Dear Maybelline, and L'Oreal: Black Lives Matter and "Trans" is Not A Trend.

Like many of us, in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, I've spent the last three months getting emails from Verizon, Chase Bank, and almost every company I've ever shopped with online. It's always sentiments about what a difficult time Americans are experiencing, words about how much they care, and usually very little about what they actually do.

Being among the 1 out of 4 Americans currently out of work because of coronavirus, I've found little ways to cut expenses. I use my phone a ton for work, but I downgraded my data plan knowing I'd be home. Then I realized, since I was paying about $70 for my Verizon cell phone plan plus $50 a month for internet (which increased by $15 in May probably due to a promotion ending), I hoped maybe I could switch to some type of "zero-data" cell phone plan. I hadn't heard of this, but they sent an email, so I thought I'd ask. My phone already gets internet from the home WiFi I pay for. Unfortunately, Verizon's email about being there if I needed them was sweet, but a 45 minute wait to get a representative and a short conversation later revealed that they had no real options to bring my bills lower.

I had a similar experience with Chase. While I was waiting for several outstanding paychecks to arrive, I asked if they'd be able to lower my interest rate on my credit card. They offered to delay any monthly payments, but interest rates were not up for discussion. Fortunately, I was able to pay off my cards in full once my checks came in, but for many people not as privileged, Chase would have continued charging them high interest rates and earning a significant profit.

In that moment, and in countless others, I recognize, that I am one of the lucky ones. I got a good education that my parents paid for. I grew up in a safe neighborhood. It was what my family was working towards for generations.

My Mexican immigrant grand parents and my mother immigrated to this country. My mother's father was a construction worker. Her mother, a housewife. My father's parents were cattle ranchers and farmers in Arizona. My parents were the first generation to go to college. My mother was the first woman in her family to enter the workforce. He became a Pulitzer Prize winning news journalist, the President of UNITY which promotes diverse hiring practices and accuracy in journalism. Members of my family have been teachers, nurses, secretaries, business owners, Air Force and Army veterans, musicians, fashion designers, and in my case, a makeup artist.

I've been working as a makeup artist for seventeen years. I've earned a middle income doing it, a little money towards my retirement, an Emmy award, and an apartment in a safe neighborhood in the most diverse city in the world. I've worked with dozens of luxury, drugstore, and indie beauty brands.

I have always tried to speak up for people different than me, donate money when I could, and empower young makeup artists who reach out to me. My biggest career advice is based off of something my father told me about his college students, "My graduates don't work for free", and something my mother told me about corporate clients, "They always have money."

I do not believe anyone should be doing work for free. There are plenty of people charging money for professional development classes, saying "you should take every opportunity" that is offered to you. There are plenty of "clients" who try to say that. There's one agency in New York that told me after a two day magazine job that "There has been a change" the rate is now 20% less than we originally quoted. I told them about the Freelance Isn't Free Act and reported it to the city of New York (and got the check, and lost a client that wasn't worth having).

If at this point in my career, I'm willing to let people take advantage of my skills, my experience, and my professionalism, then what hope is there for those just starting out?

My sister unknowingly taught me about standing up for herself, when she was in first grade. A boy in our after school program started cheating or picking on her during recess, so she started whacking him with a foamy Nerf bat (from then on the councilors put him in gym class, and sent her to art class).

So with all these opportunities, and knowledge passed on to me, I'm responsible for doing my part. And telling people that their work generates wealth for others and that they deserve to be paid for it. When aspiring makeup artists ask me about how to build a clientele, I tell them, "I don't network. I don't look for 'good connections'. I build good relationships. And they're based on mutual respect."

We live in capitalist country. We tell people to put their money where their mouth is. We know that there are businesses who donate to politicians that vote to strip us of our rights. We know that there are businesses who do little more than send a nice email, maybe donate a little money, and continue to be as neutral as possible until life gets back to normal.

Well, I don't want life to go back to normal. A lot of people don't. I don't want the Black Lives Matter movement to be something that's forgotten again by the time election day comes. I don't want trans people to go back in the closets. I don't want the separating and detaining of Latino families at the border to continue, or for all of these communities to go back to fighting alone against the opportunism, bullying, racism, police brutality, and under employment that our communities were already facing before coronavirus and the the financial crisis.

I don't want to go back. I want it better.

