Expanding our knowledge and understanding of how racism manifests, is a key component of allyship. The discomfort of stepping into a space of learning can be difficult, however this is vital in identifying, confronting, and dismantling contemporary social justice issues rooted in race.
Last month, our Sustainability team explored the links between race equality work and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This week, we explore the links between our work as allies and our habits as consumers.
Aja Barber’s Consumed unpicks how consumerism and fast fashion act as a catalyst for climate change:
In the ‘learning’ first half of the book, she will expose you to the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the textile industry; one which brokered slavery, racism and today’s wealth inequality. And how these oppressive systems have bled into the fashion industry and its lack of diversity and equality. She will also reveal how we spend our money and whose pockets it goes into and whose it doesn’t (clue: the people who do the actual work) and will tell her story of how she came to learn the truth.
In the second ‘unlearning’ half of the book, she will help you to understand the uncomfortable truth behind why you consume the way you do. She asks you to confront the sense of lack you have, the feeling that you are never quite enough and the reasons why you fill the aching void with consumption rather than compassion. And she makes you challenge this power disparity, and take back ownership of it. The less you buy into the consumer culture the more power you have.
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