“It doesn’t matter what you do as a Black woman. You’re gonna get lowballed every time,” Moore said.

There are other roadblocks just within affiliate marketing.

Success relies on your followers regularly seeing your content, which can be difficult on platforms like TikTok (which has an algorithm experts say is riddled with racial bias) or Instagram (which once had a safety filter that blocked content from Black creators about race) or YouTube (which just went to court over claims that it restricts views based on race).

“The emphasis on affiliate marketing does not by itself address the root problems of fairness, equity, and bias,” said Michelle Darnell, the director of Tarriff Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. “But it can have a positive impact on people who are suffering the symptoms of those things right now.”

In order for the academy to have its intended impact, Darnell argued that corporations must do their part by increasing pay transparency, for example, or publicizing the demographics of their influencer roster.

Right now, however, Moore’s focus is teaching BIPOC influencers to have a mindset of abundance.

“The system has us thinking that there’s only so many spots for Black creators,” said Moore. “I don’t believe that.”

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