Americans are speaking up. They are fighting back. We are calling for support from corporate America, and we are checking the receipts, literally. Sharon Chuter of Uoma Beauty is telling brands to "Pull Up or Shut Up". Forbes released a huge list of beauty brands that have agreed to make contributions, and made sure to specify how much. Maybelline New York said they've made a donation to the NAACP. It's parent company, L'Oreal, said they're donating $500,000 on behalf of their many brands to a number of organizations.

This is a lot of money...for me...not for them.

According to their own financial reports, available online, L'Oreal (and their many makeup, skincare, and haircare lines) as a group sold over $29 billion dollars worth of products in 2017. They are the largest cosmetics company in the world. According to Statistica, "In 2018, Maybelline's expenditures on U.S. media stood at 241 million U.S. dollars in U.S. media." They are the largest makeup line on the planet.

Suddenly, a $500,000 out of $29,000,000,000, in sales doesn't seem very much does it? And Maybelline telling us they donated a mysterious amount of money to the NAACP, doesn't seem like much either considering they spent $241,000,000 on advertising to consider us to buy their products.

And it's important that I point out, that Black women helped make this possible. Black women spend $7.5 billion on cosmetics. They buy 80% more makeup. African-Americans spend $1.2 trillion a year.

When citizens...their customers...are being tear gassed, and reporters are being shot with rubber bullets. This is not the time to go silent.

I reached out to Maybelline hoping to get more information than had already been published online. They confirmed the above info, said they cared about inclusivity and equality, and encouraged me to look out for their Pride initiatives. And this was my last straw.

Pride. I've been lucky to be friends with and work with many, many trans people. I've tried to be a good ally, but there is no limit to how much support their community needs right now. I was thrilled when someone from Maybelline corporate reached out to me last year on social media asking for referrals to trans women for their social media Pride campaigns. I asked several follow up questions about what qualities, besides just being trans, they would need to posses. I've worked with trans supermodels, actresses, community organizers, activists, writers, models, that are cis-passing, gender non conforming, of all races and ages. It turned out, the one thing they had in common is that if I referred them to Maybelline, they would not be paid.

I asked what their talent budget was so I would know whether to introduce them to someone who was a celebrity or undiscovered talent. They told me they didn't have a budget because it was for social media.

I have no information about what Maybelline pays influencers for social media partnerships, but I do know Maybelline has 10.3 million followers on Instagram, and that social media is an expensive, but proven, business investment. I also know that trans is not a trend.

I kept my response polite, but then shared a lot of insight. This conversation happened the same month that President Trump's transgender military ban went into effect. I didn't feel right referring someone from one of the most under employed, discriminated against communities in America, with the highest suicide rate and the shortest life expectancy, to the largest makeup line un the world, and encouraging them to work for free. Munroe Bergdorf may have been rehired by L'Oreal Paris U.K. along with donations to Mermaids and U.K. Black Pride, but it took three years, a social media scandal and a slew of bad press for them to try and make it right. A black, trans, woman shouldn't have to have 300,000 for her voice to matter.

Many trans women without a large social media following would likely have participated in the Maybelline project for Pride, and I can only assume those who did, did so for free. But when you prey upon members of racial, gender, LGBTQ, and other minorities, asking them to give their time without pay, some will be so desperate for validation, they will say yes. Others, will rise in power, and say no.

So today, in honor of all of them, and my family, and the women and the people of color who have given me career opportunities, mentorship, and friendship, I say thank you. I owe my privileged life to all of you. And to be clear, you owe me nothing. Your humanity, and my responsibility to help you fight for it, is not dependent on how much you've helped me earn.

With that, I share with you my open response to Maybelline and their parent company L'Oreal. This is a questionable career move for me as someone who's based so much of my career on working with beauty brands. But I'm also a gay, freelance, makeup artist, living in New York, who's the grandson of Mexican immigrants, the son of two reporters, a member of a union, and was once a kid who wrote to Ringling Brothers about how they were mistreating the elephants. So it should come as no surprise to anyone when I speak the inarguable truth, "Black lives matter" and "queer lives matter".

My chest is pounding and my stomach is in knots, but my nervous discomfort over speaking out about my industry, should not prevent me being honest, and encouraging you to demand more in life than empty promises. It's the very least I can do. Because you're worth it.

-Andrew Sotomayor

Below is the text I emailed back to a representative from Maybelline, who had confirmed the previously announced information about their response to the Black Lives Matter movement, followed by screenshots of my text exchange with and employee from Maybelline:

"Tuesday, June 9th

Dear [redacted],

Thanks for writing me back and for disclosing the information you're currently able to share. 

