Anne D’Hynenzio, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – Co-founders of a company that manufactures lip products for dark skin tones no longer want to introduce the line to Target. The brothers and sisters who make jigsaw puzzles celebrate a puzzle that celebrates black subjects.
Poundcake and Color Puzzle is one of the small businesses that owners are rethinking their plans as major US companies weaken diversity, equity and inclusive programs. The initiative was primarily from President Donald Trump’s first term, and entered a new era at the dawn of his second term.
Some black brands are likely to drop the partnerships they pursued after police killed a black man in 2020. In today’s anti-DEI climate, other entrepreneurs are concerned about personal impacts or feel pressured to cancel contracts with retailers.
“That’s going to be a problem, are there any big box stores there? We’ll even try to talk to these people?” said Erica Chambers, one of the puzzle’s brothers. “We have to really evaluate our strategies about how we expand and how we want to reach the front of new customers.”
A battle chance for black-owned brands
Chambers and her brother William Jones began to turn the work of artists of color into crazy puzzles in the same year. In Black Lives Matter, protesting Floyd’s death, fashion designers challenged large retailers to spend 15% of their shelf space and buy power for the black business.
The 15% pledge helped bring color puzzle pieces to Macy’s and Nordstrom’s websites in 2022. Last year they made it a handpicked Barnes & Noble store. Chambers said she is confident in the company’s commitment, but recalled the backlash after the news outlet covered the Texas-based brand.
“Some people are so vocal about being anti-DEI that it makes us think about how we imagine ourselves as to the safety of not wanting to be attacked,” Chambers said.
The vibrant portrayal of a black woman accounts for much of her and Jones’ puzzle. The pair thought it would need to provide a more abstract design for a particular Burns & Noble location to give the coloured puzzle a “little fight chance.”
Frustration with corporate diversity
The first notable names of US retailers surfaced last summer in the end or revival of their diversity program, as well as threats of legal challenges and negative publicity from Day critics.
After Trump won a second term in November, Walmart joined the company’s pullback. The suspension of targets on comparable DEI targets in January stabbed black and LGBTQ+ customers more vigorously, as they viewed the Minneapolis-based company as a more natural ally.
The company said it will continue to work with a diverse range of businesses. Camille Bell and Johnny Velazquez, co-founders of Philadelphia-based Poundcake, said they don’t think they’ll agree at this point if the retailer offers to stock lipstick and lip oil.
“The goal would have greatly boosted the growth of our business,” Velazquez said. “I’ll just find it somewhere else.”
Whether or not boycott them?
Target’s stance has created a dilemma for founders of brands with existing distribution transactions. One is Play Pits, a natural deodorant for children, launched in 2021 by Maryland resident Chantel Powell. This product is available in approximately 360 Target stores.
The retailer’s DEI program “had been able to hire great people, give back to the community and showcase black excellence on and off the shelf,” Powell wrote on LinkedIn as civil rights leaders told the boycott of their targets.
She and several other product creators highlighted the impact that boycotts have on their business. They urged customers who were upset to intentionally limit purchases to items from black-owned businesses. Some activists understood. Others pushed the brand to take part in the protest by reducing their relationship with their targets.
“The conversation about black brands is unrealistic about them saying they should get out of the retailer they are in,” Powell said this month that the 40-day target boycott was ongoing. “We’ve signed up for the business. We understand why people are having boycott conversations. As a black founder, we also understand the aspects of how harmful it is.”
Navigate the landscape after DEI
Owners of black-owned sexual wellness businesses with their own condoms have slightly different takes. Target began carrying B-condoms in 2020, and founder Jason Panda said he had no intention of storing them in 304 stores stocking him with prevention later last year.
Panda says he’s not worried. The product is available on Amazon and at over 7,000 CVS stores, he said. Additionally, contracts with nonprofits and local governments that distribute condoms for free are the cornerstones of the business he founded in 2011, Panda said.
“My money never came from the mainstream,” he said. “We’ll be protected as long as we can maintain our relationship with our community.”
Brianna Alps, who founded fragrance brand Moore in 2021, has noticed that there are few grants available to black brand creators these days. She applied for 10-15 every week. According to ARPS, that number has gone from 5 to 7.
“Many organizations (black businesses) that were really speaking out about support have been pulled back quietly or outwardly,” she said.
Moodeaux was the first black-owned perfume brand to incorporate perfumes into urban trinkets and Credo Beauty, specializing in natural vegan products. In the current environment, ARPS is expanding its brand presence independent shops and seeking to support other black scent lovers.
“The elasticity of brands like us and founders like me still exists,” she said.
Emphasizing positivity
Aurora James, founder of the 15% Pledge, is a beauty retailer, Sephora, J. It said nearly 30 major companies that participated in the initiative, including Crew, Gap, and more, are still committed.
Ulta Beauty, another pledge signature, Credo Beauty has pound cake products. Velazquez and Belle want to use social media to support retailers such as Ulta to followers, and to enhance their online sales.
“It’s going to nurture the community we have and grow it,” Velazquez said.
While making the strategic decision to “apply to a wider audience” when choosing a Barnes & Noble puzzle, Chambers said they plan to showcase the chain’s black face and experience over the long term, in boxes of 500, 750 and 1,000.
In the meantime, Puzzles of Color expanded its “Pride” collection in response to DEI’s repulsion. Subjects included Harriet Tubman, a mother and daughter who cares for the garden, and a little girl from a beauty supplies store staring at her hair accessories.
“Are we leaning all the way?” Chamber asks herself. “Part of the reason I started this is because I didn’t see enough black people in the puzzle.”
Original issue: March 26, 2025, 12:36pm EDT
