Racism and Fashion
London, United Kingdom
Racism is a Global Problem
On May 25th of this year an unarmed black man, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis that was supposed to protect him. It is easy to think of racism as a distant problem - something that happens somewhere else, especially if you are white and you live in a diverse multicultural city. Here in England, it is easy to think of institutional racism, systematic targeting of people of colour by police, courts and public officials as an American problem but you would be wrong! In the last decade alone Mark Duggan, Dalian Atkinson, Rashard Charles & Sheku Bayoh were all killed by UK Police Forces. Whilst the ONS has found that black people are almost four times more likely to die from Coronavirus that is not because the virus discriminates. Racism is a global problem and it is everyone’s problem.
Injustice for All
A racist society is not a free society and injustice against BAME people is injustice against all of us. George Floyd was sadly not the first unarmed black man to be murdered by police but it is everyone's responsibility to try and ensure he is the last. If there is a lesson to be learned from the gay community’s fight for equal rights it is that if you want to drive change you have to Act! Virtue signalling Instagram posts or a throw away tweet aren’t enough. We have a responsibility as humans to support our brethren to fight against their discrimination to take to the streets and use our democratic right to protest no matter how much POTUS or other governments wish to suppress it in order to drive real change.
“The exploitation of minority workers by big fashion houses is both criminal and a scandal which sadly gets far too little attention”
In the fight against racism, fashion has failed. Promises to be better are no longer enough. There remain only two major brands that have black creative directors even less have black CEO’s. Companies which have for years appropriated black and minority culture for profit have failed to promote black designers and staff.
Say Less, Do More
Fashion has been equally poor when it comes to casting black models and many brands have been conspicuously silent when it comes to the recent waves of protests. Fashion’s racism problem extends through it’s supply chain as companies repeatedly exploit child labour in countries far away from where they are based. As Minh-Ha T. Pham argued in The New Republic “Today, global fashion continues to depend on the exploitation of non-white, poor, and mostly female workers and communities in the Global South.”
"We all need to learn more, to engage, to donate and to act because racism is a problem for all of us. The fashion industry needs to stop making excuses"
The exploitation of minority workers by big fashion houses is both criminal and a scandal which sadly gets far too little attention. As for the brands that have spoken up, few have produced original content and fewer still have actually done anything. Virtue Signalling is a real problem. Big fashion companies send out messages of support whilst doing nothing to actually tackle the problem. An Instagram post is worthless if you fail to engage with the cause, if you exploit minority workers in other countries, if you don’t promote black designers and cast diverse models. For too long fashion houses have looked to capitalise on positive branding and token gestures towards the black rights movement without doing anything to actually help them. We all need to learn more, to engage, to donate and to act because racism is a problem for all of us. The fashion industry needs to stop making excuses. It has to stop being part of the problem and start becoming part of the solution. Companies that don’t, don’t deserve our support.
By Samson Royston, June 2020
If you want to learn more about issues of racism:
https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/race_power_policy_workbook.pdf
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/DimensionsRacismen.pdf
If you want to donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/who-we-are
