for diversity within management; they want to know how a winery or food producer treats their vineyard workers, cellar workers, or farm workers—mainly people of color; they want to know if the CEO or winery owner has donated to Trump in the past.
People Are Voting With Their Dollars
Right now, it isn’t just the younger generation who cares about where they put their money. We’ve always said that you vote with your dollars, and with COVID-19 hurting so many small business owners and communities of color at disproportionate rates, this is such an important time to really take a hard look at where your money is going.
Social media has become a vehicle for brands to show support—but some may face backlash. Several have been called out for what is called performative support, meaning they do something like post a black box to try to show solidarity, but then go back to ignoring BIPOC in their everyday business.
I will be honest: I started off as a younger woman in the wine industry, and at first, I never wanted to speak up on things that mattered to me because I wanted to be taken seriously. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more comfortable with who I am and what my beliefs are, and I’ve definitely taken to social media more to speak up.
I’ve lost friends and followers because of it, but I think the turning point was when Trump was elected. What we have seen over the past three and a half years is a startling lack of “meeting in the middle” with the current administration. He has shown time and time again that he wants to take away rights from people I love. He does not see anybody but his white base as equals. And, at this point, no amount of meeting in the middle should be tolerated.
OK, I digress. Right now brands are looking to speak up, and I applaud that—but I also want to help friends realize that it is more than just a black square on social media. You must back up your voice, your claim to solidarity, with action. I talked to Kerry Rego of Kerry Rego Consulting, Califa Witsch of Witsch Digital, and a few influencers + marketing groups I belong to in order to come up with this list for brands who want to do something.
Please let me know if there is anything else you feel deserves to be added! But before you read the list, I first want to say - Please Don’t Use Juneteenth As an Opportunity to Sell. Juneteenth is a celebration, a chance to educate your community and promote Black voices. It is not the moment to push sales.
Action Items for Businesses This Juneteeth
Go beyond posting a black square or a Martin Luther King Jr. quote and calling it a day. Do some research into Black voices in your industry vs. an obvious quote.
Learn more about how Black wine professionals have been hurt in the past. Please check out @juliaconey on Instagram. She has a list of Black wine professionals, making it easy for you to follow their accounts and—more importantly—connect and do business with them.
Wine friends: Share details about the first Juneteeth Saber Celebration put on by Chevonne Ball (@Dirty_Radish on Instagram). It is a virtual celebration on both Zoom and Instagram to “commune in joy: in our joy in life, wine, and freedom. Our three mission words: Congregation, Jubilation, and Cultivation, are merely to start the conversations to center Black Joy, and to radically use our love of wine in order to hold ourselves in celebration.”
Find a nonprofit helping the Black community in your niche and donate a lump sum, or have part of the proceeds from sales on June 19th (or a specific product) go to the charity. For those in the wine/food industry, please look at Roots of Change, The Okra Project, Association of African American Vintners (AAAV), Black Earth Farms, La Cocina, etc. If you are in tech, please check out Black Girls Code. If you want to donate to Black trans women, check out the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. For broader places to donate, please take a look at Black Lives Matter, The ACLU of Northern California, or Fair Fight 2020 (Stacey Abrams’s nonprofit to end voter suppression and ensure fair elections), or do a Google search for nonprofit organizations helping protesters in your neighborhood.
Highlight Black-owned businesses and Black-led community organizations in your industry.
Do takeovers where brands allow an activist or educator in the Black community to take over their account for the day. - via Kerry Rego Consulting: Social Media Training
Amplify the messaging of an organization that works with the Black community (ideally Black-run) or otherwise highlight their good works. - via Kerry Rego Consulting: Social Media Training
… Or simply don’t post that day. You can share something on your website if you want to show your support, but you can NOT post for the day. Don’t force yourself into feeling like you are doing it just for marketing purposes. (this was mentioned by a few marketing friends like Aleshea Skitch Carriere of glitzngrits, and Califa Witsch of Witsch Digital).
If you aren’t a marketer (or even if you are), then please take some time to educate yourself and your children on what Juneteeth is, and why the Black Lives Matter movement is so important.
Then you can take the next step to try to fix some of the glaring issues within your own industry (wine friends, please start here: Does The Wine Industry Have A Racism Problem? or Being Black in the White World of Wine, an article by Dorothy J. Gaiter, or What Being an Ally Really Means - How the drinks industry can move from words to actions when it comes to supporting POC drinks professionals, by Shakera T. Jones).