Writer & Motivational Speaker Mikki Taylor sits down with Sherri McMullen and Tia Adeola to speak about changing the narrative that other fashion brands are better than black fashion brands.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 a time where there are several high profile black luxury brands that are extremely popular
00:06 in black culture, there still seems to be this perception in our community that non-black
00:12 owned luxury brands are somehow better. The white ice is colder is the theory these days.
00:20 And I just want to ask you all, why do you think that is? And how do we eliminate that
00:26 perception as a collective? I mean, for one, I don't agree that they're better. I think
00:38 that they just they sort of have the infrastructure, they have the funding, they have the backing
00:46 that we don't necessarily have. And somehow we still manage to sort of strive and like
00:52 excel. So I think it's I think the problem is bigger than us. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But but
01:04 so we have to insert ourselves in the challenge, though. So so how do we change that? Yeah.
01:10 And that that's the that's what I'm looking at, how we can change that. Sherry. I mean,
01:16 I do think that collectively, as black people are, are spending, right, or spending power
01:24 is something like two point three trillion dollars. Right. So think about if we take
01:32 a portion, a good portion of that spending and spend that with black owned brands and
01:37 what that means for black businesses. Right. And just thinking about just in my everyday
01:45 life, you know, whether it's fashion, it's my home, consumer goods, my lifestyle, I'm
01:52 looking for brands that are by people, underrepresented people. So whether it's female brands, female
02:00 designers, female entrepreneurs, black women, black people. I'm going to open that door
02:07 if I can, because we have started at a deficit. Let's be honest like that. We are not the
02:17 ones getting the VC funding. We're not the ones who's getting the loans at the bank.
02:25 And I know firsthand because that was my experience when I started. I had, you know, what I thought
02:32 was all of the things that they were looking for and I was turned down. So how do we knowing
02:39 that not so many, not all the doors are open for us. How do we create doors for each other
02:45 and being able to support one another? It would be wonderful if there were more VC,
02:51 black businesses, more black owned banks. So I think that's how we start to think about
02:59 our spending power and what that means. Because when we stop spending with brands and people
03:04 that don't align with our values, that's when people are going to listen and say, Oh shit,
03:10 like what, you know, right. What happened? What happened? Because if we pulled out the
03:13 bottom would fall out.
03:14 (upbeat music)
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