All too often there are things brought to my attention that make me wonder what planet we are on and in what era we are living.
As an example, if you look at Boots’ website right now you will see that, under all the usual various headings you might expect to see used to group products, there is one which says “Black-founded & Inclusive Brands”.
This leads onto a whole page on the website on the subject.
It says Boots are:
“…part of a community that shouts about Black-founded and inclusive brands, for the diverse customers we serve.”
They seem to think that promoting “Black-founded” brands is a marvellous thing. I beg to differ. I believe it is racist and I am pretty sure many people reading this will agree with me.
An image from outside a Boots' PharmacyGETTYHowever well-meaning this initiative is – and I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt where I can – on so many levels it is not just wrong but dangerous.
Why on earth does it matter what colour someone’s skin is when it comes to running a business or as a relevant factor when choosing a product? Most people would not know – nor care – about that. They just care about the product and whether it is any good for them.
Businesses have been lecturing customers about equality and diversity – along with other things – for a while now. Some have even gone so far as to say that they do not want customers who do not support them in their vision! If you just want to buy a razor I do not think you should expect or need to be bombarded with a whole woke agenda during the process.
Now we have businesses promoting brands simply because of the colour of someone’s skin. This is blatantly racist. It is also surely the very thing these businesses purport to be against.
Some businesses have dipped their toe in these waters before during, for example, Black History Month. However, Boots, for one, have made it a permanent feature it would seem.
MORE AGENDA-SETTING OPINION:I would be very disappointed to think that nobody in the whole of Boots – hardly a small business by anybody’s standards – has stopped to think about this and worked out that this is a very bad idea.
Just imagine if a business specifically promoted products on the basis they were “White-founded” brands! Quite rightly there would be total outrage.
And what does “black” even mean in this context? Is it any ethnicity minority or not – and why? Also, the founders might be “black” but everyone else who works for them may not be.
And what if there were 4 founders and 3 were “black” and 1 was not. Would they not be “black-founded”? If that were the case – and it was going to help their business to be categorised that way – what would be the incentive to include that 1 non-black person in their team in the first place?
Boots Black-founded & Inclusive message
Boots
I would like to ask anyone promoting this how on earth they think any of it is helping race relations as they should be keen to do.
We have to do everything in our power to stop making people’s colour of skin an issue in this way. It just should not matter.
Boots are not alone. There are other businesses who will jump on this bandwagon and I worry it will become commonplace if we are not careful - as I fear is already the case in America.
I will do my bit to challenge this where I see it and would encourage everyone reading this to do the same. We need to stop this divisive and dangerous political correctness before it really is too late.