Why are Black People Protesting Gucci?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

So incase you all missed it, Gucci released some pics showing a white a chick in a black turtleneck style sweater to where the turtleneck part extends to cover up the woman’s nose and where her lips are, Gucci put some giant red lips on the black part of the turtleneck.  I’m not sure if this sweater is purely a woman’s sweater to imply that the lips are just simply lipstick, but regardless, you all know that anytime a knee grow sees something black with some red lips on it, the “IT’S RACIST!” flares are automatically shot high into the sky to alert every social justice warrior on the planet to break out their new Twitter protest hashtags.

Spike Lee went on IG and stated…

Then trap star turned blacktivist from the ATL by the name of T.I. chimed in with the following saying…

So that’s what both Spike Lee & T.I. had to say about this whole Gucci tomfoolery.

Here’s the thing, why is this even a discussion?  Why? Spike Lee been so-called woke since the damn 80s.  T.I. just became woke within the last 5 years or so. How come niggas like this haven’t been putting their money into black fashion designers and promoting these people if they really gave a damn about the respect levels of the black community?  Spike Lee is up here talking about he’s not going to buy anymore Gucci until that company hires more black fashion designers. Well, how come somebody like Spike Lee doesn’t help to finance the fashion designer dreams of one of these black employees he’s calling for Gucci to hire.  Damn near every fashion designer in the world has dreams of starting their own fashion line and having that fashion line becoming the biggest and most coveted fashion on the planet. Matter of fact, that’s how Gucci got started. Dude who started Gucci was a fashion designer for Louis Vuitton at one point. So if somebody like Spike really cares about the input of black fashion designers, then with his influence, he could really help a young black fashion designer out there potentially get their line more notoriety and fame.  So why is he advocating for a Gucci to hire more black people when to me it seems Spike should be advocating for more black people to show out and support aspiring black fashion designers who are trying to get their brands launched etc. What is Mr. Do The Right Thing really doing here?

Then T.I. is running around talking about how’s he’s a 7 figure/yr customer and he feels appalled at Gucci’s actions and won’t be supporting the company because he’s tired of these companies treating black people like shit.  But once again, how come T.I. isn’t using his influence to help promote an up and coming black fashion designer? T.I. is Mr. pro-black these days right? He’s all over ATL protesting shit in some form or fashion and then he’s all over social media speaking the black economic empowerment language right, well ok. How about using your platform of millions to shine a light on black fashion designers who are really out there doing the damn thing in terms of creating genuine fashion products, but for some reason can’t get enough traction to their businesses for whatever reason.  

Why are niggas like this constantly crying about what these white owned fashion companies are doing and then they want to run around and boycott?  Why are they doing this in the first damn place when they could have easily been dropping money into up and coming black fashion designers etc and then using their influence to tell other black people out there to support these people?  

I just saw an article talking about how the rapper Future spends around $300,000/mo on clothes…$300,000 per month my nigga.  How many of you out there want to take a wild guess as to how much of that money is being spent on black fashion designers. Granted I highly doubt that Future has a so-called “pro-black bone” in his body, but I mentioned his spending habits because I’m quite sure T.I.’s spending habits on high fashion from white designers probably isn’t that much different.  Just imagine for a second that T.I. was spending money like Future to the tune of $300,000/mo on just clothes and shoes. Imagine Mr. Pro-Black T.I. spending all of the a$300,000 (or at least half of it) on black fashion designers and then using his social media to promote these people. Imagine what that could do the self-esteem and bank accounts of black fashion designers to have world famous black celebrities promoting and buying their fashions on a constant basis.  What would happen is, you wouldn’t have T.I. out here making IG posts talking about how black people spend $1.25T dollars and can’t get any damn respect from white people when black people buy these white owned products. You wouldn’t have that taking place. Instead what you would have is T.I. making IG posts talking about “SUCKS TO BE GUCCI RIGHT NOW! GO CHECK OUT SUCH N SUCH BLACK FASHION DESIGNER BECAUSE I PERSONALLY PUT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MY DOLLARS INTO BLACK FASHION DESIGNERS ONLY!”  But no, that’s now what we have. Instead we have a bunch of knee grows mad that they have to take off their Gucci and Louis belts now to show some type of solidarity with black people who feel these companies are racist when these knee grows shouldn’t even be out here making these posts in the first damn place because they have enough money and influence to truly put their money where their mouths are to actually shine light and inject life into a black fashion designer who’s probably out there struggling his or her ass off trying to figure out how to get black people to support black fashion instead of European fashion.

So I’m saying, this is just another one of those pointless boycotts that actually has a real life tangible solution that can be enacted literally right now instead of these black rich superstars running to social media to tell everybody how offended they are at this latest so-called racist offense towards black people.  If you really love black people and you really love fashion, then go out there and find a black fashion designer and buy from that person and promote them to all of the people who follow you on social media. Wear their clothing all up in your videos, mention their names all up in your songs. Stop crying about what da white man is doing and go out there and help shine a light on a black person who’s out there putting in work in the fashion world but just can’t seem to get moving to the level of the Gucci’s, Prada’s and Louis’s of the world.

But we all know that’s not about to happen.  It’s way more popular to attack the so-called racist white entity that it is to promote and glorify the black entity who’s in the same industry.

Edit: After posting this article, T.I. did go on IG to highlight black owned fashion designers. ✊🏽