TIME TO GIVE FEWER FCK$

One of the greatest benefits of having money in life is the freedom to not give a fCK.  The more money you have the fewer fCks you have to give.  Chipotle wants to charge you extra for guacamole; you ask for two scoops.  The Silver tequila is more than the house; no problem!  You missed your flight and have to pay a change fee; bon voyage suckers!  The outfit you want still hasn’t gone on sale; whatever, put it in the bag.  You don’t like the school district your child is in; you pay for private.

With money, you can move more and care less; which is why these fashion companies like Prada, Gucci, and Burberry could care less about creating, marketing and selling overtly racist attire.  You must see it by now, right:  THEY.  DON’T.  CARE.

Of course, none of them will ever admit that.  And quite frankly, I had concluded that these companies probably didn’t have a diverse staff, so they were unaware that their products and advertisements were racist.  But now, after yet another offense, I must accept and assert that these companies aren’t “careless” – but rather, could not “care less” about Black folks or our dollars.

If they did, these mistakes wouldn’t keep happening.  These companies are multi-billion empires; who put together focus groups to determine if pea green or cucumber green is more appealing for the season; who have 18 sets of eyes approve the font used in an advertisement; who have lighting specialists to ensure that lights are positioned perfectly to show their clothes in a way that makes them most appealing.

More importantly, their entire focus is to create clothes that people love and desire so much that they are willing to pay premium prices for them – a far cry from affirmatively offending people. They don’t want to offend people (at least not the ones they care about). Have you ever pondered why no other groups (gay people, transgender, Jews, Asian, disabled, White people) are “accidentally” and repeatedly mocked through fashion?

If they cared about us – our opinions, our influence or our dollars — their staffs would already include Black people.  The lack of diversity at these fashion houses isn’t the cause of the problems (as I initially thought); rather it is just another symptom of it.  Black voices aren’t appreciated at these companies at any level – employee, executive, customer or investor.

These companies give zero fucks because the money they earn from Black consumers is like that extra scoop of guacamole for them … insignificant.  Although we Black Americans spend more on conspicuous consumption (on average, 30% more on clothing, cars and jewelry than Whites of comparable income) only a very small percentage of our the 12% of our population can afford to buy their products anyway.  Additionally, I can’t help but to wonder, since some of the offenses are so obviously racist, if these offensive pieces aren’t just careless mistakes but rather intentional business decisions. Did the staff at these companies care less about our feelings and more about being provocative and shocking to their majority customer base?

History has shown that each company will release a PR-written insincere statement, talk about plans to change that no one will follow-up on, perhaps hire a head of Diversity (which is oftentimes more like a Figurehead of diversity) for their public image, and keep on doing as they choose.  These companies have the benefit of not having to give a fCk about Black folks.  Our three-month boycotts don’t matter.  Our feelings don’t matter.  It is fully up to Black people to take their own power back. Stop being David trying to fight Goliath.  Why get in the den when you don’t have to?  If we shop at Black owned businesses, build the economy within our community, we can build ourselves to the point where we too have a lot fewer fCKs to give.