by Karry Schwettmann

“The links between racism and the climate crisis have been spoken about a lot more recently following the increased awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. But, racism is more than just linked to the climate crisis. Racism is the cause. It is the root.”

- Mikaela Loach

This statement by climate and antiracism activist Mikaela Loach very much sums up the most important lesson in the aftermath of the recent news regarding Reformation - the company that “mainstreamed eco-conscious fashion” and recently was accused of its racist work environment.

But before going deep into the intersectionality of antiracism and environmentalism, let’s take a step back and carve out the main insights from the colorwashing whirlwind that sweeped Reformation off its feet.

BRAND ACTIVITY

A brief timeline of what happened.

31st May
Reformation informed its followers that the company will donate to various organizations supporting black communities. 

Among many other reactions, the post also triggered a direct reaction by one of Reformation’s former employees, Elle Santiago. In a lengthy Instagram post she described how racism is embedded in the work culture and the ways in which she has been discriminated during her career as an assistant store manager.

8th June
Reformation’s CEO, Yael Aflalo, published an apology - titled “I’ve failed” - admitting that she has failed at taking past comments and allegations of racism seriously. She also shows perspectives how Reformation wants to improve and which changes will be made. 

A week later she stepped down from her role as CEO and Reformation published another statement listing the activities the company will undertake to make changes regarding leadership, community, accountability and reporting.

THE CLOSE-UP

A lot has happened in two weeks. To bring things in order for the assessment, it is important to differentiate between the company’s reaction in response to George Floyd’s murder (the donation) and the apology in response to Elle Santiago’s heavy criticism.

1. The donation.

Making a donation to NGOs as a signal of their support for Black communities is an appropriate move but the question then is if it is a true expression of Reformation’s values or rather just a practice of virtue signaling. As Elle Santiago and other employees uncovered the company’s immanent problem with racism, it becomes obvious that Reformation is in fact virtue signaling. They express values that are not rooted in culture but in the opportunism of using the situation to obtain appraisal of their customers and followers.

Reformation engaged in an act of performance activism. For this, my colorwashing score is 10/10.

2. The apology.

After Elle Santiago’s post, Yael Aflalo apologized and stepped down as CEO and the company worked on an extensive action list. These measures were brought up after the company got called out. I can’t help but wonder, are Reformation’s leaders really sorry for the harm they caused or just sorry they got caught? 

I cannot answer the question but maybe we can find the cues in Reformation’s action roadmap which consists of the following:

• Adding Black representation to the leadership

• Establishing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Board

• Launching an independent, anonymous hotline for employees to report incidents of harassment, discrimination, or bullying

• Hiring a third party to investigate allegations

• Requiring all team members to participate in ongoing training to eliminate bias

• Reporting on progress of goals and metrics

The list is substantial. These measures do require change on ground level which means the leaders understand the necessity to go back the roots: the leadership itself. They also thought about “bias” and ways of reducing it, especially through hiring third parties, and the idea to make progress transparent for everybody.

I give them a few points for the list and the thought they put into it. Also, I find the intentions credible and I like to believe that the company will do better. 

The reason why I am giving them a medium score is simply that it needs time to show if their intentions will result into impact.

Thus, for now, my colorwashing score for this part is 5/10.

CONCLUSION

The moment Reformation posted their donation, the company was colorwashing. They communicated an action (the donation) without questioning if its actually aligned with internal values and culture. From this point on there was hardly a way to avoid the following outrage.

The lesson learned is that events (re-)igniting outrage should be taken as a reminder for everybody to pause and reflect. To ask questions rather than to react immediately. But ultimately, despite Reformation placing itself in a tough position now, the incident holds a lot opportunities to grow as well.

Moving forward, my wish for Reformation is that they will make their exact goals transparent. It’s good to make progress visible on a regular basis but as long as they don’t communicate the underlying metrics clearly, stakeholders don’t have the means to hold them accountable. Especially as consumers, our action counts a lot.

As Aja Barber says: “the problem is that so many of us have short memories when it comes to holding brands accountable” [...] Too often we see the mess and go ‘oh, that’s so bad!’. We stop shopping for a month and then we find reason to go back”. 

So stay vocal, demand better, follow up and most important, don’t forget. 

KARRY’S COLORWASHING SCORE:

7/10