Kylie Jenner revealed her company, Kylie Cosmetics, have 100% women employees amid the intense Black Lives Matter protests across the United States. Although the Keeping Up with the Kardashians received praises for it, she is also criticized for only having 13% Black employees.
Although she clearly showed that there is diversity in her massive cosmetics empire, some said it is not enough. Kylie Jenner's update about her business is part of the Pull Up for Change initiative, which is also joined by several beauty brands that also want to show the diversity in their workforce.
In a post on Kylie Cosmetics' Instagram, it revealed that 13% of its employees are Black, 47% are BIPOC, which means Black, Indigenous, People of Color, 53% are White, and 100% women-identifying. In the caption, it wrote that the post is for Pull Up for Change, its team, and the Black community.
It went on to say that it is proud of the company's diversity, with a team composed of Black, White, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern women. As it continues to grow, it promises its commitment to focus on its workplace's ethnic diversity and recruitment of Black employees.
The said percentage of employees accounts for the people that are working for Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin HQ. The whole team is only led by two people, Kylie Jenner and Kris Jenner. It then thanked Pull Up for Change, Sharon Chuter, and UOMA Beauty for bringing up an important matter to the forefront of the current conversation in the industry.
According to Daily Mail, social media users can not help but leave a comment on the post, calling out the 22-year-old makeup mogul for the low number of Black employees. One commenter seemed to be surprised that only 13% of People of Color are working for Kylie Cosmetics.
Some also asked her to hire more as the number was not enough, given that African Americans set the trends and standards in the beauty industry. Also, being a women-identifying company, the count seemed to be not progressive. She was also asked about the non-binary/trans folks.
Another one noticed that Kylie Jenner only has one Black person modeling for her brand on its Instagram page. Some critics also pointed out that the KarJenner girls have a history of being accused of cultural appropriation for styling their hair with braids and cornrows.
On the contrary, some are praising Kylie Jenner for her transparency. Instead of criticizing her, they are encouraging her to hire more models and influencers who are People of Color.
