As brands ranging from Aunt Jemima to Land O' Lakes reckon with their racist origins and make sweeping changes to product marketing, the movement has finally hit the beauty and personal care aisle.
In the past week alone, several major consumer packaged goods and cosmetics conglomerates announced plans to pull skin-lightening creams from shelves and remove words like "whitening," "lightening," and "fair" from existing products that valorize lighter skin. Their efforts come on the heels of global protests over the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police officers and mounting international support for the Black Lives Matter movement, prompting changes across nearly every industry.
For the beauty industry, the push had been a long time coming. In November 2019, Amazon removed skin-lightening products from its website after criticism over toxic chemicals in such products and their inherently racist nature. Meanwhile, the cosmetics industry has long been the target of controversy for its lack of inclusivity in products that fail to represent a wide range of skin tones and types.
Ben Parr, co-founder of marketing firm Octane AI, said while it's not surprising that these companies are reconsidering problematic products like skin-lighteners, it could set an important precedent that may prompt widespread industry change given their global scope.
"The moves by these global corporations will for sure continue to drive global impact that the Black Lives Matter movement has started," Parr told Business Insider, citing demonstrations that erupted around the world. "I think that you will probably see a permanent decrease in interest in skin-lightening products worldwide as the world reckons with racism in beauty."
We took a closer look at how these companies are changing, below.