Shop Red Bag re-invigorates Black-owned models as DEI disappears from major stores.

Media and technology professional Candi Carter has launched a new e-commerce platform to support marginalized brands and advance common activism through shopping as major retailers withdraw from their DEI commitments.

As big retailers back up their diversity agreements, Candi Carter is creating a new movement powered by daily purchases.

In a conversation with TheGrio‘s Natasha S. Alford, the seasoned media executive and Cistus Media founder, revealed her most recent project, Shop Red Bag, an online marketplace for consumers who are considering where their money is spent, especially in the wake of major corporation diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI ) rollbacks.

” I just felt like because of what I did, what my organization does, even though we are smaller, we are magnificent because of the anger and the reaction online around all of these La programs being rolled up, or we’re just not gonna visit it that, or we’re caving to the management,” I said. And I made the decision to play a role in the option,” Carter told TheGrio.

Where do we go if we boycott businesses like Target and Walmart, as Carter’s answer to the question many Black buyers have been asking has been posed since Shop Red Bag was launched only in time for June 16th?

Carter’s solution: a tailored hub of represented brands that sell everything from cosmetics, kitchenware, and stationery to Black-owned, women-owned, LGBTQ+, veteran-owned, and more. In its first week, the program welcomed 60 to 80 manufacturers, and it is expanding.

Every time someone makes a purchase on Shop Red Bag, we want them to publish it, use the tweet, and claim that their money matters because it matters. Every penny counts, Carter told theGrio.

Juneteenth, a commemoration of the freedom of Black people in the United States, is about more than just symbolic freedom. For Carter, it’s an opportunity to regain financial authority, things she thinks the Black area is more than capable of doing. She claims that she values the ban Pastor Jamal Bryant initiated and believes it to be a fruitful group rally.

“ We have demonstrated that we’re strong with our money,” she said. By allowing our businesses to expand and prosper over the next four years, we can demonstrate that we are even more effective. Grow, no survive,” Carter said in a conversation with TheGrio that Shop Red Bag was more than just a shop but rather a movement.

She said,” I know we can all occur around and lift one another.” It’s no open air, though. We accomplished it. The shop was set up by us. Shop here. All you need to do is that. Simply alter your behavior.

Through her business, Cistus Media, which provides access to major internet companies ‘ online stores, Carter has made her mark by producing programs like The Oprah Winfrey Show and The View.

Nonetheless, launching Shop Red Bag is specific. In the chart, too many manufacturers were slowly dropped by large retailers or unable to keep afloat because their actions directly affected investment and sales. Many of these businesses were left in purgatory as business plans waned.

” We created Shop Red Bag to place all these amazing models in one location,” Carter said. So we’re here and have an answer for those who are saying,” If they don’t help me, I’m no supporting them.”

Companies like Footnanny, a Black-owned care line that was once featured on Oprah, KJ Smith and Skyh Black’s Black Coffee, and Nicole Ari Parker’s Gymwrap training wraps, are included on the system. Visitors to the website can also browse by leader categories, such as those that are women-owned, veteran-owned, and black-owned.

Although Carter admits the humor isn’t lost on her, the brand” Shop Red Bag” wasn’t immediately inspired by a Target operation.

She explained,” We really wanted something that just felt like anyone had shop.”

For Carter, this time isn’t just about using words to protest, but also about adopting a perspective of caring for our own. And she’s hoping more people may become her.

Every warning is something that is being removed, but we are not subjects, Carter says to theGrio. We are empowered. And that is what Shop Red Bag is.

Carter’s message is clear as the events of Juneteenth continue: Don’t only talk about freedom. Shop with integrity and value for your money.

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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://thegrio.com/2025/06/19/as-dei-disappears-from-major-retailers-shop-red-bag-gives-black-owned-brands-a-new-home/