Yes, I looked through my inbox to see if we had worked together before, but I think we were only ships passing in the night when I did a Maybelline Facebook Live a long time ago.

As I said, thank you for sharing what you're able to. I want to be forthright and express my disappointment. My first job in beauty was at the Lancome counter back in 2002, so I've seen the journey that L'Oreal has been on from not representing women of color with enough shades at the counters, to now when Lancome, Maybelline, and many of the sister brands have a much broader number of shades available for purchase. While offering those products is a sign of progress, the success of these corporate diversity initiatives make it even more disheartening that during this new apex of the Black Lives Matter movement, so little money or attention has been given to the fight against racial injustice and discrimination against Black people and LGBTQ people. It sort of feels like people of color, and the makeup artists (including the gay Latino ones like myself), have supported and helped brands like Maybelline to have financial success and celebrate diversity, but only in spirit. However, we haven't yet been heard regarding what our communities need in return besides just product selection.

I feel I should point out at this time that I was reached out to last April by a representative from Maybelline corporate looking for referrals to trans women to participate in Pride videos for Maybelline social media. I could pass along the names of dozens of names of trans women from fashion, community justice, television, and music, but I declined to do so after learning they would not be paid. With the common knowledge over how much money is spent on partnerships with major beauty influencers, I cannot understand how Maybelline would choose not to budget for queer talent, especially during Pride month, and especially for a trans woman, who would be representing the community in America with the highest rates of unemployment, suicide, and discrimination. Like all people, they deserve to be paid for their time. "Trans" is not a trend. 

Erin Parsons is my favorite makeup artist on the planet. I love her artistry, what she stands for, and how she treats people. She is an absolute genius. I will never stop being so thrilled to have assisted her at a handful of Maybelline fashion shows. I'm glad that Erin posted a video four days ago of civil rights activist, Jane Elliott.

I'm disappointed that Maybelline hasn't tapped Erin for her skills as a public speaker and her 220 million followers to address these issues. Grace Lee is also an amazing public speaker, and Maybelline has worked with makeup artists around the world. They, the Maybelline supermodels, and the Maybelline Instagram platform with 10.3 million followers are an untapped power to do good.

Maybelline has an opportunity to elevate activism. Doing so in a space where people weren't initially looking for it, makes it that much more powerful.

Instead, one Instagram post was made May 30th with a mission statement backed by an undisclosed donation amount. Another post, made June 2nd, for #blackouttuesday (with Black in lower case letter), of a blacked out tile (which contributed to burying evidence of police violence, and the non-profit resources Black activists and allies spent days curating), and simply saying "Black Lives Matter" (which is the very minimum that can be said) is all a huge missed opportunity. Since then, there has been radio silence. 

These decisions feel like Maybelline takes, if not a totally neutral stance, one that involves the barest minimum effort to avoid an outcry or polarization over what are purely human rights issues. 

Seeing how much time and effort Maybelline and the L'Oreal family invested into improving their shade ranges and their hiring practices, there are good examples of the brands understanding the importance of diversity. We see tons of corporate emails right now celebrating diversity. That said, selling foundation to women of every skin tone, and putting rainbow banners on websites, or hiring talented minorities (who are of course the key holders to the spending power of our communities), does not remove the responsibility of standing up for equality. 

While Maybelline and the L'Oreal's reason for existing is to sell cosmetics for profit, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that, their social media silence and vague information about a relatively small donation feels disingenuous. It feels especially so, given that the much smaller brand, Anastasia Beverly Hills, already donated $100,000 last weekend and has committed to donating $1 million dollars over ten years. 

It doesn't make sense to me why Maybelline (the largest makeup line in the world), and L'Oreal group (the largest cosmetics conglomerate in the world, worth $29 billion, gave only $500,000 collectively and isn't showing up more for the communities that helped build their profit. 

As a someone who has worked with cosmetics brands at every level from a salesperson, a journalist, a copywriter, a spokesperson, and a makeup artist, I understand that celebrating Maybelline and L'Oreal's  minimal effort would be the more politically correct thing for me and my career. But owing much of my career of the past 17 years to women of color and the LGBTQ people who've mentored me, the correct thing for me to do is to stand up for their humanity.

-Andrew Sotomayor"