WE NEED TO DO BETTER
#NoteFromCS / 2020
We are outraged and heartbroken at the loss of yet another Black life at the hands of police brutality and a racist and corrosive system. We cannot pretend to understand the heartache, the anger and the frustration felt by the Black community and everyone who has been fighting for racial justice for decades, that it has taken this many lives for all of us to get active in the fight. And though we’ve tried to be a brand that focuses on inclusivity, diversity and authenticity, we also can’t pretend that we’ve been doing enough.
We’ve taken this week to listen, read, donate and confront the ways we’ve fallen short as allies, in order to identify the work we must do to actively participate in the systemic change we want to see. We know the fight to end oppression will not stop here, but here are the steps we’ll be taking to start.
Educating our team. We recognize that we have much to learn and are grateful for the resources provided by educators who have dedicated their lives to fighting racial injustice. We will be enrolling our entire team in courses designed by Rachel Cargle and Ericka Hart as well as supporting and distributing the work of Michelle Alexander, Aja Barber and Ibram X. Kendi to our entire team.
Diversifying our team. We do not have any full-time BIPOC staff and we don’t have enough BIPOC freelancers. This needs to change. As we continue to grow our team, we are committed to hiring BIPOC team-members so we can accurately represent the community we serve.
Diversifying those we work with, beyond our team. We don’t work with too many influencers, but we definitely don’t work with enough BIPOC influencers and this we will be changing immediately. We also haven’t been actively searching for ways to partner with Black artists and Black-owned brands, but we will make this a priority.
Representing BIPOC in our imagery. Pictures are worth 1000s of words, so you bet we’re going to make our imagery speak louder than any promise we could make. We pledge to hire BIPOC models regularly so we have better representation on our site and on our feed.
Encourage dialogue. We want to empower our customers to hold us accountable. We welcome your input and will keep the lines of communication open for our continued growth.
These are just the first steps in battling institutional oppression and unlearning racism. We are committed to ongoing learning and taking an active role in the fight. After today, we will be resuming our marketing efforts with these long-term commitments in mind. If you are in need of some inbox-relief but don’t want to completely remove yourself from our mailing list, please click here to opt-out of our communications for the month of June. We also want to hear from you, so please reach out if you have questions, comments, or suggestions on how we can do better.
Sending lots of love,
Charlotte & Camilly