Is There a Right Way for Retailers to Participate in Juneteenth? Experts Say Yes
It’s been two years since President Biden and Congress declared June 19, or Juneteenth, as a federal holiday. And some retailers and brands are still working out how to best mark the event with their customers.
Along the way, there have been missteps, such as Walmart’s Juneteenth ice cream last year, which the retailer pulled from shelves after critics complained it was tone deaf to the larger meaning of the holiday.
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Juneteenth commemorates the official end of slavery in the U.S., when, in 1865, Union soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas, bringing news that enslaved Black people were officially emancipated. It’s often thought of as being commemorated, not celebrated, given that the date recognizes institutional freedom for generational injustice and intense suffering.
So companies that decide to mark the occasion should proceed with intention and care, say experts.
“If you’re going to step into this, then you need to do so with the understanding that there is a responsibility to do this right,” said Renée Tirado, owner of VegaRobles Consulting and a longtime diversity and inclusion executive who previously worked for Gucci, Major League Baseball and AIG.
“If you’re not doing the internal and the external and the grassroots work, then sit down and wait until you’re ready,” she added. “Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up. And you’re doing a disservice to it.”
The work she refers to starts with companies asking why they want to participate in the Juneteenth holiday and whether it matches their core values. “Does it align with who you are as a culture internally? Does it align with your culture externally?” Tirado said. “And let’s just be honest — have you invested in this? Look at your history around your events and your marketing. Is this a one off or part of a bigger narrative of driving inclusion, equity and diversity in all of your activations?”
Retail chain DTLR checks all those boxes, according to Tremayne Lipscomb Sr., director of community outreach. For instance, he said, the company was instrumental in helping to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday, by partnering in 2021 with nonprofits and community partners to raise awareness around the country. “We also used social media platforms and retail locations to educate consumers about Juneteenth and encourage people to sign a petition to make the celebration a nationally observed holiday,” he said.
Lipscomb noted that the retailer’s deep commitment stems from its staff and customers. “With our company demographic being 90 percent African American, the Juneteenth holiday is extremely important for us to recognize and celebrate,” he said.
This year, DTLR is partnering with Dallas nonprofit For Oak Cliff and Adidas Cornerstone to host an event on June 17, in Dallas’ South Oak Cliff neighborhood, featuring programming that benefits and supports the local community, including free memberships to the Perot Museum, animal classes by the Dallas Zoo, a live cooking demo by Joppy Momma’s Farms, plus pre-K and voter registrations, and life-size art installations educating visitors about Juneteenth. And DTLR is sponsoring fresh produce giveaways for over 200 families.
In terms of DTLR’s strategy, Lipscomb explained, “We believe in creating an authentic approach to highlighting the holiday through education and engagement within the communities we serve.”
For retail chain Snipes, it’s also using the holiday as an opportunity to foster education and (as in past years) to highlight Black artists and entrepreneurs. The company is hosting a three-day festival that includes customer activations at its Fulton Street store in Brooklyn, N.Y., (on June 16) and Parkway Crossing store in Baltimore (on June 17).
Guests will have the chance to sample complimentary treats from the Black-owned bakery Cloudy Donut Co., listen to electrifying beats by live DJs, participate in art workshops and take home free water bottles by Suplmnt.
And on Monday, June 19, it will present the “Black Is Not a Monolith” panel at Hotel Revive in Baltimore, which is set to be a thought-provoking discussion among about topics that empower and shape the future of the minority community. Panelists include Cloudy Donut partner Zewiditu Jewel, balloon artist Brian Ward of Art on Display, Jairus Morris of Suplmnt and nonprofit leader Sherelle Hogan of Pure Heart Foundation. The moderator is sneaker artist and Baltimore native Akio Evans.
Other brands are taking a similar approach as well.
True Religion is joining forces with Still Rising Corp. for its annual Leimert Park Juneteenth Festival in Los Angeles on June 19. The free ticketed festival will feature 300 Black-owned businesses, live performances and local community hires. At the event, True Religion will host a Q&A panel, two basketball teams and a performance from The National Pan-Hellenic Council of USC Step Team and hip-hop duo, AG Club.
“True Religion is a brand centered around community, and by joining forces with Still Rising, we are making a tangible difference and showing up for our customers, employees and all of those around us,” said Theresa Watts, SVP of human resources, diversity, equity and inclusion at True Religion, in a statement.
Tirado said that those types of community-building activities are a better way to mark Juneteenth than themed product releases or campaigns. “You’re still driving the business, but you’re also supporting your people,” she explained.
Tirado added that for companies that operate in the athletic and fashion businesses — which have long catered to and benefited from Black culture — Juneteenth is an opportunity to begin to repay those contributions. “If you consider the disenfranchisement of black people, you know, for the first 300 years of this country, how do we start to reinvest in the communities that we divested from right from the beginning, and that we weren’t invested in to begin with,” she said.
To help companies ensure they are taking a holistic approach to Juneteenth and other culturally sensitive events, Tirado advises leaders to first do the work to educate themselves. And then look at the internal makeup of their teams to make sure there are more voices in the room.
“If your marketing team, your brand team, your social team is not diverse — and it’s not reflective of your clients — then [your activations] become performative, they become reactionary,” she explained. “In those two instances, you run the risk of having a PR crisis. And these just are not the times for that, especially in an environment of cancel culture.”
But the end goal, said Lipscomb, is not to exclude people or companies from participating in the holiday. “We encourage all retailers to commemorate Juneteenth in a meaningful way to help raise awareness of what it stands for and its importance in our nation’s history,” he said.
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