Just Rankin’ Sh!t

5 Companies We’d Swear Are Black-Owned but Aren’t, Ranked

It’s hard to believe these brands are for us, but not by us

LEVEL Editors
LEVEL
Published in
2 min readDec 7, 2020

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Photo: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

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5. Wingstop

With the way Rick Ross shouts out this chicken spot, you’d think it’s officially part of his MMG empire. But Rozay is one of rap’s great, ahem, storytellers, so it should be no surprise that he only owns a few franchises here and there, not the whole shebang. Still: Don’t sleep on the lemon-pepper!

4. Sally Beauty Supply

There are a lot of tragedies around curly and coily hair products being vended by non-skinfolk, but Sally’s not being Black-owned feels [Law & Order: SVU narrator voice] especially heinous. The name was a dead giveaway — Sally?! — yet here we are, shocked once again.

3. BET

It wasn’t always this way, but Viacom has had a hold on the Black-focused network since Bob Johnson sold it 20 years ago for a reported $3 billion. The consolidation of the media landscape has been as trash as the latter seasons of The Game.

2. Sprite

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