The outrage and protests triggered by the police’s culpability in the death of George Floyd has prompted nearly all major brands to issue a statement on racial justice. While some are satisfied with getting that box checked, brands should be bracing for those who question their political stand, pointing out that talk is cheap when not backed by actual action.
One illustration of that came across in the surprisingly strong responses to Banana Republic’s Instagram posts. The brand first issued a statement on June 10:
That post got some attention, both positive and negative. Some were ticked off by the assumption of a political position for a clothing brand at all, and many others made it clear that they were not impressed by what they saw as mere lip service.
You can see similar responses to the equivalent message on the Gap Instagram post:
Responding to the comments
Though these brands didn’t respond to each comment on the platform, they clearly did note the reactions, at least the ones that demanded some level of accountability.
On June 17, Gap Inc., which owns Banana Republic, as well as Gap, Old Navy, and Althea, published the email it sent out to its employees, Our Commitments: A Culture of Belonging that indicates they are paying attention:
To those who have engaged in real talk with us and asked tough questions – in some cases, questions we did not have answers to – we are grateful. To those who shared feelings of isolation as the only black person on your team or instances where you felt you needed to conform to fit in – we hear you, we see you, and we are committed to change. It’s because of the honest and direct feedback, most especially from our Black employees, that we understand more deeply what it means to be an ally. We believe Black lives matter, and we are committed to doing more.
It continues with graphs of the breakdown of employees by race. What that shows is that while they can claim diversity in hiring, percentages for Black employees certainly do drop for leadership positions, which was a point raised in responses to another Instagram post.
The brand put up a follow-up post on June 19 that admitted they were working on fixing how they operate themselves.
As you can see from the capture above, it did garner 2,120 likes. But it also shows that among the comments are those who call out the brand for hypocrisy. And in light of the graphs that they shared on the posted email, it’s criticism worthy of attention.
The inside view is not so rosy
Viva.la.revolutionn: I saw so much racism when I worked for y’all, from the store level up to my district managers across three different regions. After seeing a qualified (as in she was acting GM for over two years) Black woman passed up for the third time for a GM position (but of course having to train the white women that were hired instead of her) I quit.
The response it offered is typical of what you find from corporations when you complain about them on social media, “@viva.la.revolutionn Hi, thank you for reaching out. This goes directly against our values of inclusivity and diversity, and we won’t stand for that. Please send us a DM so we can look into this further.”
What’s interesting, though, is that the comment drew another comment from
travellingshell who corroborated that experience:
“@viva.la.revolutionn I saw the same thing happen. As a manager I always did my best to support POC and help to get them opportunities, but I faced opposition from store manager and above. They would say things like, “the candidate needs to work on how they speak and be more professional”. When pushing back for specific examples, they could never give any. Even after reporting, nothing changed. I hope BR/Gap will begin to listen and do better!”
Along similar lines, bobbylewis701 commented:
Tangible difference is what matters. As many extremely talented people of color there are in the fashion industry, these folks should permeate every level of your business including management and obviously, design. If you make it happen, THAT will be real.
Of course, social media comments should be taken with a grain of salt, but it sheds light on how complex the issue of brands’ communication is when it comes to that sort of matter.
What’s in a name?
Aside from the concerns about what the company is actually doing, there are those who point out that its core brand identity is problematic, given the associations with the name. Accordingly, lollllwowww suggests:
Maybe change your name for a start. It’s literally the description of a nation that was exploited by the United States. Banana Republic is entirely rooted in a destructive and deeply damaging state of colonialism that robbed nations of their valuable resources resulting in stolen economic growth.
That sentiment was echoed by natalianourani, “Time to change your name then. Start funding communities in banana republics such as Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica.”
In fact, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, and many more are re-branding in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Will Gap Inc. follow the trend?
What about your workers?
More than one comment raises the question of fair wages:
Have you paid your garment workers for post-pandemic cancelled orders yet!? if not, when will you #payup? It would be nice to hear ways in which you are going to be listening to and supporting your garment workers, and providing them with not only a living wage, but a wage that is fairly distributed and in line with your business worth? Equality and respect needs to run throughout the whole of your business, not just the part of the business you show on social media!!
I’d also like to know the answer to this. Where are your primary factories, how much are your workers paid? How much is the cost of living in those locations?
Some also ask about working conditions.
Directing customers to the longer story
Interestingly, the company has not sent out a response to these concerns under the Banana Republic brand name yet, though it did send one out under the Old Navy division of Gap on June 20.
That email had the subject line, “Because Black lives matter, and this is what we stand for.” It offers a summation of and a link to the email published on June 17, referred to above. It ends on this hopeful note:
Now is our chance to write the next 50 years – a future that we and the next generations can all be proud of.
We are relying on all of you to keep sharing your thoughts and asking the hard questions. We’ll set aside some time in the coming week to continue this conversation. We also want to acknowledge the importance of Juneteenth this Friday and will share more information on our Intranet about how you and your teams can use this day to listen, learn, educate and activate as we all move toward positive change. Together we can do more, and we will.
Will the brand customers buy it? Some may, perhaps, especially if it’s a brand they already shop with as they will want to find reasons to stick with it. In that sense, they’ll likely see the company’s stated commitments as demonstrating good faith. We can hope, though, that not everything is the result of a precondition status or identity, and that a genuine, diverse discussion will prevail.