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Unilever EVP & COO NA Beauty & Personal Care Esi Eggleston Bracey in conversation with Tai Beauchamp and National Urban League President & CEO Marc Morial as they discuss how brands, organizations and the Black community must work together to build.
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00:00Hi, everyone. I am Ty Bochamp, and I'm truly honored to be at this year's Virtual Essence
00:12Festival with Dove. In 2018, Dove started a journey with the National Urban League,
00:19Color of Change, and the Western Center of Law and Poverty Center to make race-based
00:25hair discrimination in workplaces and schools illegal by founding the Crown Coalition. Now,
00:31I know you've heard of that, right? So today we have some amazing change agents who are going to
00:37join us to talk about how brands like Dove and Black-led organizations like the National Urban
00:42League and people like us are moving the needle forward to help break down systemic racism in
00:49actionable ways. So please help me welcome A.C. Eggleston-Bracy, EVP and Chief Operating Officer
00:58of Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever North America. We can give it up for her. And Mark
01:04Moriel, President of the United States. Thank you, Ty. Yes, A.C., so good to see you. Also joining us,
01:11we have Mark Moriel, President and CEO of the National Urban League. What's up? How are you?
01:17What's up? It is so great to see both of you. Thank you for being with us here at Essence. And I'm just
01:23so super excited about this conversation. So we're going to jump right in because we have only 15
01:27minutes, people. Only 15 minutes. Dove and the National Urban League first joined forces as
01:33co-founders of the Crown Coalition, along with Color of Change and the Western Law Poverty Center.
01:39A.C., why don't you tell us a little bit about how this partnership started and what was the impetus?
01:44Yeah, I can remember being back in 2018 and thinking and learning how crazy it was that
01:55hair discrimination still existed. And as a part of the Unilever portfolio, the Dove brand has
02:01continually been committed to beauty inclusivity. And the whole idea that actually kids and adults
02:07could be turned away from either their workplaces or school environments because of their textured hair
02:12hair was just not OK. We've seen a number of things happen nationally. We saw a young man named
02:18Andrew Johnson, whose hair was butchered in New Jersey. He had the choice to forfeit a wrestling
02:24match. And then, you know, Dove and all of us saw a number of young girls who were going to school in
02:31New Orleans and turned away because they wore braids. So many of us had seen that. We said that shouldn't
02:36be the case. So we worked together and thought we can do something about this, something that's
02:41meaningful and lasting for the black community. So as we started on this, we thought, how can we
02:47work with like-minded organizations to really champion something that's important? And Urban League,
02:53the Color of Change and the Western Center on Law and Poverty was another. And out of that, we championed
03:00and brought to life the Crown Coalition. It started first with Senator Holly Mitchell,
03:04who stood up to the challenge of let's make a change together. She created the concept of Crown,
03:11creating a respectful, open world for natural hair. And July 3rd, just last year, we had the first
03:18legislation passed in California, Governor Newsom signed and made it illegal, passed a law to make it
03:27illegal for any discrimination of our textured hair, you know, because hair discrimination is racism.
03:33It's discrimination. So in July 3rd, we celebrate the one year anniversary with Crown Day of ending hair
03:41discrimination. We've got seven states that have passed. California was the first. And we've got,
03:46I always say, Mark and I, we've got 43 more to go. We've got federal legislation introduced,
03:5220 other states that are introducing that we are committed to getting to those 50 states where
03:58hair discrimination is illegal, consistent with Dove's mission, of course, to make beauty universally
04:04accessible. And of course, to ultimately end racism and discrimination.
04:10AC, I, I mean, I celebrate you and applaud you as an individual, but obviously as a corporate leader,
04:16because this is what it's about. You know, corporations have a role to play
04:20in kind of advancing us as a community and as a people. So thank you for all that you do and for
04:26the impetus of the Crown Coalition. Mark, why don't, why don't you share why National Urban League decided
04:32to join the coalition and why you felt it was important for you to partner with a corporation
04:38like Unilever and like Dove? Well, first of all, let me thank you. And I want to thank the
04:43Essence team, Richard Lou Dennis and Essence Ventures and Essence Communications for
04:50the 26th year bringing the Essence Festival, albeit virtually, to literally millions of people all over
04:56the world. Thank you so much for the continued leadership. I want to thank AC and I'm a part of
05:02the Crown Coalition because no one tells AC no. You're right about that. Good answer, Mark.
