Anger over North Face’s discounts for customers who do race inclusion course
THE North Face has been accused of hypocrisy for offering customers savings on gear to do a “racial inclusion course” while paying “low wages” to workers in poor countries.
Participants must answer multiple-choice questions after four modules on subjects including “white privilege”.
In return they will get a voucher for 20% off the outdoor company’s clothing which includes a new season men’s puffer jacket priced at £540.
Critics argue the firm should pay its thousands of workers in some of the world’s poorest countries higher wages instead. Free speech campaigner Toby Young accused the company of virtue signalling and failing to mention the factories and suppliers it uses in China, India and Vietnam.
Mr Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “This is typical of woke corporations which always put virtue signalling ahead of being virtuous. If North Face wants to do something for people of colour it should pay its workers in low-income countries more.
“Getting its rich, white customers to take an online course in racial inclusiveness may assuage the guilt of its overpaid executives but it will do nothing to help its workers.”
The US firm says its “Allyship in the Outdoors” programme helps customers to
“build awareness and knowledge of people of colour in the outdoors” and “understand barriers and challenges by listening to lived experiences”.
One segment in the hour-long course asks: “How many people of colour do you see on the slopes, on the hills or on the trails?” It says the “dial” of inclusion “moved further when George Floyd was murdered by the police in Minneapolis”. It adds the 2020 killing “fostered a new awakening in the outdoors that racial inclusion and representation matters.”
Another segment claims: “Privilege can give us access to the outdoors.”
The North Face is owned by the £5billion VF Corporation which also owns Timberland. It employs almost one million workers and suppliers in 40 countries including China, India, Mexico,Vietnam and Cambodia.
The corporation says it invests in “worker and community development” to provide clean water, healthcare and better education to its workforce and their families. The North Face was contacted for comment.