North Face offers discount... if you do its diversity course

OUTDOOR clothing brand The North Face has been criticised for offering a 20 per cent money- off voucher if shoppers complete a ‘racial inclusion’ course.

The American retailer, which sells puffer jackets, backpacks and footwear, has launched an hour-long digital quiz ‘designed to foster a deeper understanding of the unique challenges that people of colour face when accessing the outdoors’.

Those hoping to bag the discount code must correctly answer multiple-choice questions across four modules which look at ‘white privilege’, and different types of racism.

The first module – Diversity and the Outdoors: Where are we Now? – says the ‘dial moved further in June 2020 when George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis’ and that this event ‘fostered a new awakening in the outdoors that racial inclusion and representation matters’.

Later modules ask: ‘How many people of colour do you see on the slopes, on the hills or on the trails?’ Another segment in the course – called Allyship in the Outdoors – argues that ‘privilege can give us access to the outdoors’.

It adds: ‘In this context, we refer to “white privilege” meaning that your race and skin colour can give you access to the outdoors when others can be excluded because of historic, enduring racism and biases.’

Participants are also asked how they would challenge racism from friends.

The programme urges them to file formal complaints to their bosses if their colleagues brand them ‘woke’.

At the end, customers get sent the 20 per cent promotional discount.

Social media users were quick to hit back at the campaign and threatened to boycott the brand.

One posted on X: ‘North Face went full woke as well? Pity. Guess I won’t use my privilege any more to buy their stuff, problem solved.’

Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, told The Sun: ‘The irony is that The North Face is implicitly acknowledging here that all its customers are white. After all, why would black customers need to take a course about “white privilege” to get a 20 per cent discount?

‘ But if all customers are white, shouldn’t it be examining the beam in its own eye?’

The North Face also met with backlash from parents last year after it promoted its Summer of Pride campaign on Instagram.

It posted an advert featuring drag queen Pattie Gonia, who invited customers to ‘come out... in nature with us!’.

The Mail has contacted The North Face for comment.