The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
A Cupshe staffer emailed 'we would not collab with black people' — hired four days earlier
A talent manager pitching Cupshe got an email saying the campaign wouldn't work with Black people. Cupshe fired the employee, four days into the job.
Cupshe · 2026-06-04
What happened
On 4 June 2026, talent manager Niasia Boykin of The Brownstone Collective posted an email to Threads that she said came from swimwear brand Cupshe after she pitched several of her Black creator clients for a campaign. The email read: 'We would not collab with black people this campaign.'
Boykin wrote that the email amounted to racial discrimination and said the practice happens in influencer marketing 'more than anyone wants to admit, usually just more quietly than this.' Cupshe confirmed the employee who sent the email had been on the job for four days and was terminated immediately, and said the message did not reflect the company's practices or how it engages with creators.
Boykin later shared a follow-up email from the brand apologizing and confirming the firing — but the apology arrived unsigned, which she noted publicly alongside the original message.
Why it happened
- A campaign-casting decision to exclude Black creators was put in writing and sent externally, turning an informal preference into documented evidence the moment it left the building.
- A brand-new employee, four days in, was apparently able to send an exclusionary casting decision without any review step catching it before it reached an external talent manager.
- The apology that followed arrived unsigned, undercutting its own credibility at the exact moment the brand needed the response to read as accountable rather than procedural.
The lesson
A decision that wouldn't survive being said out loud shouldn't survive being written down either — email is discoverable. An unsigned apology loses credibility right when it matters most.
Aftermath
The incident amplified longstanding but rarely documented complaints from talent managers and creators about race-based exclusion in brand casting decisions, giving public, written evidence to a pattern usually described only anecdotally.
Sources
- AOL — Cupshe Fires Employee After Talent Manager Receives Email Saying Brand Would 'Not Collab with Black People'
- Black Enterprise — Cupshe Employee Axed For Emailing That The Swimwear Brand Would 'Not Collab With Black People'
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