“Progress Has Been Undone”: Uoma’s Sharon Chuter On Make It Black, Empty Promises And Beauty’s Big Reset

As Uoma Beauty founder Sharon Chuter gears up for year three of Make It Black, an initiative raising funds for emerging Black founders and reclaiming the word “black,” her excitement for it is coupled with fatigue. The progress on racial equity promised by retailers, banks and other companies has dwindled, and consumer support strong at the outset has gotten tied up in “woke” politics. She reflects, “We are in a very interesting time where most of us are sitting and asking ourselves, what’s next?”

For Chuter, what’s next is to forge ahead despite disappointment. “We’re still having to get ourselves up, move forward and say, ‘Hey, we’re still going to do Make It Black. We’re still going to raise money,'” she says. “The things we can control, we’re still going to control even if we live in an environment where people don’t really care.”

Uoma, ColourPop Cosmetics, E.l.f. Cosmetics and Neutrogena, a newbie to the campaign, are participating in Make It Black this year. The brands have placed products in limited-edition black packaging for the month of February to demonstrate the beauty of black. Gross profits from their efforts will go toward Pull Up For Change’s impact fund, which has amassed almost $1 million to date. Neutrogena has pitched in a $100,000 donation this year.

As part of the campaign, Chuter will send more than 6,000 letters to the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster to request updates to the definitions of black. One definition in Merriam-Webster describes black as “characterized by hostility or angry discontent.” A petition started by Pull Up For Change in 2020 to revise the definitions has gathered over 6,400 signatures on change.org. Chuter says, “We are going to keep making trouble, good trouble.”

Ahead, we chat with the entrepreneur and activist about lack of progress in the beauty industry, her thoughts on possibly exiting Uoma in the future, and why she’s ready for a beauty reset.

What does this fourth season of Make it Black look like?

This fourth season of Make It Black is very similar to last year. Last year, we did two [campaigns] and, of course, that put a lot of pressure on what is a very, very tiny organization. I’m happy that we’re able to still come back and do another one this year, especially in the climate that we’re in. Everybody has been really stretched, so I’m very proud of is the fact that we continue with the dedication to do this to support Black founders.

On the other hand, one of the parts that is a challenge is to see society care less and less every day. It’s a drag because I’m coming to really realize that the issues that are out here in America are issues that I don’t think America is ready or wants to invest the time in fixing because it needs a long-term commitment.

Most companies that made pledges back in 2020, none of them have actually fulfilled those pledges. We’re looking at people who made promises of, “I’m creating a $3 billion equity fund.” Where has it gone to? They have not been deployed.

We’ve seen all the venture capitalists who said, “We are going to start investing in Black businesses.” Where are they? Some are happening, but they’re investing in businesses who don’t even need them. Nobody’s going to distressed businesses and looking after people who don’t have that support on how to scale.

You have TPG, as an example, who has an impact fund to help people from marginalized communities where the criteria to get money from that fund is $50 million of revenue. If my company has done $50 million, I don’t need your impact fund.

For me, the heartbreak is realizing that nobody cares, and now people are so blatant about it. At least for the last two years, they were pretending like they cared or they wanted to try. Now, we are in a place where the “I don’t care” factor is palpable. It’s an uphill battle because people have forgotten about it and moved on.

We’ve had this unfortunate murder [of Tyre Nichols]. Look at the hashtag on Instagram, it’s not even hitting any real fever pitch. Having the opportunity to raise even more money to deploy is incredible, but, when I look at the overall climate, my heart just completely aches because we are not moving forward.

What do you think it’ll take to get past the fatigue?

What it will take is what it always would take, which is a long-term, sustained investment. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a society that has an attention span of more than five minutes. Something more interesting is going to happen. That’s why it’s so hard for a lot of us right now who are activists in this space, we’re all scratching our head in terms of, what do we do? We’re literally floored.

People are bringing in people who just want the optics, but not really wanting to do any work for it. The level of commitment to this is zero. Everybody wants to do the thing that is going to get them the press release. In 2020, 2021, everybody was saying all the right things because it gave them all the press releases. Everybody’s quiet now.

Has actual progress been made or is it all optics?

Are Black businesses thriving? Still not. Retailers ran out there, grabbed a whole bunch of brands very quickly to make headlines, did not care that these brands were not ready to scale, did not create any structure for these brands to actually scale, and then rushed them in and quickly exited these brands, bankrupting businesses.

The the general public, they’ll look and go, “Oh, I’m seeing more Black brands on my shelf,” but the reality is the state of Black business is not any better than it was before 2020. Actually, we had healthier brands before 2020 because people didn’t lure them into this fake promise that the world was changing.

These brands upscaled their teams, they upscaled their supply chain, they were going into these new retail partners and, in the end, did not have the cash to pull it through. The retailers didn’t have the patience to work with them to actually do anything with them or understand that, if you’re going to commit to this brand, give them a good five years to get their shit together. None of this was put in place. So, in the end, have we really made progress?

Are corporations hiring more Black people than before? No. Netflix brought in Bozoma [Saint John], is she there? She was gone as of February last year. Amazon brought in Ukonwa Ojo, where is she? She was gone by June of last year. It was progress that happened very quickly for six months. Three years later, all of that progress has been undone.

What are you most proud of in terms of Make It Black and Pull Up For Change?

I am proud that we’re still doing it. A lot of people have dropped out, and they’re not doing it. I am so proud of all of the founders that we’ve deployed money to. I am incredibly proud of Dorian [Morris] from Undefined Beauty, Ezinne [Iroanya] from SknMuse. I’ve enjoyed seeing their progress.

