Prada has set up racial equity and sensitivity training following 'blackface' blunder – how will other luxury fashion brands react?
The luxury brands were warned about selling racially insensitive products, prompting Prada to set up a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council to teach its employees about racial discrimination and cultural sensitivity
In January 2019, civil rights lawyer Chinyere Ezie filed a complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights regarding Prada's Pradamalia figurines, which she said resembled the racist blackface caricature Little Black Sambo. On February 4, Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times reported Prada had reached a settlement.
The commission agreed with Ezie, and as part of the settlement, Prada will appoint a diversity and inclusion officer at a director level, while all New York-based employees will have to undergo sensitivity and “racial equity” training, according to Friedman at the Times. Prada's Milan-based executives will also undergo training, since the commission determined that decisions made at Prada headquarters in Italy have repercussions in the US.
The brand also established a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, which, per the terms of the agreement, is required to last for at least six years. The council is co-chaired by Ava DuVernay, and its creation was announced in February 2019, soon after the Pradamalia controversy arose.
This settlement has made waves in the industry and is one of the first major examples of a government intervening in fashion – luxury houses, at least, are typically left to police themselves. Importantly, this settlement has the ability to set a precedent in terms of what might happen to other luxury brands that find themselves embroiled in race-based controversies.
Shelby Ivey Christie, former digital marketing and sales planner at Vogue, has worked in corporate fashion for most of her professional life. She said that it was “unfortunate” that the government had to step in and tell Prada to diversify their workforce, but that “it has to be that way”.
“That itself speaks to a gaping hole in the industry – that a government agency had to step in and say 'Hey, you need to address this and we have to impose rules and regulations for you to address this,'" she said. “Do I think it should be that way? No. But my goodness, it's got to a point where it has to be that way.”
Ultimately, Christie hopes that people of colour benefit from the Prada settlement – but she is wary of not only what type of working environment these new hires will be heading into, but what positions they will actually hold.
She fears that the new hires will simply be viewed as “diversity hires” brought on to appease a settlement, and that they will be placed and stagnated in lower-to-mid-level ranks in the company, rather than in leadership positions where their voices can make a more integral impact.