Namaste CEO Shawn Tollerson is passionate about Black women and Black hair, and she, along with a dedicated team of hard working Black women created the No Stereotypes campaign to address the often maligned and politicized issue of Black Women’s hair. Tollerson says, “You’d think in this day and age we’d well beyond these negative characterizations of Black women, but we continue to hear these stories all of the time.”
Before Black women can adequately heal from comments like former CBS host Don Imus (2007) referring to Rutgers University female basketball stars as “Nappy-headed h–s” and “jiggaboos,” we are met with the 2017 story of two Black female honor students at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden, Massachusetts, being suspended for wearing braids.
To that end, Namaste’s No Stereotypes Campaign is about embracing your beauty. Whether you’re wearing twists, a perm, dread locks, or a bald fade, Tollerson wants society to understand that Black women are magical and can’t be put into a box. Even more encouraging is that the Namaste Corporation fully supports her mission and have her equipped with a team of Black females that range from marketing execs to chemists to help her relay the message.
Check out Shawn’s conversation with rolling out on the No Stereotypes campaign below.
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