05:11And I love that. But you know, Mark is going to tell us about the next challenge. Thank you.
05:16Yeah. Two personal, two personal sort of reflections of one that goes way back when I was in high
05:23school. So when I was in high school, I had a huge Afro. I was rocking the Huey Newton Afro, you know,
05:31back in the 1970s. And I went to a high school that had very few African-American students. And
05:36the disciplinarian at the high school tried to get me to cut my hair. I was, you know,
05:46how would you call it? I was, you know, Black Lives Matter in 1970s.
05:51Right. You're building about it. And I pulled out, I pulled out the student, student manual
06:01and said, this manual says that no one can wear their hair more than two inches below their collar.
06:08My hair is not two inches below the collar. So why do I have to cut my hair? That ended the
06:15conversation. The rules had not been written to contemplate students with Afros.
06:21But then secondly, most recently, a girl in my hometown of New Orleans, and this was a story
06:29that made national news, was forcibly removed from school because she came to school with braids that
06:38were extensions. And the school had promulgated an absurd rule that said that you could not use
06:44extensions or any artificial hair pieces. I think that became a rallying cry. And when I saw that,
06:52I was absolutely outraged. And it was about that time that I was approached about the Crown Coalition.
06:59And I ran into Orlena Blanchard socially, and I didn't know. And she said, you know, we're doing
07:06something real interesting about it. I said, hey, I want to be a part of that. The National
07:10Army wants to champion that because we stand up for our young people. And we stand up for,
07:16you know, the broad variety of concepts of what Black and African American beauty is all about.
07:22And so this was easy for us to say yes to. But most importantly, what impressed me the most is
07:32that this was more than a public relations effort. It was an effort to do what is so critical when you
07:38want to work for transformation and change. And that was now seven states passing model legislation
07:44developed by the Crown Coalition. And yes, we've got 43 more. But to do seven states in such a short
07:50period of time is a tremendous accomplishment. And it demonstrates why this was so appropriate in
07:58terms of timing, but also standing up for our ability to express ourselves and express our own
08:08cultural beauty according to norms that we create, not norms created by others.
08:15Absolutely. Thank you for that, Mark. I mean, one of the things I appreciate about this is that,
08:19as you shared, this is all personal for us. We all have hair stories. And as someone,
08:24AC and I were speaking earlier, I change my hair every week. You know, so the reality is Black people,
08:29this is a form of self-expression and a form of who we are. And we need to continue to push for
08:36legislation. So I appreciate that we have seven states. Kudos. The work continues. And I'm just so
08:41grateful for the work that you're doing. And in such a time as this right now where it was about hair
08:46discrimination. And as I say, we're living in the pandalution right now. We're in a revolution
08:51right now. AC, why don't you share, you know, Unalepa recently announced the expansion of the
08:56Crown Coalition to expand beyond hair discrimination. What are some of the new actions of the coalition?
09:02Yeah, thank you again, Ty. We really do believe that hair discrimination, we know, is discrimination.
