--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Aurora James on How Big Retail Can Support the Black Community image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ef73e3332091001/6998ce3925f3eee080645730/poster_01eb94.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2020 # Aurora James on How Big Retail Can Support the Black Community by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372450/aurora-james-on-how-big-retail-can-support-the-black-community/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372450/aurora-james-on-how-big-retail-can-support-the-black-community/"},"headline":"Aurora James on How Big Retail Can Support the Black Community","datePublished":"2020-08-11T21:24:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:40:48.283Z","description":"Aurora James, founder of Brother Vellies and the newly-formed 15 Percent Pledge, wants big business to move beyond performative allyship and create real change in their companies, by reserving 15% of their shelf space for black-owned businesses.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372450/aurora-james-on-how-big-retail-can-support-the-black-community/","keywords":["Economy","Money","TIME","Interview","America","finance","Disaster","USA","COVID-19","Corona virus"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ef73e3332091001/6998ce3925f3eee080645730/poster_01eb94.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ef73e3332091001/6998ce3925f3eee080645730/poster_01eb94.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372450/aurora-james-on-how-big-retail-can-support-the-black-community/","name":"Aurora James on How Big Retail Can Support the Black Community"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Aurora James on How Big Retail Can Support the Black Community","description":"Aurora James, founder of Brother Vellies and the newly-formed 15 Percent Pledge, wants big business to move beyond performative allyship and create real change in their companies, by reserving 15% of their shelf space for black-owned businesses.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SKL8a5wA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-08-11T17:24:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SKL8a5wA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372450/aurora-james-on-how-big-retail-can-support-the-black-community/","duration":"PT2M45S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/time100-talks/7372450/aurora-james-on-how-big-retail-can-support-the-black-community/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```