Burt’s Bees holiday ad portrayed black family with no father

Racism Score: 2.1

We will get this out of the way right now, Burt’s Bees has the best lip balm (Chapstick). If you know, you know. Regardless of the soothing lip nourishment, Burt’s Bees marketing team did not leave people feeling smooth with a refreshing tingle.

The lip balm company came under fire recently for featuring a black family without a father present.

Some Black people were offended, some Black people were not. Some Black people thought it was a big deal, others did not. Some people thought the picture is damaging, some thought it was a beautiful picture. You get the drift.

The stereotype depicted in the photo is that Black fathers are absent. In 2020, companies cannot leave anything to chance because people will be offended and there is no shortage of outrage to offer.

One can see why people would be upset by having a Black family juxtaposed to a non-Black traditional family. Poor oversight by the marketing team and it is an unintentional gaffe at best. All Black fathers are not absent but it is disingenuous if we do not discuss the elephant in the room regarding the Black community.

Truth Bomb

The Institute for Family Studies finds that only 36% of black children live with married parents. The Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center indicates that for the past 10 years, the average is only 35%. For comparison, on average 85% of Asian children, 75% of White children, and 60% of Hispanic children live with married parents, all comfortably over 50%.

This is not to say Black fathers are not involved in their children’s lives…the family pictures just may look a little bit different.

The data may be an uncomfortable truth and visualizing something that has plagued the Black community for decades can be gut wrenching. However, a picture does not define Black fatherhood!

The picture does represent Black Lives Matter Inc.’s anti-male narrative…

P.S. Burt’s Bees apologized and removed the photo. Do you want to know how Burt’s Bees is supporting the black community? Find out here.