09:10So it's important to continue on this journey of discrimination. And the young woman that Mark
09:16talked about, you know, face from New Orleans, really showed us all how painful it is to our
09:23identity. The young lady was so hurt as hundreds and thousands are when she was turned away because of
09:29her hair. But when we look with a, really, we've been able to move forward with the Crown Act, because of the
09:35support for many who were probably and hopefully watching this, this live broadcast. And we thought
09:43with that, in addition to the founding partners of the Crown Coalition, we have like nearly 70
09:50supporters. And first thing Dove wanted to do was do add to the Crown Coalition and support the
09:59supporters through the Crown Fund. And that's a $5 million pledge over five years to support
10:05many of our Crown Coalition partners. They include, like, for instance, Earth Girls that have 2,000
10:13students, and there's help beyond hair, but really to advance their programs. So we've got dozens of
10:18partners that we're going to help support and broaden the cause. The other thing that we're doing is I
10:24mentioned earlier, the acronym of Crown, creating a respectful open world for natural hair. The
10:30discrimination against hair, again, is one type of racism, but we're expanding the end and no race
10:35and natural hair to go for end for no racism. And we've got four pillars. One is ending the
10:44discrimination overall and bias like the Crown Act, but there are three others. One is reimagining
10:50public safety. The other is economic equity. And the other is voter suppression. It's voter suppression.
10:57Those are four areas that continue to impact us and maintain systemic racism.
11:02So in short, the Crown Coalition is expanding from only championing the Crown Act, but that remains
11:09super important, but expanding to the other three social justice platforms with the support
11:15of Mark and the Urban League. And Mark has a big vision, as we do together, for the focused legislation that we
11:24can drive and impact together to change lives. We really do believe changing legislation changed lives
11:31forever in the way the civil rights legislation did, the Voter's Right Act did, and even, I would say,
11:39the Executive Order of the Emancipation Proclamation. So the coalition is up for making a systemic
11:46difference in those four pillars through changing legislation.
11:51It's critical. And, you know, I'm excited to hear about all of the amazing work. And I know it takes a
11:58huge effort to do so. So, Mark, with your support and your partnership with National Urban League,
12:03how will you work with the Crown Coalition going forward?
12:06Well, we're going to be working hand in glove to shape these new pillars. And these new pillars
12:12are timely because of this, you called it a pan, what'd you call it? A pan revolution?
12:21A pan revolution. A pan dilution. This is a pan dilution.
12:24A pan dilution. May I borrow that word?
12:27In the middle of the pandemic.
12:28I love it. But the idea is to focus on, I think, in the immediate term, on police reimagination
12:38and criminal justice system reform, and to build the same kind of both national and local coalitions
12:45that was so successful in the Crown Act. What we have to recognize is that to reimagine policing,
12:53it requires changes in federal law. It requires changes in state laws in many instances. And it
13:00requires changes in local policies and practices, which are in the hands of elected mayors, elected
13:08council members, elected county commissioners. We are working with great vigor to pass the brand new
13:17George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. It got through the House of Representatives
13:21just a few days ago. And now, now we're on to the Senate, where we're going to have one battle
13:29on our hands. And the distinction is going to be between the George Floyd Justice and Policing Bill,
13:34which is a substantive and meaningful bill, and alternatives that are nothing but toothless tigers
13:41and empty suit bills. So we're going to be working to build this coalition, to build a coalition of the
13:50woke and the willing, people who want to make a difference at this important time in American
13:56history. And I think we have, we have the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a broad movement,
14:03has created a new awareness, a new sense of urgency, and a new sense of energy. And we have got to work
14:13in that movement to bring about the types of changes from a policy standpoint that we need.
14:18Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. And we have, there's just one thing I would love to add as we wrap,
14:25that I would love the audience here to help us in our journey, because it really makes a difference if
14:31the audience can go sign the petition, thecrownact.com. You can go on right now. We are looking for 100,000
14:39signatures. We've got over 70,000 in support of our one-year anniversary of Crown Day. So please go to
14:46thecrownact.com. And to learn more about the Crown Coalition, you can go to crowncoalition.com.
14:52So thank you. Thank you so much, AC. That was going to be my question. How can viewers get
14:57involved? So as we wrap, I just want to thank AC Eggleston Bracey and Mark Morial for joining us
15:03and for all of the amazing work that you're doing to advance change and necessary change in our
15:08community. And as all of you can get involved by going to dub.com backslash crown, sign the crown
15:16petition. As AC said, the National Crown Act Day is July 3rd. We thank you and thank you for joining us
15:24here at Essence Fest 2020. Thank you, AC, and thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Ty. Bye, Mark. Bye. Thank you, guys.
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