Ten years ago, Carlton Mackey, as a large part of the country’s black population, was overwhelmed by the images of death, anger and the disturbances of the media following the murder of Michael Brown. Ferguson, Missouri and the cities worldwide burst into protest, and social networks users cried Brown, who was killed by a police officer.
MacKey died through the hashtags of the social networks that circulate at that time: #Blacklivesmatter, #Mikebrown, #Handsupdontshoot, all delivering hundreds of results with images that exudate sadness, pain and frustration.
Then, he wrote the hashtag #blackmensmile.
“It produced zero results. I was angry and confused, ”Mackey said. He decided to take action. He thought: “This is an opportunity to claim a space and turn it into a place where you can go see and know that there is another modality of existence. One of joy and reflections of our life. “
“The hashtag #blackmensmile was an opportunity to occupy a space that had not claimed,” he said.
Mackey made his mission to promote images of men smiling and expressing joy in the midst of political agitation. It quickly became a mini movement. Men from all over the country populated the hashtag with smiling images along with vulnerable subtitles about personal growth and optimism. A man wrote that he smiles because he has “the hope that my situation will change.” Another wrote: “Thinking how far I have arrived in one way of life to another, but knowing that I am still the same child who made his first playstation with cardboard.”
Over the years, the small team of two, Mackey and the company’s narrative media director Jeremiah Griffin, has cultivated the empowerment company from scratch. Today, the brand’s Instagram account has more than 100,000 followers and has expanded to clothing, with a line of sweatshirts and other items that wielding messages such as “Black Joy is revolutionary.”
Under The Black Men Smile Umbrella is a couple of YouTube series, “Je’s Journal”, which presents discussions about paternity, relationships and faith, and “greenhouse conversations”, a thematic exploration of the nature of mental health and Black spirituality.
Mackey’s original mission was simple: “It was about celebrating the way we saw ourselves. It was about putting value, emphasis and priority in what we have to say about ourselves and not about the stories that are being told about us, ”he said.
The largest collaboration of his company occurred in 2024 when Target’s locations throughout the country briefly sold the smile clothes of black men as part of the Black History Collection of Target. Almost a year later, the collaboration is bittersweet, Mackey said, given the recent announcement of the company that it will withdraw its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, following its example with other great retailers, including Walmart and Lowe’s.
Mackey said that although collaboration was an important achievement, he would probably not return to work with Target as a result of his decision. “I would not essentially choose to tolerate that behavior by placing my brand in the store in this critical moment,” he said.
“I am based on my decision on an argument of principles of being in solidarity with the largest body, the largest movement, of the black people who are making conscious decisions” about where to spend their money, he added.
Mackey and Griffin held a live Instagram session last month, where almost two dozen followers on social networks could express their opinions and frustrations about Dei’s reversions. It is likely that these community discussions continue as the couple work to expand their “black joy” movement under the new Trump administration.
In his first weeks in office, Trump signed an executive order to end all Dei’s initiatives in the Federal Government; He moved to the observances of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day, Black History, Juneteenth; Care directed by gender affirming gender, launched mass deportation efforts and more. Trump’s first orders have sent shock waves through progressive circles and grassroots organizations whose leaders say their work will be even more difficult under the new administration.
This, Mackey and Griffin said, makes their work more important than ever.
“Doubt, fear, uncertainty in our community sometimes rises,” said Griffin.
“With that it is known, that is the work we do. At that time it is when we join, we meet, we use the platform that we have created to encourage, raise, reflect the joy that is already inside the one we have access, to return ourselves. The work is still work. “
