North Face wants outdoor quotas.
The North Face is offering 20% off to customers who pass an hour-long online “racial inclusion” course.
The American fashion brand is promising to discount purchases for those who complete a four-part digital course.
Titled “Allyship in the Outdoors”, the programme is aimed at “fostering a deeper understanding” of the “unique challenges that people of colour face when accessing the outdoors”.
Constructed with the help of UK-based consultancy group Mor Diversity, the questionnaire covers topics such as “white privilege” and different types of racism.
Before you laugh, remember this has been going on for some time. The Sierra Club once wrote about the “unbearable whiteness of hiking” … because it must be obvious to most folks that there exists some incredible barriers to putting on one’s shoes and getting outdoors on a trail. The New Republic once complained that the National Parks were too white. And the Boston Hassle bragged about confronting eurocentrism and “decolonizing the outdoors.”
Since I am white and an avid outdoors person, it is my fault that there are “not enough people of color” out on the trails. So the question is: how do we forcibly remove people of color from their chosen endeavors and force them out onto the trails?
8:16 am on March 7, 2024
