Buy ethical jewelry.
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Do your research on the ethics and sustainability of the type of diamond before you buy it. Use this guide to ask the right questions based on which type of diamond you wish to purchase.
Watch “Blood Diamonds,” a documentary outlining the impact of the diamond trade on Sierra Leone’s Kono district.
Read more about the hidden cost of the jewelry industry.
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By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)
Last week global jeweler Tiffany & Co. released their latest campaign featuring Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Entitled “About Love,” the campaign is the first that the famous couple has participated in together and will include original music and video documenting their relationships (NPR). Although many are excited to see Black love between two powerhouses celebrated by a major brand, others are noting the campaign’s insensitivities to the history of the diamond industry and the harm it has inflicted on African communities.
Promotional photos for the campaign have Beyoncé wearing the famous 128.54-carat yellow Tiffany diamond, which has only been worn by four women throughout time. Beyoncé is the first Black woman to wear it, which some are noting as “iconic.” But this diamond, “discovered” in 1877 in South Africa by Charles Lewis Tiffany, symbolizes how colonialism and white supremacy transformed the nation. As Karen Attiah noted in her op-ed for the Washington Post, this blood diamond is a poor symbolic representation of love.
The diamond trade is an $81.4B industry driven by gift-giving across the world. Over half of all diamonds are sourced from a relatively small group of communities across Africa. But the human cost is horrifying. Many people, particularly children, work in dangerous conditions. Many communities with otherwise underdeveloped economies have no other choice, forced to place their children in the mines instead of school. Armed groups have leveraged the diamond trade to seize power, exploiting the people and their lands for their own gain. And the extraction of diamonds and other precious metals can wreak havoc on the environment, polluting freshwater supplies and destroying aquatic biodiversity. Experts believe over 3.7 million lives have been lost due to conflict in the diamond trade, and over 1 million people are displaced (Time).
The Kimberley Process, established in 2003, was created to remove blood diamonds from the global supply chain. But many experts believe it’s intentionally filled with loopholes, contributing little to the issues at hand. Although it focuses on batches of diamonds from conflict zones, it fails to certify diamonds based on other ethical notes, like pay equity, working conditions, and whether mining displaces people from their homes (The Guardian). Furthermore, it only focuses on sourcing rough diamonds, so anything already polished or cut isn’t certified in this process (HRW). In 2018, the Human Rights Watch published a report of the torture and abuse the people on the Marange diamond fields of eastern Zimbabwe are still experiencing, despite the efforts noted above (HRW).
Today, Tiffany emphasizes that it sells conflict-free diamonds (Tiffany website), joining other retailers who have attempted to make their sourcing more transparent over the past few years. The jeweler Pandora announced in May 2021 that they will only use lab-grown diamonds in their products moving forward (CNBC). But as consumers become increasingly socially conscious and passionate about tracking the origins of their foods and goods, it’s unlikely that the diamond industry will get away with lackluster standards.
Celebrity endorsements of luxury goods, including diamonds, are nothing new. You’d be hard-pressed to find a famous figure that hasn’t participated in a similar campaign before. But it seems that fans expected more from Beyoncé’s brand, which has centered the celebration of Blackness in music, philanthropy, fashion, and partnerships over the past few years. Her 2020 movie “Black Is King,” a visual companion to the 2019 album “The Lion King: The Gift,” honors African culture, and was met with both praise and criticism (NPR). Critics of the Tiffany campaign note that of all celebrities, Beyoncé should have been more sensitive to the atrocities African people have experienced because of the diamond trade.
As consumers, we can do our part to demand change – both in this industry and others ripe with similar forms of exploitation and abuse. Use the guides above to make more conscious purchasing decisions, and call for accountability from the brands and influencers that you support.
Key Takeaways
Beyoncé and Jay-Z are featured in global jeweler Tiffany & Co.'s latest campaign.
The campaign centers a diamond sourced in 1877, likely through means of exploitation and abuse rampant in the diamond trade industry.
The global diamond trade industry has caused immense suffering in communities across Africa. Despite new standards, these atrocities still continue.
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