HIGH POINT — In the wake of ongoing national Black Lives Matter protests and calls for changes to racist iconography and practices in the U.S., businesses of every kind across the country have opened themselves up to frank discussions of race in the workplace and business.
In the home furnishings industry, retailers and D2C brands are taking the lead in assessing and addressing race issues in their own companies and the industry as a whole.
“Over the past month, we have watched events across our country unfold with shock and sadness,” said Charlie Malouf, president and CEO of Fort Mill, S.C.-based Broad River Retail, the largest independently owned Ashley HomeStore licensee.
“These events have triggered a true wake-up call surrounding the racism and inequality that our team members, guests and communities face every single day,” he added. “While there is much about this topic we need to learn, there is one thing we absolutely know: We can no longer remain silent and complacent.”
For Malouf and the leadership team at Broad River Retail, the process of addressing the events started a little over a week after the death of George Floyd, a black man whose death in Minneapolis sparked the beginning of Black Lives Matter protests across the country, when they opted to hold a company-wide moment of silence on June 5.
During that time, the retailer paused all normal business operations at 10 a.m. for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time Floyd was pinned down by former officer Derek Chauvin before dying, as a tribute to Floyd and the many other black lives lost due to racial injustice. During the moment of silence, all of its stores closed to customers, its distribution centers ceased operations, its call center did not take incoming calls, and its corporate teams did not partake in any emails, calls or meetings.
Online retailer Apt2B joined the conversation publicly during the June 2 “blackout Tuesday,” which called for people to abstain from shopping and/or posting online content unrelated to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“As a company that ‘just’ sells furniture, it’s easy to excuse ourselves from the conversation at hand,” Apt2B posted to Instagram. “But a company is comprised of people, and we as people can’t move forward without action. There’s a lot we could say, but we’d rather do, and we’re taking a pause to come together to discuss, to put together a plan of action for how we can enact change for the long haul.”
This post was one of thousands that went up on blackout Tuesday. But now that the dust has settled on social media posts and many of the protests, for those in the furniture industry invested in addressing diversity within their companies, putting together actionable responses to race and racism is the new task at hand.
D2C brand Article vowed to go silent on its social media channels until “at least” June 7 in its social media post for blackout Tuesday, in “solidarity with those across the world fighting for change.”
“We are a company dedicated to furniture and design,” wrote the company in its post. “But we are first and foremost a collective of humans. And we recognize that no matter what you see and read from us other days, today is the day where we must raise our voice and speak on a subject we cannot remain silent on.”
During that silent time, a representative for the company said it has been “examining internal policies, processes and programs to ensure they adequately reflect and embody our commitment to diversity.” Additionally, it has also made good on its pledge to match every donation made by its employees to organizations addressing racial injustices across North America through the month of June.
“We recognize that anti-racism requires continual action; we cannot be complacent,” said Reena Gacad, a communications manager with Article, in an email to Furniture Today.
But the brand’s post and affirmation of its commitment to being anti-racist did not come without public critique. Some responses online slandered the company’s post, perceiving it as being in support of the riots and destruction of property that took place during some protests, and others were critical of the brand’s authenticity, writing that they doubt the company’s commitment to diverse representation because of the small number of black influencers they have observed the company using, paying and posting about.
Aysha Harun, a black, Muslim, influencer and YouTube personality, called Article out by name in a video posted to her YouTube channel with more than 100,000 views about brands that did not work with her because of what she perceived to be racial bias.
“There are always going to be some mixed comments on posts like this,” said Arlyn Hernandez, director of brand marketing and content for Apt2B, which received similar feedback on its social media posts, adding, “For the most part it was positive, and a lot of the ‘negative’ comments were really just people saying ‘yeah, we are going to hold you accountable to your promises.’
“And we invite people to do that. We want them to share what they know or drill into us about what we say. Our DMs and our email are open.”
Apt2B committed publicly to adjusting its corporate mindset and its marketing budget allotment to work with more black interior designers and influencers on June 4. In what it called its “first phase” of changes related to race and race education, representing and uplifting more black creators and stories was the company’s primary goal.
Broad River Retail has made education, both for its more than 600 employees and its corporate leaders, its priority, forming what it calls its Anti-Racism Council (ARC), made of it a myriad of employees, to head that initiative.
“ARC’s purpose is to provide our Memory Makers (the retailer’s employees) with a platform to support an inclusive and equitable environment at work and within our communities,” said Malouf. “Furthermore, the ARC will proactively identify and present educational opportunities for our company, and define areas of focus where we can take action and make the largest impact.”
To kick-off ARC and its educational programming, for the first time in company history Broad River Retail celebrated and commemorated the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the U.S., with a meal and guided employee conversations.
Next up, ARC is set to launch an internal Table Talks program for team members, giving them a space to learn and speak about issues of race and diversity.
“We will also curate what we have learned from these conversations to create educational opportunities and take actions personalized for Broad River Retail to be more proactive in the fight against racism and social injustice,” said Malouf about the company’s larger, secondary plans to grow its anti-racist educational programming in the future.
Next steps are in the work across home furnishings brands, and, according to Hernandez, that’s a good thing because consumers are demanding long-term changes in every sector of the consumer market.
“Consumers are becoming a lot more aware of who and what they spend their money on, so it is important that companies help them understand what they’re investing in when they make a purchase somewhere,” Hernandez said. “And that has led to a lot of consumer movements impacting businesses.”
One of those new movements is the ‘15% pledge,’ a pledge that calls on retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to black-owned businesses. Fifteen percent is the goal for this movement because, according to the most recent Census Bureau estimates, that percentage accounts for the estimated percent of the population that black people make up in the U.S.
“We saw a lot of larger brands take this pledge, and while we’re a smaller brand and that 15% of product might not amount to too much in comparison, we still wanted to get involved,” said Hernandez. “We’re looking to create a special place on our website in phase one where we are really celebrating and amplifying the voice of black creators and businesses, whether that’s art, ceramics or small pieces of furniture. “
In addition to long-term commitments such as the 15% pledge, smaller events such as the blackout Tuesday call to action, which asked consumers to only spend money at black-owned businesses and is set to continuously recur throughout 2020, is having an impact. According to many industry observers, that fact should be reason enough for every business in the U.S. to wake up to the importance of race issues for consumers and business today.
“One may ask, what part does a furniture retailer like Broad River Retail play in the fight against racism?” concluded Malouf. “To that I would answer, we all play a part, and our business and this industry has an obligation to be part of the solution towards a future America with equality and justice for all as its true bedrock.”
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