Baller Alert Entertainment & Lifestyle
Black cosmetics brand Juvias Place is facing backlash after praising historically racist makeup influencer Jeffree Star.
Juvia’s Place is a Black-ran makeup brand that has gained much recognition for its wide range of pigmented palettes and its dedication to highlighting African culture. But now, the Black community – specifically Black makeup influencers – are turning their noses up at Juvia’s Place after it praised problematic makeup artist and YouTuber, Jeffree Star.
Over the weekend, Star purchased Juvia’s Place’s foundation, and in doing so, posted a video giving credit to the company for having diverse palettes. He went on to recommend the brand to his more than 15 million subscribers. “If you wanna try something that’s very full coverage this year, or you want to look sickening all summer and look like a doll then try it out and let me know how you feel,” said Starr. ”I’m thoroughly impressed,” Starr added in his post. In return, Juvia’s Place took to Instagram and thanked Star for the review, writing, “We’re speechless.”
Following the post, Juvia’s Place was met with thousands of attacks, with many calling the makeup brand out for forgetting Star’s racist history towards Black people and women of color. In several instances, he has been seen using the racial slur ”n*gger” and referring to Black women, like #JackieAina, as a “gorilla.” But despite, Star’s previous apology, the Black community seems to have Star on its canceled list still. In the midst of calling out Juvia’s Place for not holding Star accountable, Black beauty bloggers also pointed out the brand’s mute mentality towards them, saying when they voice their concerns with the company they were blocked. One person in particular mentioned their disappointment with JP allegedly favoring and featuring lighter complexions more in its foundations.
In response, the founder of the Juvia’s Place, #ChichiEburu wrote a statement addressing consumers’ concerns. “The first issue we’d like to address is the Jeffree Star review. We are always excited when customers and bloggers organically love our products. Jeffree tweeted that he was going to do a review and we were excited. He then filmed and reviewed the product. Out of excitement, like we do for our other supporters, we reposted him and thanked him, but soon realized a portion of our followers weren’t happy about it. Jeffree Star was not paid an outright fee nor given commission. As a person of color, and an immigrant I, understand the brutality and struggles faced by our kind, and for those reasons, I do not support any racist remarks and Ill-treatment in both actions and words made towards people of color, particularly black women. We understand there are disagreements, but everyone deserves mutual respect and love as we are all fighting our unique battles and challenges daily. We apologize to our customers. We can only ask that you give us the opportunity to make this right.” Eburu is a Nigerian woman herself, however, her apology was taken as sarcasm after she tried to push past the controversy.
“whoever wrote this (I’m willing to bet it is chi chi or someone close to her) is being sarcastic,” Aina said, in response to the page’s request to move forward. “highly. sarcasm is every Nigerian’s second language. she’s literally saying she doesn’t give a damn. and as funny as the caption is, it’s actually really really sad. It’s taunting”
“please.” dodjsjxjsjdjsjd NO! our foots shall remain promptly pressed on that neck https://t.co/oTk0eCqRyu
— THE HOOD ORACLE #BLUEFORSUDAN (@emoblackthot) June 16, 2019
If you have watched Jeffree Stars videos you know that he explained the mistake he made that had people calling him racist. I will never be okay with the word he used (the N word) but he did explain what happened and he took responsibility for it. He said it actually changed him deeply. It is possible he learned from his mistake. Here’s the problem. Almost everyone has said something racist in their life either knowingly or not. You can say “anyone who has said the N word is racist” but it is not accurate. If someone is actively working to be part of the solution and not the problem, I think they deserve a chance …you should never forget, but it is okay to forgive…once.