Slow down, fashion!
Welcome to This Black-Ass Life! As Fast & Furious FAMILY members, please know we understand the need for and prioritize speed. However, with our fashions, we want to take a step back and question when and why we need a full dress sewn by questionable labor standards and shipped to us within 48 hours.
I. The Facts
Fast facts on fast fashion.
From its roots in colonialism and slavery to its abysmal labor standards and history with avoidable catastrophes -- like the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse, the textile industry has always been a hot mess express.
Consumerism and the thirst for content are partly at fault here. With weekly micro-seasons and clothes designed to fall apart and be out of fashion within weeks, the industry is willing to risk:
Consumers’ physical health with the materials making up the clothes (fast fashion garments are found to contain toxic levels of toxic chemicals including lead);
Workers' health with poor labor conditions to sustain the churn (an estimated 27 million people working in fashion supply chains worldwide will suffer from work-related illnesses or diseases);
However, the thirst for content is just part of the story. The colonial legacy of the textile industry continues today, with many companies outsourcing production to developing countries. The fast fashion industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers worldwide; of those, an estimated less than 2% make a living wage. In late 2020, Public Eye researchers found Shein staff across six sites in Guangzhou to be working 75-hour weeks. Workers they spoke to clocked three shifts daily with only one day off per month.
If all that is not scary enough, the environment suffers too. It costs thousands of liters of water to produce clothing, 20% of the wastewater worldwide is attributed to the textile industry dyeing with toxic chemicals, 35% of all microplastics come from synthetic materials, and 57% of all discarded clothing ends up in landfills. Further, 60% of fabric fibers are now synthetics derived from fossil fuels, so our clothing does not decay when discarded. Speaking of the ramifications of environmental degradation, just this past week, more than 600 Nigerians have died in the worst flooding the country has seen in a decade; 1.3 million people have been displaced and 200,000 homes have been destroyed.
Why does it matter?
First, we are not here to shame you. We started writing with me (Jumoke) telling Mitu about the three items of clothing I just bought for literally $2.
Also, we must state the obvious regarding fast fashion retailers; they are often the only ones making size-inclusive clothing. And with inflation still out thieving, saving money anywhere we can is imperative for most Americans.
However, we need to be honest with ourselves. As Black people who live in the Westernized (and thus privileged) world, by living the way we do, we actively devalue people’s labor and talent both in this country and outside of it.
Like y’all! Remember old-school Uber? When we were traveling like 50 miles for $5?! Pre-pandemic, we were getting mani-pedis for under $40?! This doesn’t mean that paying $100 for a Uber ride or not visiting your local nail shop is the move; in either case, workers still lose money, but we need to keep it real with ourselves about how we value people's time and labor.
People are actively putting their lives in danger to bring us a sandwich, losing limbs to sew us that blouse we’ll soon forget about, and peeing in cups to get us our package on time.
And for the most part, increasingly around the world, these people are other Black people. With labor laws becoming stronger in Southeast Asia, the garment industry is preparing to settle in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Ethiopia as a primary destination.
It doesn’t jive to show up for Black people, protesting things like American state-sanctioned violence and murder while wearing two-piece sets made by underpaid, abused Ethiopians that will ultimately end up dumped with other unwanted shit suffocating communities in Ghana. Considering the implications of what you buy, how you live, and on whose back our comfort relies is how you consider and show up for Black people.
What can my Black ass do?
As subscribers of this newsletter, you know the big bad wolves here: corporations, capitalism, and imperialism. It's easy to feel helpless, but there are ways we can play our part, like checking our consumerism.
Stop buying stuff: check out these tips on how to stop, start small with a no-buy month, and join a community of others not shopping,
We don't say this lightly because this is a hard thing to do for some of us (read me: Jumoke). I love buying stuff like Oprah loves bread and corn kid loves corn. Y'all, I counted 47 candles in my house—a fire hazard to my bank account and my actual apartment. In the words of the poet laureate Pink, 🎶 I'm a hazard to myself 🎶.
If you must buy, buy secondhand. Retailers overproduce, and at some point, that dress/thing you want will show up on Poshmark or eBay for far less. Try renting if you want to switch it up.
When buying clothing, support sustainable fashion brands and call them out when they are not size-inclusive. Check out the Fashion Transparency Index to see where your favorite brands fall on the list.
Read Aja Barber's Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism. Listen to her interview on For Colored Nerds.
II. Other Things
Black-ass happenings: Recommendations edition!
Speaking of fashion, the African Fashion exhibit at the Victoria and Albert museum brought tears to my (Jumoke's) eyes. Black creativity, ingenuity, brilliance, I love us for real. No fast fashion here!
This clip of Taye Diggs and Morris Chestnut entering a room.
Strange Loop is closing. Go see it!
Do you want an hour of unadulterated laughter? Check out the Cocktails and Takeaways podcast.
Viola Davis is funnnny and SO inspiring on Hot Ones.
The second-best Real Housewives franchise, Potomac, is BACK and already fantastic. The #1 honor goes to our sisters in Salt Lake City.
In the year of our Lord 2022, we, unfortunately, got sucked back into Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta drama! We recommend watching via YouTube clips like we do!
RIP TO A REAL ONE: Angela Lansbury, may you rest in eternal peace. Read Jessica Fletcher Forever.
Our Black-Ass song(s) of the week (Mitu):
Janet THE PERFORMER Jackson released a deluxe version of an already perfect album, The Velvet Rope.
Things we look forward to:
I (Jumoke) look forward to hot showers because the hot water heater broke in my building (that damn supply chain!). I had bucket baths for five days! For anyone wondering, the bucket over the head at the end of the bath was as exhilarating as I remembered. IYKYK.
I (Mitu) look forward to my first Halloween with my puppy because yes I did get her a costume.
lll. A Black-Ass Baby With Black-Ass Haters
This baby gave her doll a seasonally-appropriate silk press and her family tried to clown her. Just know you’re winning when the haters come out like this, baby girl!!
Stay Black, have a snack, and take a nap today. We'll hit your inbox next on October 31.