One of them is actually moving into my office to run her company from here because I want her to benefit from the mentorship and also save on rent, which is staggering for all of us here in LA. For me, that gives me so much joy and pride.

We’ve funded almost 10 founders now, and I’ve loved seeing the journey. I’ve loved seeing Undefined Beauty go into Walmart, Ulta. I’ve loving seeing SknMuse get proper institutional funding. That’s what keeps me going because we are directly touching people. Seeing these Black women thrive makes me happy, and I can’t wait to see some of them create companies, scale them and exit them for great valuations.

What are your feelings about the Mielle Organics acquisition?

I’m so excited for them. I see all of the bullshit comments, and I just ignore them. Why can’t Black founders scale their business and sell it? It’s crazy the standard that we’re held to. To see two incredible people like Monique and Melvin [Rodriguez] be able to scale a business, it’s amazing because now it gives them an opportunity to do whatever they want to do like create another business like Elon Musk did.

We are not going to build Black wealth until entrepreneurs are flipping companies for good valuations to cash in on that wealth. They use that to both create their businesses and, if they want to, they can retire. Black people can have joy, too. They can become millionaires just sitting at home doing nothing. We have to normalize that.

So, I was really sad when I saw a lot of the reaction to the acquisition. Instead of jubilation to see that kind of news coming from our community, it was met with mixed reviews. There’s nothing that should be mixed. I don’t see white companies exiting and having mixed reviews.

How do think about the possibility of a Uoma exit?

We’re still too young. We are not yet four years old, so we’re still a ways away from exit. Even if I wanted to sell today, nobody will buy it. But, if the question is, is an exit on the horizon? Absolutely. One day I will sell Uoma Beauty with absolutely no shame. I will be very happy about what we’ve all built together.

I don’t think there’s ever been an exit of a Black-owned makeup business. So, hopefully we set a new path. We’ll continue working, but, definitely for me and every other entrepreneur, this is a grind. People don’t understand, I don’t sleep, I don’t have a life, I don’t have a husband. You just have no bandwidth for anything. It is not possible. I don’t want to do this forever.

“The level of commitment to this is zero. Everybody wants to do the thing that is going to get them the press release.”

How do you take care of yourself? 

In the past, I didn’t. There was just no way to do that. I always tell people, “With everything in your life, there’s a time and a season, there’s sowing season and reaping season.” I’ve been heavy for the last few years in sowing season, and it’s been taxing on me.

I got divorced because I just didn’t have the bandwidth to be anybody’s wife, and those are huge prices that one day I’m going to have more time to actually process. Maybe subconsciously I keep myself busy so I don’t have to process my life. I’m joking.

As I’m moving into this year, a real big focus for me has, I don’t like using the word balance, but just moving at a slower pace because I’ve now earned the right to move at a slower pace. I have teams around me. I can now delegate more.

I started this year by going to do my health checkups. I had surgery I had to do, I got it done. So, I’m really proud of myself that, this year, I’m starting to put Sharon in the front seat again because I now have the luxury and the privilege to do that.

This allows me to spend more time in my thinking bathtub. I have a zen area at my house that I built outside, and it overlooks the beautiful city of LA. I get to put on the bubbles, throw in some bath salt, put in some beautiful baobab oil in there, play good music, drop myself in. When I do that, that is my self-care. That thing gives me more therapy than four years of talking to a shrink.

What about the beauty industry is exciting you today?

The beauty industry right now, we’re in a transitional state. Celebrity brands finally did what we knew they were going to do, crash, make the consumers become completely disengaged and feel used. Then, you layer that on top of the influencer economy and what happened with all that.

Beauty used to have a community. That was what was beautiful about beauty. We had a community and at that time it lived on YouTube, and everybody was so close, we literally followed their lives. That’s all broken up, there was too much drama. The James Charles and Tati [Westbrook] stuff, and the the pandemic dealt this last blow.

TikTok is not really a platform for community, it’s very fleeting. TikTok is Tinder to YouTube’s eHarmony is what I call it. You make better relationships on eHarmony than Tinder, even though sometimes you can get great relationships on Tinder.

What excites me right now about the beauty industry is that it’s about to reset itself. Because of all of the celebrity brands, we’ve been starved of any innovation as there’s been an absolute rush to slap labels on the exact same product and rush it to the market as quickly as possible with different celebrity names and a slight difference in the cap or the packaging. Everybody has been more focused on packaging than actual formulas.

We’ve seen more bankruptcies in the last probably 18 months than we’ve seen in a while in beauty, but what’s exciting is, when an industry goes through that, it’s very painful, but it resets itself. What I think is going to come back is the return of innovation good products, fewer, bigger, better versus what just happened over the last four years, which was just a flooding of the market.

We will get a chance now to reinvent ourselves. The consumer is now challenging us, saying, “Tell me why I should be here,” and the people who can give the right answers will survive. The people who can’t, unfortunately, will go. We hope we’re one of those who continue to give our customers really good innovation like we always do.

What else is next for you?

What people are going to see more from me this year is me more in front. The last few years, I’ve been brand building, which has been just crazy to think about all the work I’ve even done publicly whilst having to dedicate so much time behind the scenes.

This year, I’ve now created a structure so other people can be more operational whilst I can do more of my activism. Over the last 18 months, I haven’t had a chance to do as much as I want, so people are going to see a lot more of me out there. I’m going to be outside. We outside this year.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.