A 2021 lawsuit filed by the National Council of Negro Women alleged that pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson specifically marketed its talcum products to Black women despite evidence of a link to cancer.
Janice Mathis, then the executive director of the National Council of Negro Women, called the company out: "Generations of Black women believed them and made it our daily practice to use their products in ways that put us at risk of cancer — and we taught our daughters to do the same. Shame on Johnson and Johnson," she said. The numbers don't lie either.
In 2006, 60% of Black women were using its baby powder compared to 30% of the overall population. After waves of costly litigation and numerous claims that their products, like baby powder, caused consumers to develop diseases like ovarian cancer, Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talc-based baby powder globally in 2023.
The pushback worked. The lawsuit was about much more than powder. It was about exposing the playbook of systemic racism, which is quiet, under the surface, and hidden in the routines and rituals of our everyday lives. What does this mean for us right now?
Stay vigilant. Anti-Blackness consistently works against us, even when we can't see it. Like the Black women who refused to accept a corporation's harmful lies, we must do the same. Push back, organize, and act.