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:
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Adding Black representation to the leadership
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Establishing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Board
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Launching an independent, anonymous hotline for employees to report incidents of harassment, discrimination, or bullying
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Hiring a third party to investigate allegations
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Requiring all team members to participate in ongoing training to eliminate bias
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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.
